Book of Common Prayer

¹⁸ The old law given to Moses by God was put away. It was weak and no good.

¹⁹ The law did not make anything right. But something better has been brought to us. It is God's promise. And by that promise we come near to God.

²⁰ Also Christ was not made a priest without God's strong promise. The others were made priests without God's strong promise.

²¹ But this man was made priest by God's strong promise. God said to him, `The Lord has made a strong promise, and he will not change it. "You are a priest for ever." '

²² Also because of this, Jesus makes a better agreement with God for people.

²³ The other priests were many, because they died and could not go on with their work.

²⁴ But because Jesus lives forever, he is a priest for ever and no one takes his place.

²⁵ Because of that, he is able to save people for ever, if they come to God by him. He lives for ever to talk to God for them.

²⁶ We needed such a high priest as he is. He is holy. He is good. He has never done any wrong. He has been taken away from among bad people, and taken up higher than the sky.

²⁷ He does not need to make sacrifices every day. The other high priests make sacrifices every day, first for the wrong things they have done, and then for the people. He did it once when he offered himself as the sacrifice.

²⁸ The law makes men high priests, and they are weak. But the word of God's promise came after the law. It makes his Son high priest for ever, and he is all right.

²⁷ The woman left her water-pot and went back to the town.

²⁸ She said to the people, `Come, I will show you a man who has told me everything I have done. Can this be the Christ?'

²⁹ The people left the town and went to him.

³⁰ While they were on the way coming to Jesus, the disciples asked him, `Teacher, will you please eat.'

³¹ Jesus said to them, `I have food that you do not know about.'

³² So the disciples asked one another, `Has anyone brought him food to eat?'

³³ Jesus said to them, `My food is to obey the one who sent me and to finish his work.

³⁴ Do you not say, "In four months it will be harvest time"? Listen, I say. Look up and see the fields. The harvest is ready to cut now.

³⁵ The one who gathers the harvest receives a reward for it. He gathers a harvest that will live for ever. Then the one who sows and the one who gathers will both be happy.

³⁶ This saying is true here: "One sows and another gathers."

³⁷ I sent you to gather what you did not help to plant. Other people have worked hard and you have been helped through their work.'

³⁸ Many of the people of the town believed in Jesus because of what the woman told them. She said, `He told me everything I have done.'

³⁹ When the people from Samaria came, they begged him to stay with them. So he stayed with them for two days.

⁴⁰ Many more people believed in Jesus because of his own word.

⁴¹ They said to the woman, `Now we believe, not because of what you told us, but because of what he himself has told us. We know it is true. This is the Saviour of the world.'

⁴² Two days after this, Jesus left Samaria and went to Galilee.