GOSPEL OF JOHN CHAPTER 4

SCRIPTURE JOHN 4:4-42

the samaritan woman.

He had to pass through Samaria. So he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of land that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there. Jesus, tired from his journey, sat down there at the well. It was about noon. A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.”His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.

The Samaritan woman said to him, “How can you, a Jew, ask me, a Samaritan woman, for a drink?” (For Jews use nothing in common with Samaritans.) Jesus answered and said to her, “If you knew the gift of God and who is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.” [The woman] said to him, “Sir, you do not even have a bucket and the well is deep; where then can you get this living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us this well and drank from it himself with his children and his flocks?”

Jesus answered and said to her, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again; but whoever drinks the water I shall give will never thirst; the water I shall give will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I may not be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water.”

Jesus said to her, “Go call your husband and come back.” The woman answered and said to him, “I do not have a husband.” Jesus answered her, “You are right in saying, ‘I do not have a husband.’ For you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband.

What you have said is true.” The woman said to him, “Sir, I can see that you are a prophet. Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain; but you people say that the place to worship is in Jerusalem.” Jesus said to her, “Believe me, woman, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem.

You people worship what you do not understand; we worship what we understand, because salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and is now here, when true worshipers will worship the Father in Spirit and truth; and indeed the Father seeks such people to worship him. God is Spirit, and those who worship him must worship in Spirit and truth.”

The woman said to him, “I know that the Messiah is coming the one called the Anointed; when he comes, he will tell us everything.” Jesus said to her, “I am he, the one who is speaking with you.” At that moment his disciples returned, and were amazed that he was talking with a woman, but still no one said, “What are you looking for?” or “Why are you talking with her?”

The woman left her water jar and went into the town and said to the people, “Come see a man who told me everything I have done. Could he possibly be the Messiah?” They went out of the town and came to him…..Many of the Samaritans of that town began to believe in him because of the word of the woman who testified, “He told me everything I have done.”

When the Samaritans came to him, they invited him to stay with them; and he stayed there two days. Many more began to believe in him because of his word, and they said to the woman, “We no longer believe because of your word; for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the savior of the world.”

 REFLECTION

Jesus lived at a time that there was a deep cultural divide between Jews and Samaritans.  Samaritans were remnants of the Northern tribes of Israel. The Northern Kingdom had been taken over by the Assyrians centuries prior to Jesus’ time.

Many of their descendants considered themselves Jews. The Jews in Judea did not agree. They considered the Samaritans to be a mongrel race and saw many problems with the way they practiced Judaism. There was much intermarriage between the Jews and gentiles resulting in the worship of false gods.

Jesus, the Good Shepherd, comes for everyone, no sheep were considered lost when it came to Jesus.  Do we feel like that or do we dismiss some as not worthy?

Jesus was tired from his journey and rested at a well. He addressed a Samaritan woman at the well and asked for her assistance.  Now, Jesus new this was an opportunity for conversion.  This woman had issues because no one came to a well alone in the heat of the day. Jesus began A slow approach, Give me a drink. that would lead to “living” water. Do we approach others slowly or just lay the Nicene Creed on them all at once? Evangelization takes time.

After a discourse on where to worship Mount Gerizim or Jerusalem, the woman opens the door wide,“I know that the Messiah is coming the one called the Anointed; when he comes, he will tell us everything.” Jesus affirms to the woman, “I am He”

This is just one example of many when Jesus confirms in Scripture. He is the Messiah.  The woman left to share the Good News with her fellow townspeople. She is an evangelist too, like Mary Magdalene after the Resurrection to the Apostles.

It was one thing for the townspeople to hear the testimony of the woman but then townspeople went out to see for themselves.  Remember Thomas, the Apostle, in the upper room after the Resurrection?

Townspeople exclaimed, “We no longer believe because of your word; for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the savior of the world”

 Jesus said to Thomas, “Have you come to believe because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed.” Blessed are we who believe!

 SCRIPTURE JOHN 4:46-54

 second sign at cana.

Jesus returned to Cana in Galilee, where he had made the water wine. Now there was a royal official whose son was ill in Capernaum. When he heard that Jesus had arrived in Galilee from Judea, he went to him and asked him to come down and heal his son, who was near death.

Jesus said to him, “Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will not believe.” The royal official said to him, “Sir, come down before my child dies.” Jesus said to him, “You may go; your son will live.” The man believed what Jesus said to him and left.

While he was on his way back, his slaves met him and told him that his boy would live. He asked them when he began to recover. They told him, “The fever left him yesterday, about one in the afternoon. ”The father realized that just at that time Jesus had said to him, “Your son will live,” and he and his whole household came to believe.[Now] this was the second sign Jesus did when he came to Galilee from Judea.

REFLECTION

Jesus seems to rebuke the royal official who pleads for his son’s life. “Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will not believe.” Is Jesus testing the man or scolding the crowd?   What about us?  Do we need spectacular miracles to believe or else?  Every day miracles happen in everyday life. The fact we exist is a miracle in itself.  All is gift! Thank God for his miraculous providential care of us each and every day.

 The royal official, ignoring what Jesus was saying in general, pleaded again, “Sir, come down before my child dies.”  We would probably do the same thing.  It would be personal.  So Jesus tested the man’s faith, “You may go; your son will live.” The man believed what Jesus said to him and left.

His faith was rewarded as his son lived.  What if the man had argued with Jesus or tried to force Jesus to come with him, or mocked Jesus. Would his son live?   I think not, separated from Jesus is certain death.

Choose to believe and trust in Jesus.  You can’t go wrong even if you are sometimes disappointed because Jesus is beside us in our disappointments and will lighten our burden.