³ Then Judas, who had betrayed Yeshua, regretted what had happened when he saw that Yeshua was condemned. He brought the 30 silver coins back to the chief priests and leaders. ⁴ He said, “I’ve sinned by betraying an innocent man.”

They replied, “What do we care? That’s your problem.”

⁵ So he threw the money into the temple, went away, and hanged himself.

⁶ The chief priests took the money and said, “It’s not right to put it into the temple treasury, because it’s blood money.” ⁷ So they decided to use it to buy a potter’s field for the burial of strangers. ⁸ That’s why that field has been called the Field of Blood ever since. ⁹ Then what the prophet Jeremiah had said came true, “They took the 30 silver coins, the price the people of Israel had placed on him, ¹⁰ and used the coins to buy a potter’s field, as the Lord had directed me.”

What It Takes to Be a Disciple^(A)

⁵⁷ As they were walking along the road, a man said to Yeshua, “I’ll follow you wherever you go.”

⁵⁸ Yeshua told him, “Foxes have holes, and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to sleep.”

⁵⁹ He told another man, “Follow me!”

But the man said, “Sir, first let me go to bury my father.”

⁶⁰ But Yeshua told him, “Let the dead bury their own dead. You must go everywhere and tell about the kingdom of God.”

⁶¹ Another said, “I’ll follow you, sir, but first let me tell my family goodbye.”

⁶² Yeshua said to him, “Whoever starts to plow and looks back is not fit for the kingdom of God.”

A Samaritan Woman Meets Jesus at a Well

4 Yeshua knew that the Pharisees had heard that he was making and baptizing more disciples than John. ² (Actually, Yeshua was not baptizing people. His disciples were.) ³ So he left the Judean countryside and went back to Galilee.

⁴ Yeshua had to go through Samaria. ⁵ He arrived at a city in Samaria called Sychar. Sychar was near the piece of land that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. ⁶ Jacob’s Well was there. Yeshua sat down by the well because he was tired from traveling. The time was about six o’clock in the evening.

⁷ A Samaritan woman went to get some water. Yeshua said to her, “Give me a drink of water.” ⁸ (His disciples had gone into the city to buy some food.)

⁹ The Samaritan woman asked him, “How can a Jewish man like you ask a Samaritan woman like me for a drink of water?” (Jews, of course, don’t associate with Samaritans.)

¹⁰ Yeshua replied to her, “If you only knew what God’s gift is and who is asking you for a drink, you would have asked him for a drink. He would have given you living water.”

¹¹ The woman said to him, “Sir, you don’t have anything to use to get water, and the well is deep. So where are you going to get this living water? ¹² You’re not more important than our ancestor Jacob, are you? He gave us this well. He and his sons and his animals drank water from it.”

¹³ Yeshua answered her, “Everyone who drinks this water will become thirsty again. ¹⁴ But those who drink the water that I will give them will never become thirsty again. In fact, the water I will give them will become in them a spring that gushes up to eternal life.”

¹⁵ The woman told Yeshua, “Sir, give me this water! Then I won’t get thirsty or have to come here to get water.”

¹⁶ Yeshua told her, “Go to your husband, and bring him here.”

¹⁷ The woman replied, “I don’t have a husband.”

Yeshua told her, “You’re right when you say that you don’t have a husband. ¹⁸ You’ve had five husbands, and the man you have now isn’t your husband. You’ve told the truth.”

¹⁹ The woman said to Yeshua, “I see that you’re a prophet! ²⁰ Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain. But you Jews say that people must worship in Jerusalem.”

²¹ Yeshua told her, “Believe me. A time is coming when you Samaritans won’t be worshiping the Father on this mountain or in Jerusalem. ²² You don’t know what you’re worshiping. We Jews know what we’re worshiping, because salvation comes from the Jews. ²³ Indeed, the time is coming, and it is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth. The Father is looking for people like that to worship him. ²⁴ God is a spirit. Those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”

²⁵ The woman said to him, “I know that the Messiah is coming. When he comes, he will tell us everything.” (Messiah is the one called Christ.)

²⁶ Yeshua told her, “I am he, and I am speaking to you now.”

²⁷ At that time his disciples returned. They were surprised that he was talking to a woman. But none of them asked him, “What do you want from her?” or “Why are you talking to her?”

²⁸ Then the woman left her water jar and went back into the city. She told the people, ²⁹ “Come with me, and meet a man who told me everything I’ve ever done. Could he be the Messiah?” ³⁰ The people left the city and went to meet Yeshua.

³¹ Meanwhile, the disciples were urging him, “Rabbi, have something to eat.”

³² Yeshua told them, “I have food to eat that you don’t know about.”

³³ The disciples asked each other, “Did someone bring him something to eat?”

³⁴ Yeshua told them, “My food is to do what the one who sent me wants me to do and to finish the work he has given me.

³⁵ “Don’t you say, ‘In four more months the harvest will be here’? I’m telling you to look and see that the fields are ready to be harvested. ³⁶ The person who harvests the crop is already getting paid. He is gathering grain for eternal life. So the person who plants the grain and the person who harvests it are happy together. ³⁷ In this respect the saying is true: ‘One person plants, and another person harvests.’ ³⁸ I have sent you to harvest a crop you have not worked for. Other people have done the hard work, and you have followed them in their work.”

³⁹ Many Samaritans in that city believed in Yeshua because of the woman who said, “He told me everything I’ve ever done.” ⁴⁰ So when the Samaritans went to Yeshua, they asked him to stay with them. He stayed in Samaria for two days. ⁴¹ Many more Samaritans believed because of what Yeshua said. ⁴² They told the woman, “Our faith is no longer based on what you’ve said. We have heard him ourselves, and we know that he really is the savior of the world.”

⁵⁰ Brothers and sisters, this is what I mean: Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. What decays cannot inherit what doesn’t decay.

⁵¹ I’m telling you a mystery. Not all of us will die, but we will all be changed. ⁵² It will happen in an instant, in a split second at the sound of the last trumpet. Indeed, that trumpet will sound, and then the dead will come back to life. They will be changed so that they can live forever. ⁵³ This body that decays must be changed into a body that cannot decay. This mortal body must be changed into a body that will live forever. ⁵⁴ When this body that decays is changed into a body that cannot decay, and this mortal body is changed into a body that will live forever, then the teaching of Scripture will come true:

⁵⁶ Sin gives death its sting, and God’s standards give sin its power. ⁵⁷ Thank God that he gives us the victory through our Lord Yeshua Christ.

⁵⁸ So, then, brothers and sisters, don’t let anyone move you off the foundation of your faith. Always excel in the work you do for the Lord. You know that the hard work you do for the Lord is not pointless.