seekeroftruth
Well-Known Member
John 4:1 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.
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.[a])
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.”
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.”
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.”
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.
a. John 4:9 Or do not use dishes Samaritans have used
Once again... it was the blueletterbible.org site that drew my attention. This commentary came from the easy English site... to set the table....
Galilee was in the north. The most direct route was through Samaria. The journey took about three days. But most Jews would not go this way. They preferred to travel round Samaria. This journey took twice as long. This was because the Jews hated the Samaritans. The Samaritans hated the Jews, too. They had been enemies for centuries.
However, the Jews and the Samaritans shared the same ancestors. About 720 BC (years before Christ), Israel’s enemies had entered Samaria. They had defeated the Israelites who lived there. Then they had taken most of these Israelites to another country. They had brought many foreigners to Samaria. It was not possible to take all the Israelites away. Some Israelites had remained in Samaria. And they had married the foreigners, who worshipped false gods.
However, Jesus did not avoid Samaria. Instead, he chose to travel through it.
Suddenly, Jesus changed the subject. The conversation became personal. The woman had to think about her past and also her present situation. Neither was good. She had been married 5 times. The Jews did not approve of people who married more than three times. Also, this woman was living with a man who was not her husband. And Jesus knew all about her. But still he talked to her. He offered her the gift of eternal life.
The Samaritans asked Jesus to stay in the town so that they could know him better. They believed in him because they had met him. He had spoken to them. They had their own personal experience of him. They did not believe just because of what the woman had told them. A person cannot know Jesus by means of another person’s experience of him. We must tell other people what Jesus has done for us. But also we must invite them to meet him and to have their own personal experience of him.
While I was in the easy English commentary.... I also found this about the centurian.
It did not matter that the official’s son was about 32 kilometres (20 miles) away in Capernaum. Jesus was able to cure him by means of the authority of his words. When Jesus lived on the earth, he could be only in one place at a particular time. But distance does not affect Jesus’ power. His power has no limits! We can pray to him anywhere. He will hear us and he will answer us. We can pray for people and situations on the other side of the world. He can answer our prayers. And we can never be so far away that he cannot help us!
First of all.... I want to note that Jesus never did get that drink of water or the food the disciples went to purchase. He was too busy... it seems..... I figure He did drink... probably from her bucket.... while they were talking. I figure the disciples had already dished up a plate for Jesus before they urged Him to eat. I think His reply about not needing food was a rhetorical reply..... but His human hand probably reached out for the plate. I figure it took a while for this woman to get to town and gain an audience..... then a few minutes for the audience to mistrust her and decide to go see for themselves..... and then a few minutes for the audience to get back to Jesus. So... He had time before dealing with these "half breeds" who wanted to know more.Now... there's the issue of the Jews disgusting behavior towards women. She had five husbands but they didn't have anything to do with her because she had more than three..... Who made three the magic number????? In those days.... women were property. Once a woman married into a family... it was for life... if her husband died.... then the brother had to take her.... if that brother died than the next one would take her.... women were handed down like land or a favorite broach by the descendants of Jacob [Israel]. There was no #metoo movement.... they wouldn't have even considered it.... that's the way it was... women were not equal at all... and this particular woman.... well she was either married into a really unlucky family.... or she was a Samaritan whore....
Jesus doesn't have a problem with any human..... He has a problem with ignorant ideas.... and stubborn Pharisees, Sadducees, and Temple leaders.... but He likes to help all humans. He was there when they were created. I wonder.... when God was sculpting the Samaritan woman.... did Jesus get a preview of what her life would be like? Did He know that this particular human would be at that well at that time... when no other "good" Samaritan woman would be seen? After all.... she was at Jacob's well on property that Jacob [the one God renamed Israel] gave to his son Joseph [coat of many colors Joseph] many many many centuries before.
Now.... the story of the Centurion. All this time... I thought this story was about the faith of the gentile officer. Then I read the commentaries and the verses again.... this is about the fact that space didn't even affect Jesus. He was 20 miles away. That's like being in Calvert County and saving the life of a boy laying on his death bed in St. Mary's City. He didn't send an ambulance to get him and bring him in..... Jesus just healed him.... from 20 miles away. Twenty miles.... and there were no cars.... Jesus didn't have a bike..... Jesus didn't ride in a chariot.... He didn't have the donkey..... He walked.... 20 miles would have taken a while..... but it didn't matter.... the boy was healed..... alive and well and all He had to do was say so.
So.... God is in control of time.... and Jesus is in control of space....
