🦅 John Chapters 4 – 5✨

Prayer: My Dear Lord and Heavenly Father – we join you today to observe how You love people.  You are so gracious and kind to all people; You are also uncomfortably honest with all people. May we learn from You how to relate to others with grace and truth.

Open our eyes and open our hearts to receive the wisdom You are ready to share with us.  We seek You and ask You for this in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Jesus Talks With a Samaritan Woman

4 Now Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that he was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John— ² although in fact it was not Jesus who baptized, but his disciples. ³ So he left Judea and went back once more to Galilee.

⁴ Now he had to go through Samaria. ⁵ So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. ⁶ Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon.

Points to ponder (Some background):  In the Old Testament we read that the 12 tribes of Israel had a civil war after the death of King Solomon.  Ten tribes in the north established a kingdom of Israel where Samaria functioned as its capital.  The southern two tribes were known as Judea with their capital at Jerusalem. The northern tribes were exiled to Assyria, the southern tribes fell to Babylon.  A remnant of the southern tribes was later allowed to return to Jerusalem and rebuild their temple. (See Ezra-Nehemiah)

There was no reconciliation between these tribes.  700+ years later Jesus, born a Jew (i.e. of Judea) is now purposely enroute through Samaria where most Jews would not go.

⁷ When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” ⁸ (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)

⁹ The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.)

¹⁰ Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”

¹¹ “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? ¹² Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?”

¹³ Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, ¹⁴ but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

¹⁵ The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”

¹⁶ He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.”

¹⁷ “I have no husband,” she replied.

Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. ¹⁸ The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.”

¹⁹ “Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. ²⁰ Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”

²¹ “Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. ²² You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. ²³ Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. ²⁴ God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”

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

²⁶ Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.”

Points to ponder:  This is HUGE; there’s so much here. The first time Jesus reveals Himself as the Messiah is to a woman… a Samaritan woman.  This woman is thirsty – not just physically, there is an unquenchable, unnamed desire and she is trying to find an answer to this thirst in men.  She has been married 5 times… she is now living with a 6^th man… and this 7^th man – the Messiah – knows all her past, yet hints at His ability to give her ‘living water’ – that which would quench the Spiritual thirst that persists.

She wants that ‘living water’ so she doesn’t have to keep coming back to the well for water.  It doesn’t work like that.  Christianity doesn’t remove your physical thirst and unfortunately, when we receive His living water providing salvation for eternity, He doesn’t whisk us off to heaven right away. We remain in the physical realm until our time is over – but we return to the well differently.  We go back to work differently. We handle difficult circumstances and strained relationships differently.

The ‘living water’ He gives us is His Spirit that transforms us and enables us to walk in a broken world differently.  We are different from those around us; we are different from who we were before.

Jesus tells her that the past doesn’t define her and it doesn’t define people groups – there should be no racism or national divisions.  You don’t need to go to Jerusalem… or a mountain in Samaria… or any elaborate cathedral.  God is Spirit – when we turn our attention to focus on Him – we are beginning to worship who He is.  When we read His Word in Scripture, we are discovering The Truth of who He is.

The Disciples Rejoin Jesus

²⁷ Just then his disciples returned and were surprised to find him talking with a woman. But no one asked, “What do you want?” or “Why are you talking with her?”

²⁸ Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, ²⁹ “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?” ³⁰ They came out of the town and made their way toward him.

³¹ Meanwhile his disciples urged him, “Rabbi, eat something.”

³² But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about.”

³³ Then his disciples said to each other, “Could someone have brought him food?”

³⁴ “My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. ³⁵ Don’t you have a saying, ‘It’s still four months until harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest. ³⁶ Even now the one who reaps draws a wage and harvests a crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together. ³⁷ Thus the saying ‘One sows and another reaps’ is true. ³⁸ I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labor.”

Points to ponder:  Like the disciples earlier… after meeting Jesus, the woman returns to her town with another… ‘Come and see’ message.  Jesus tells His disciples and us, that ‘food’ isn’t just physical provision, but working in the will of the Father provides nourishment for us as well. This kind of work strengthens us and matures us.  When we work to do His will the benefits we see are a closer relationship with Him and a wonder at the transformation within us that He is doing.  It is a great mystery.

Christianity is never a solo journey.  The sow/reap principle extends across geography and time.  The prophets of the Old Testament spoke about the coming Messiah so that even this Samaritan woman knew He was expected… she is doing the work of the Father in sharing this news with her town… and as the townspeople approach, Jesus is telling His disciples to reap the harvest… Help Him to save these Samaritans!

Look around Christian – the fields around us are ripe as well.  When was the last time you invited someone to ‘Come and See’?

Many Samaritans Believe

³⁹ Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I ever did.” ⁴⁰ So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days. ⁴¹ And because of his words many more became believers.

⁴² They said to the woman, “We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world.”

Points to ponder:  Christians share their testimonies.   How could they not?  They’ve met the Savior of the world!  Many will believe; others will need to do their own investigations.  Both are valid paths to salvation.

A Christian can only share the truth of their journey – they cannot save anyone else. Only Jesus can save them.  But a Christian can invite others to do the investigation by the changed lives they live.

Jesus Heals an Official’s Son

⁴³ After the two days he left for Galilee. ⁴⁴ (Now Jesus himself had pointed out that a prophet has no honor in his own country.) ⁴⁵ When he arrived in Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him. They had seen all that he had done in Jerusalem at the Passover Festival, for they also had been there.

⁴⁶ Once more he visited Cana in Galilee, where he had turned the water into wine. And there was a certain royal official whose son lay sick at Capernaum. ⁴⁷ When this man heard that Jesus had arrived in Galilee from Judea, he went to him and begged him to come and heal his son, who was close to death.

⁴⁸ “Unless you people see signs and wonders,” Jesus told him, “you will never believe.”

⁴⁹ The royal official said, “Sir, come down before my child dies.”

⁵⁰ “Go,” Jesus replied, “your son will live.”

The man took Jesus at his word and departed. ⁵¹ While he was still on the way, his servants met him with the news that his boy was living. ⁵² When he inquired as to the time when his son got better, they said to him, “Yesterday, at one in the afternoon, the fever left him.”

⁵³ Then the father realized that this was the exact time at which Jesus had said to him, “Your son will live.” So he and his whole household believed.

⁵⁴ This was the second sign Jesus performed after coming from Judea to Galilee.

Points to ponder:  John’s Gospel will list many signs and wonders that Jesus performed, but in this section, it is clear that Jesus did not come to earth to wow the people with what He could do.  He came to save sinners.  He came to reconcile mankind to God for our sin has separated us.

This royal official tries to command Jesus to come with him to heal his child.  He’s asking for the wrong gift. Jesus teaches the man by sending him away with the promise that the child would live.  When the man gets the gift anyway… in a way he never expected… his heart and mind are opened to who Jesus is.  The man and his whole household believe. 

Learning to desire ‘the giver’ and not ‘the gift’ is part of the Christian journey.

The Healing at the Pool

5 Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish festivals. ² Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. ³ Here a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. ^[4]  5 One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. ⁶ When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?”

Points to ponder:  Now here’s a loaded question!  We just read about the official who asked Jesus to heal his son and Jesus brushes him off.  Now Jesus is approaching a community of disabled people and asks one man if he wants to get well.

⁷ “Sir,” the invalid replied, “I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.”

⁸ Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” ⁹ At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked.

Points to ponder:  Wait… what?  At the command of Jesus, the man is cured.

The day on which this took place was a Sabbath, ¹⁰ and so the Jewish leaders said to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath; the law forbids you to carry your mat.”

¹¹ But he replied, “The man who made me well said to me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’ ”

¹² So they asked him, “Who is this fellow who told you to pick it up and walk?”

¹³ The man who was healed had no idea who it was, for Jesus had slipped away into the crowd that was there.

¹⁴ Later Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, “See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.” ¹⁵ The man went away and told the Jewish leaders that it was Jesus who had made him well.

Points to ponder:  This healing wasn’t meant to put Jesus’ charity on display, but His authority.  The religious leaders are blind to the Messiah because they are offended that this invalid was now walking on a Sabbath carrying his mat – breaking one of their rules.

Jesus tells this man to ‘stop sinning’ or something worse may happen.  The only ‘sin’ we see with this unnamed man is from his words in verse 7 – he put his faith in superstitions.  (The stirring of the water in the pool was thought to have healing powers for the first person to reach them.)  

Nothing has changed. There are billion-dollar industries trying to convince you that their products will keep you healthy… make you live longer… ease your pain… etc.  (They usually come with a legal disclaimer and a long list of side effects.)  We should remember that Jesus can heal with a Word and we should carefully examine our hearts as to where we place our faith.

The Authority of the Son

¹⁶ So, because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath, the Jewish leaders began to persecute him. ¹⁷ In his defense Jesus said to them, “My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I too am working.” ¹⁸ For this reason they tried all the more to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.

¹⁹ Jesus gave them this answer: “Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does. ²⁰ For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does. Yes, and he will show him even greater works than these, so that you will be amazed. ²¹ For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son gives life to whom he is pleased to give it. ²² Moreover, the Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son, ²³ that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father, who sent him.

²⁴ “Very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life. ²⁵ Very truly I tell you, a time is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live. ²⁶ For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself. ²⁷ And he has given him authority to judge because he is the Son of Man.

²⁸ “Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice ²⁹ and come out—those who have done what is good will rise to live, and those who have done what is evil will rise to be condemned. ³⁰ By myself I can do nothing; I judge only as I hear, and my judgment is just, for I seek not to please myself but him who sent me.

Points to ponder:  How silly we humans are – even the self-righteous, religious people.  We have argued about ‘the Sabbath’… it’s Sunday… no it’s Saturday… what can we do or not do on ‘the Sabbath’…

When I look at the big picture –  there is a Sabbath rest at the end of time.  That Sabbath has no end. [Genesis 2:1-3]  The weekly remembrances laid out in God’s Law – i.e., the 4^th commandment [Exodus 20:8-10] – were given to remind us of the character of God.  There are other Sabbath-related laws in Leviticus for every 7 years… 7×7 or 49 years… none of which show a record of faithful obedience by the nation of Israel. 

Over their history, the Jewish leaders reinterpreted God’s law and wrestled with gaining the power to impose their interpretations on to the people. They made themselves judges over right and wrong.  Jesus comes on the scene to announce two things:  God, His Father is always at work.  Jesus, the Son, can only do what He sees His Father doing. 

Man’s rules have no authority over Jesus.  There are two Jewish leadership parties – the Pharisees, believed in life after death – the Sadducees did not.  While the two parties try to compromise to keep what limited authority they do have under Roman rule, Jesus will not compromise on the issue of life after death.

The Father raises the dead and gives them life and the Son gives life to whom he is pleased to give it. Interesting – do we have to please Jesus to get this life?  No.  In verses 23-24 Jesus has told us that hearing His words and believing them has eternal life.

Sometimes the most difficult part of our Christian journey is to hold onto the belief that we don’t have to ‘do’ anything to please God.  It sounds too good to be true. When we believe these Scriptures we have eternal life already even if we don’t feel it in the physical world.  But we trust Him and we praise the name of Jesus for all that He’s done – for to honor the Son is to honor the Father who sent Him.

Testimonies About Jesus

³¹ “If I testify about myself, my testimony is not true. ³² There is another who testifies in my favor, and I know that his testimony about me is true.

³³ “You have sent to John and he has testified to the truth. ³⁴ Not that I accept human testimony; but I mention it that you may be saved. ³⁵ John was a lamp that burned and gave light, and you chose for a time to enjoy his light.

³⁶ “I have testimony weightier than that of John. For the works that the Father has given me to finish—the very works that I am doing—testify that the Father has sent me. ³⁷ And the Father who sent me has himself testified concerning me. You have never heard his voice nor seen his form, ³⁸ nor does his word dwell in you, for you do not believe the one he sent. ³⁹ You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me, ⁴⁰ yet you refuse to come to me to have life.

⁴¹ “I do not accept glory from human beings, ⁴² but I know you. I know that you do not have the love of God in your hearts. ⁴³ I have come in my Father’s name, and you do not accept me; but if someone else comes in his own name, you will accept him. ⁴⁴ How can you believe since you accept glory from one another but do not seek the glory that comes from the only God?

⁴⁵ “But do not think I will accuse you before the Father. Your accuser is Moses, on whom your hopes are set. ⁴⁶ If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me. ⁴⁷ But since you do not believe what he wrote, how are you going to believe what I say?”

Points to ponder:  There is a lot to think about when you wonder… Who will be saved?  2,000 years after Jesus spoke these words, we are still trying to reinterpret them to fit ‘our’ theology.  The fact that it is the religious leaders that Jesus warns so harshly here should be a wake-up call to anyone who leans towards defining their own theological set of rules!

Truth is established by testimonies – we see that in a courtroom.  Testifying about yourself is always suspect, so Jesus doesn’t even try.  He brings up the testimony of John the Baptist and He brings up the miraculous signs. He also brings up the testimony of God the Father, heard during His baptism and provided in the prophecies of the Old Testament – specifically what Moses said in Deuteronomy 18:17-19]

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Summary:  These two chapters introduce Jesus as the Messiah to a Samaritan woman – throwing away all our preconceived notions of how ‘God Should Save The World.’  We see miraculous signs and healings that testify to the authority and the identity of Jesus.

Jesus tells us what this means from an eternal perspective but also says that we don’t have to trust His testimony about Himself… listen to other witnesses, investigate the scriptures for ourselves.

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🙏 Lord, thank You for Your Word.  Thank You for the opportunity to investigate for myself!  I do trust You and I do believe that You came to save even me. You died for me; You were raised for me. And when my time ends… or all time ends… I know that I will spend forever in Your presence.  Help me each day to live this truth in such a way that I am inviting others around me to ‘Come and See’.  I pray this in the name of Jesus. Amen.