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THE PENTATEUCH

GENESIS ---EXODUS--- LEVITICUS 1.1-7.38 --- 8.1-11.47 --- 12.1-16.34--- 17.1-27.34--- NUMBERS 1-10--- 11-19--- 20-36--- DEUTERONOMY 1.1-4.44 --- 4.45-11.32 --- 12.1-29.1--- 29.2-34.12 --- THE BOOK OF JOSHUA --- THE BOOK OF JUDGES --- PSALMS 1-17--- ECCLESIASTES --- ISAIAH 1-5 --- 6-12 --- 13-23 --- 24-27 --- 28-35 --- 36-39 --- 40-48 --- 49-55--- 56-66--- EZEKIEL --- DANIEL 1-7 ---DANIEL 8-12 ---

NAHUM--- HABAKKUK---ZEPHANIAH ---ZECHARIAH --- THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW ---THE GOSPEL OF MARK--- THE GOSPEL OF LUKE --- THE GOSPEL OF JOHN --- THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES --- 1 CORINTHIANS 1-7 --- 8-16 --- 2 CORINTHIANS 1-7 --- 8-13 -- -GALATIANS --- EPHESIANS --- COLOSSIANS --- 1 THESSALONIANS --- 2 THESSALONIANS --- 1 TIMOTHY --- 2 TIMOTHY --- TITUS --- HEBREWS 1-6 --- 7-10 --- 11-13 --- JAMES --- JOHN'S LETTERS --- REVELATION

--- THE GOSPELS

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The Samaritan Woman (John 4.4-42)

The story of the Samaritan woman in John 4.4-42 illustrates well what we have seen in chapter 3 that the Spirit works where He wills (John 3.8), and the picture of life-giving water is again used, this time referring to a spring bubbling up to give eternal life. The heavenly rain has fallen and men may now drink of it abundantly. Here is abundant proof that the Spirit is now at work.

4.4 ‘And he had to pass through Samaria’. Samaria lies between Judea and Galilee, and although some Jews would take the long way round through Transjordan because of their hatred of Samaritans, this would not apply to Jesus.

‘He had to pass’ . ‘Edei’ - ‘it was necessary’. Was this the divine necessity? Compare 3.7, 14, 30; 4.24; 9.4; 10.16; 12.34; 20.9). Or just the geographical necessity. While there was a recognised longer route to take it might have smacked of anti-Samaritan feeling.

The Samaritans were despised by the Jews. They were partly descended from a mixture of Israelites left in the land when Samaria was sacked in 722 BC inter-married with people brought in from other lands to replace those who had been deported. Certainly some Samaritans at least continued to look to the Temple at Jerusalem (Jeremiah 41.5), but after Judah’s exile, when the Temple was being restored the Samaritans offered their help, but were refused any part in it.

They were looked on as being schismatics.

This was furthered when they later built their own Temple, with a genuine Aaronic priesthood, on Mount Gerizim. They accepted the Law and had their own version of it in the Samaritan Pentateuch, which named Mount Gerizim as the place of sacrifice. They believed in the one God, and the coming of a deliverer, ‘the Taheb (restorer)’, identified with the prophet in Deuteronomy 18.15. They were therefore not looked on as pagans, but as second rate, and scarcely tolerated.

Nothing would have seemed less likely to a Jew than the spiritual transformation of a loose woman who, on top of that, was a despised Samaritan. Yet here at the beginning of Jesus’ ministry He shows that there are no barriers of race or past morals to prevent anyone from coming to God, once the heart is set in the right direction.

4.5-6a ‘So he comes to a city of Samaria called Sychar, near to the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph, and Jacob’s well was there.’ Sychar is commonly identified with Askar, a village about one mile (one and a half kilometres) North East of Jacob’s Well, on the Eastern lower slopes of Mount Ebal. For the giving of the land to Joseph see Genesis 48.22. Jacob’s Well is still there on a site almost universally recognised as authentic. It is 100 feet deep.

4.6b ‘Jesus, therefore, being wearied with his journey, sat thus on the well. It was about the sixth hour.’

The demands of Jesus’ ministry had caught up with Him, and on their journey through the heat of the sun Jesus grew weary. When they came across the welcome sight of Jacob’s Well (well = pege, a fount of running water, thus fed by a spring) He sat down to rest, while the disciples went into the nearby town for food.

The true humanity of Jesus comes out here. He was very tired. ‘Sat thus --’. ‘Thus’ could refer back to His weariness. He sank down exhausted. It could alternatively mean ‘just where He happened to be’. The writer remembers it was about the sixth hour (if by Jewish reckoning twelve noon, if by Roman reckoning six-o-clock in the evening). In 20.19 the writer clearly uses Roman reckoning - from midnight to noon to midnight - and not Jewish reckoning - from evening to morning, and morning to evening, and it is more likely that a woman would come at eventide rather than in the heat of the day.

4.7a ‘There comes a woman of Samaria to draw water.’ The fact that she was alone is probably significant. Normally women would make sure they were in company with others when visiting a well outside the town . There is already a hint in this that she is not of the best reputation.

But as we will learn she was thirsty in soul despite her pleasure loving life. When she sees a Jew sitting there she would ignore him. It was not seemly for a woman to speak to a strange man, and she knows that the Jews generally despised the Samaritans with a hatred combining strong religious and racial prejudice.

To her great surprise he does not ignore her. He turns and speaks to her.

4.7b-8 ‘Jesus says to her, “Give me a drink”. For his disciples had gone away into the town to buy food.’

He is alone because the disciples have gone off to find food in the nearby town. Yet it would be normal for thirsty travellers to draw water immediately on reaching a well. It may be, then, that this is divinely pre-planned. It is, however, possible that Jesus’ thirst had previously been assuaged but had now returned, or, indeed, that it was just a conversation opener.

The woman is so surprised when He speaks to her that she forgets her prejudice for the moment and replies, overcome with curiosity. Who is this Jew who will lower his pride to ask for water at the hands of a Samaritan, and a woman at that?

4.9 ‘The Samaritan woman therefore says to him, “How is it that you, being a Jew, ask drink of me who is a Samaritan woman?” For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.’

‘For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans’, possibly better rendered ‘for Jews do not use (‘vessels’ understood) with Samaritans’. Jews had certain levels of dealings with Samaritans but would not drink from the same vessel as they would look on it as probably ceremonially ‘unclean’. It could, however, signify ‘generally prefer not to have dealings with’. Either way Jesus is overcoming prejudice.

4.10 ‘Jesus answered and said to her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that says to you ‘Give me a drink’, you would have asked of him and he would have given you living water”.’

His reply is significant. “If you knew the gift of God ---”. In the light of 3.16 this must mean Himself as God’s gift to men, and stresses immediately that He is given to all men, Jew and non-Jew alike.

‘And who it is that says --’. This confirms that it is He Who is the gift of God. Certainly it would indicate to the woman, even at this stage, something of His religious significance.

“You would have asked of Him, and He would have given you living water”. He is saying that if only she knew who he was, and how extensive and all embracing was God’s gift in giving Him, she would only have to ask and she would receive the water of eternal life springing up within her.

This picture of living water as a source of spiritual blessing is a familiar one in the prophets (Jeremiah 2.13; 17.13; Zechariah 14.8 cf. Isaiah 44.3-4). So is the thought of a well or fountain giving life and deliverance (Psalm 36.9; Isaiah 12.3; Zechariah 13.1). Indeed the one who meditates on God’s word day and night will be like a tree planted by rivers of water, producing abundant fruit (Psalm 1.2-3).

‘You would have asked of Him and He would have --’. So the same ‘eternal life’ offered to Nicodemus, the highly respected Jewish councillor, is also available to the despised, lowly Samaritan woman.

Even more interesting is the thought that Jesus is saying that He can give the Spirit (4.10, 14), the One who works where He wills. This is an indirect claim to deity (see Isaiah 40.13). He is the Baptiser in the Holy Spirit.

‘Living water’ can also mean running water from, say, a spring, so the woman asks in puzzlement where He will get this running water from.

4.11 ‘The woman says to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. From where then have you that living water?” ‘

The well is one hundred feet deep, and this man has no vessel to draw with. What on earth can He mean? Her mind is still fixed on physical water.

4.12 “Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well, and drank of it himself, and his sons and his cattle?”

She is a little in awe and feels that this man is something special. But surely not that special? She asks Him whether He is claiming to be even greater than Jacob who first gave them the well. He had had to dig the well to find water. Can this man obtain water in any other way? In both cases she uses phrear for well, which means a well not necessarily fed by a living spring. The reader would pick up the contrast as representing the attitude of mind, prosaic rather than inspirational.

‘Our father Jacob.’ The Samaritans too traced their ancestry back to Jacob.

4.13-14 ‘Jesus answered and said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him, will never thirst, for the water that I will give him will become in his a well (pege as in verse 6) of water springing up producing eternal life”.’

Jesus makes clear that He is greater than Jacob. The water that He is offering is not of temporary satisfaction like the water of this well, but is permanent and constantly self-renewing. That is because the one who drinks it receives within himself an inner source of water, a spring of water resulting in eternal life. It is deeply significant that Jesus is at this stage offering spiritual life, the life of the age to come, to a Samaritan, without requiring conversion to Judaism. He knows no barriers in His offer of salvation, even though it would still be a problem for His followers for some time to come.

‘Springing up’ - ‘allomenou. The verb is nowhere else used in Scripture of water bubbling up but its equivalent is so used in other literature. Its literal meaning is ‘leaping up, leaping on’. It is used in the Septuagint (LXX) of the Holy Spirit ‘leaping on’ men (Judges 14.6, 19; 15.14; 1 Samuel 10.6, 10) but it can be used figuratively of the quick movement of inanimate things as here. The combined use is especially significant here.

4.15 ‘The woman says to him, “Sir, give me this water, that I thirst not, nor come all this way here to draw”.’ The woman is intrigued and not quite sure what He means, but it sounds delightful, an answer to many problems. She still does not realise that what is required is a spiritual transformation.

4.16 ‘Jesus says to her, “Go, call your husband and come back here”.’

The gift of living water can only be given if she turns from sin, so Jesus now begins to probe her past life (verses 16-18). ‘Go and call your husband and come here’. Such an innocent suggestion, so deep its significance. He knows already what the answer will be as verse 18 demonstrates.

4.17a ‘The woman answered and said to him, “I have no husband”.’

The woman probably feels a little disconcerted but tries to hide it from Him, she probably thinks successfully. ‘I have no husband’, she says guardedly. Her loquaciousness has become noticeable abruptness. This is a sore point with her.

4.17b-18 ‘Jesus said to her, “You have well said that you have no husband. For you have had five husbands and he whom you now have is not your husband. This you have said truly”.’

She soon learns better. Like a bolt of lightning the reply comes, tearing into her heart. He replies, ‘You are quite right when you say ‘I have no husband’. For you have had five husbands, and the man you are now living with is not your husband. When you say that you only speak the truth’. She must have felt that all her defences were down and that she had been totally laid bare. This man knew all about her!

Whether she had been genuinely married to all five we do not need to ask. ‘Husbands’ may have been intended to be a euphemism. But the one she is living with now she is not married to.

The woman has come to the light and it has shone into her innermost being. The question now is how she will respond.

4.19 ‘The woman says to him, “Sir, I see that you are a prophet.” We can imagine how the woman felt. One moment she has felt the conversation was going pretty well, the next she feels totally exposed. Yet it makes her realise that this is no ordinary man. He must be a prophet. The Samaritans did not accept ‘the prophets’ of the Old Testament, accepting only the Law of Moses as found in their version of the Pentateuch. But they clearly accepted the fact of ‘prophetic men’, men with unique powers and knowledge, and they knew the Jews had ‘prophets’. And they themselves were in fact looking for the coming of the ‘Prophet like Moses’ (Deuteronomy 34.10).

4.20 “Our fathers worshipped in this mountain, and you say that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.” She clearly feels that between him and her that can be little agreement. They disagree on crucial points. He can really have nothing to say to her. She believes that God revealed Himself on Mount Gerizim, and there they should worship God, He will insist that that is not so and that she should worship in Jerusalem. Has He any evidence that could give her a new perspective?

She had always been taught that it was at Mount Gerizim that God had revealed Himself, and that that was the place towards which she ought to turn, in contrast to the Jews who saw Jerusalem as the central place of worship and mediation with God. In the Samaritan Pentateuch Genesis 22 and Deuteronomy 27.4 had been altered to refer to Mount Gerizim. This was the place where God had chosen (past tense in the Samaritan Pentateuch) to put His name (Deuteronomy 5.12). The Jews on the other hand saw Jerusalem as the central place of worship to which all should come, and apart from which there could be no sacrifices. If she sought this living water would she have to become a Jew and worship at Jerusalem? It was not on.

4.21 Jesus says to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem, will you worship the Father. You worship that which you know not, we worship that which we know, for salvation is of the Jews”.’

Jesus does not reply that both religions are as good. He acknowledges that the Jews had been the vehicle of God’s revelation to man. But He does put both in perspective.

‘Woman’. As with His mother earlier( see on 2.4), a polite word for addressing women.

‘The hour is coming’. His hour will introduce this hour, a time when worship will not be restricted to places but will be spiritual and from the heart. Thus Mount Gerizim and Jerusalem will both cease to have importance. What will matter is a heart right towards God.

‘Will you worship the Father’. The ‘you’ (plural) refers to Samaritans as a group and makes clear that He recognises that some of them will come to experience this spiritual worship.

‘You worship what you do not know.’ Their means of revelation is limited to the Pentateuch. They have therefore rather a narrow view of God and are lacking the greater level of revelation through the prophets and the ‘holy writings’ (Psalms etc). They lack the full revelation given to Israel, therefore their knowledge of God is lacking. They do not have the knowledge of the intimacy of God revealed to the Jews.

‘We worship that which we know, for salvation is of the Jews’. Israel has a more complete revelation in the books of the Old Testament. And furthermore, that fuller revelation promises that salvation for the world will come through the Jews and their promised Messiah. They have thus a fuller understanding of the ways of God and a greater privilege, and are to be the channels of God’s blessing to the world. Paul sums it up as ‘To them belong the sonship, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the Law, the worship and the promises. To them belong the patriarchs, and of their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ’ (Romans 9.4-5). The Samaritans could parallel some of these but not all.

4.23. “But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for such does the Father seek to be his worshippers. God is Spirit, and they who worship him must worship in spirit and truth”.’

Jesus points out that the essence of the matter is not to be found in holy places, but in the inner heart. God does not have a physical form limiting Him to one place, He is Spirit. Solomon had in fact recognised this principle long before (1 Kings 8.27. See also Malachi 1.11), as indeed had some of the Psalmists. Therefore those who would worship Him must worship Him “in Spirit and in truth”, looking to Him as the Father. The idea of ‘spirit and truth’ is amplified throughout the Gospel and especially in John 14-17. What Jesus has come to bring is far too large to be limited to holy places and religious ceremonies, it is something that must transform the heart and bring a new relationship with God wherever men are.

The description of God as Spirit connects up with John’s general teaching about the Spirit in his Gospel. The Spirit is the life-giver and revealer of truth, thus those who come to God truly will receive life and enter into the truth.

The use of the capital letter for Spirit in the phrase ‘in Spirit and in truth’ is surely justified in the light of the Gospel as a whole, although we must recognise that both meanings are contained here. The Spirit awakens man’s spirit. The work of the Spirit in bringing men into this relationship with God has already been established (John 3.1-15). While the woman may not recognise this, the writer does. It is the Spirit’s work that will make this new way of worship possible.

Of course through the ages there have always been men and women who worshipped God in spirit, as the Psalms make clear. But worship connected with particular holy places, using formal ceremonies and physical sacrifices and other paraphernalia, can and had replaced the real thing for the majority. The work of the Spirit would now release men from these.

‘The hour is coming, and now is’. Stressing the new work of the Spirit begun in the presence of Jesus.

‘True worshippers’. Here there is the deliberate distinction between those who worship God externally and those who worship Him from the heart.

‘Such does the Father seek.’ He desires no outward worship and paraphernalia, except in so far as they are helpful in producing inner worship, no sycophancy and bootlicking. He seeks worship from the heart which will demonstrate the genuineness of the worshipper. God desires fellowship and relationship with man, He seeks sons not slaves. While it is right that we should look on ourselves as His slaves, as well as His sons, the latter is prominent in God’s eyes.

4.25 ‘The woman says to him, “I know that Messiah is coming, who is called the Christ. When he is come he will tell us all things”.’

Such words lead the woman to speculate about the possible coming of the Messiah, the Christ. It is possible she uses ‘Messiah’ to represent the hope because Jesus is a Jew, but she would know the deliverer as ‘the Taheb’. This one they longed for will come as the revealer of truth (v.25). However, the conversation is probably in Aramaic, so that she may have used Taheb and the explanatory translation ‘Messiah’ may be the author’s. (Thus she may have said ‘the Taheb, who is called Messiah’).

‘He will tell us all things.’ An admission that much is lacking in their knowledge of God and His ways.

4.26 ‘Jesus says to her, “I who speak to you am he”.’

Jesus has no hesitation in quietly letting her know that He is the promised One. Even if the term Messiah has been used there is no danger of a misunderstanding of the term in Samaria. They held completely different ideas from the Jews. There was no danger here of a popular rising on these grounds. To the Jews He presents Himself as ‘the Son of Man’. But to the Samaritan He can be ‘the Messiah’, the ‘Taheb’, the Revealer of truth.

So Jesus has come as God’s gift to men, offering living water to revive men’s hearts and bubble up within them so that their spiritual thirst can be continually satisfied. The result will be that they receive eternal life, the life of the Spirit, and worship God in Spirit and truth.

4.27 ‘And upon this came his disciples and they marvelled that he was speaking with a woman, yet no man said, ‘What are you looking for?’ or ‘Why are you speaking with her?’

At this crucial point the disciples return with food. ‘They marvelled that he was talking with a woman’. It was not usual for women who were alone to chat with unknown men, unless they were of unsavoury reputation, and for the same reason men of reputation were wise to avoid it.

‘But none said, ‘what do you want?’ or ‘why are you talking to her?’ This suggests that the writer is looking back and remembering the incident. He can still remember the questions that sprang into their minds but which they dare not ask. What did the woman want? Why was Jesus risking His reputation in speaking to a lone woman? You can almost see the disciples discussing the matter quietly among themselves. This is the memory of an eyewitness. p> 4.28-29 So the woman left her water pot and went away into the city, and says to the men, “Come and see a man who told me all things that I ever did. Can this be the Christ?” ‘

The woman solves their dilemma by leaving, as indeed she would feel she had to. But the writer remembers that ‘she left her water pot’. This act in itself was an indication that she intended to return, and was clearly noted and probably commented on. It was certainly unusual. It was for the purpose of drawing water that she had come. But now that was forgotten in her excitement. Perhaps there is also an indication in it that her water jar no longer matters. She has better water to enjoy.

When she met the men she would have said ‘Come and see a man who has told me my whole life story. Is not this the Taheb?’ The writer, translates it into Greek as Messiah. It is quite clear that it was Jesus’ knowledge of her inner thought that had impressed her most.

4.30 ‘They went out of the town and were coming to him.’ They are so intrigued that they return with her.

4.31-33 ‘Meanwhile the disciples begged him, saying, “Rabbi, eat.” But he said to them, “I have meat to eat that you do not know about.” The disciples therefore said to one another, “Has any man brought him anything to eat?” ’

The disciples beg Jesus to eat. They cannot understand His reluctance. But His mind is on other things. He replies, ‘I have food to eat that you know nothing about’. The disciples look at one other. ‘Has someone brought Him food?’ they ask each other. Like the woman’s had been, their minds are very caught up in material things. Once again we have the sense of one who was there and remembers it clearly.

4.34 ‘Jesus says to them, “My meat is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work. Do you not say, ‘there are yet four months and then comes the harvest’? Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes and look on the fields that they are already white for harvest.”

Jesus explains His attitude. ‘My food is to do the will of Him Who sent me and to bring about what He wants me to do.’ His Father’s work must come first. This is more important than food.

The passage is very moving. Meeting the woman has sparked off in Jesus a realisation of the wonder of what is to come. He has been very successful in Judea, but now there has come home to Him that others need Him as well, and He wants His disciples to realise it too. This chance meeting with the woman has made Him realise afresh that the Father has a wider work for Him to do. He has been thinking in terms of the Jews. Now He recognises that He must not limit Himself so much. There are other fields waiting to be harvested. In the light of this food is unimportant.

It is true that His first message is for the ‘lost sheep of the house of Israel’ (Matthew 10.6; 15.24). They must be given the first opportunity. But he clearly sees Samaritans as included in that number. They too worshipped the God of Abraham and Moses. Later He will recognise that Israel is rejecting Him and turn to a wider audience.

It is possible that even as He speaks He can see the white clothing of the Samaritans coming out to see Him, and is deeply moved. Is it on them He is looking as He speaks, and on them He is directing His disciples’ gaze - ‘lift up your eyes and look on the fields -- they are white for harvest’?

The phrase ‘there are yet four months and then comes the harvest’ hints at the fact that the disciples see themselves as sowers, with the harvest some way away. But Jesus wants them now to recognise that the time for harvest has come.

4.36-38 ‘He who reaps receives wages and gathers fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. For in this the saying holds true, ‘one sows and another reaps’. I sent you to reap that for which you did not labour. Others have laboured, and you have entered into their labour’.

Jesus takes the opportunity to press home a lesson. The opportunity is not only His but theirs. They too must take every opportunity to proclaim His message, for then they will receive great rewards and they will ‘gather fruit for eternal life’. This latter refers to those who will be saved through their labours. They will have the joy of knowing they have changed the lives of others and brought them into the life of the age to come. By their fruits they will be known.

He then reminds them that they are not the only ones involved. There have to be sowers as well as reapers, and often the former is the harder task. The prophets have sown, and have suffered. John the Baptiser has sown, and he too will suffer, although he at least has seen some of the harvest. But the disciples are in the privileged position of being reapers. They will harvest the work of others. The work of the Spirit has now begun. They must not hesitate to reap the harvest. Then both sowers and reapers will be able to rejoice together.

4.39 ‘And from that town many of the Samaritans believed on him because of the word of the woman who testified, “He told me all things that I ever did.”

The woman’s testimony has convinced the townspeople that here is the Taheb. There are times when small things produce great results. This can only be as a result of the activity of the Spirit. God is clearly at work. It would appear that they see some change in the woman which helps to convince them. She is no longer the loose woman that she was. They believe even before they meet Jesus Himself. This is intended to be contrasted with those Jews whose faith was lacking (2.23-25) and with Nicodemus the ‘ruler of the Jews’.

4.40 ‘So when the Samaritans came to him they begged him to stay with them, and he stayed there for two days.’ Their faith having been aroused they want to know more, and they want their fellow townsfolk to have the opportunity to hear Him. Jesus is happy to agree and spends the next two days with them.

4.41-42 ‘And many more believed because of his word, and they said to the woman, “Now we believe, not because of your words, but because we have heard for ourselves and know that this is indeed the Saviour of the world”.’

Jesus, considerably revived by the experience and no longer tired, teaches them for two days. It is to their credit that they recognise what the majority of the Jews will not, that here indeed is the Saviour of the world (compare Isaiah 45.21). The words deliberately bring out that they have gone beyond belief in Him as the Taheb, as a result of His teaching, and recognised the significance of His coming in greater depth. The only other use of this phrase is in 1 John 4.14, where it is connected with the giving of the Spirit. Clearly John, who had written the epistle earlier, recognises that here the Spirit has been at work and their eyes have been opened.

4.43-45 ‘And after two days he went out from there to Galilee, for Jesus himself testified that a prophet has no honour in his own country. So when he came into Galilee the Galileans received him having seen all the things that he did in Jerusalem at the feast. For they also wwent to the feast.’

After His successful ministry Jesus departs for Galilee, for ‘Jesus himself testified that a prophet has no honour in his own country’. The reference here must be to Judea to make sense of the context. We have already been told that He had come to His own home (Jerusalem and Judea as the centres of the Jewish religion) and His own people had not received him (1.11). ‘No honour’ refers to the Jewish authorities for His ministry to the common people had been successful. The authorities would not give Him His due. Thus for the time being He will concentrate on work in the North. (Both Judea and Galilee can be looked on as His own country for He was born in one and brought up in the other).

In Galilee He is welcomed because of ‘all they had seen He had done in Jerusalem at the Feast’. But once again we are reminded of 2.23-24. They believed because of the signs, but He could not trust their belief for its foundation was insecure. As far as we are aware He carries out no public ministry. Does He recognise that they are not yet ready and that their superficial attitude could do more harm than good? They are proud of their fellow-countryman because of His successes, but do they want the inner change that He will require of them? There are times when it is better to be silent than to speak. How different they are from the Samaritans. Had their welcome been for the right reasons it is hardly conceivable that He would not have done for them what He had done for the Samaritans.

4.46 ‘He came therefore again to Cana of Galilee, where he made the water wine, and there was a certain high official of the king whose son was sick at Capernaum.’

So He arrives back in Cana where He had turned the water into wine, but in nearby Capernaum (twenty five miles away) lived ‘an official’, probably of the court of Herod Antipas, whose son was very ill.

4.47 ‘When he heard that Jesus was come from Judea to Galilee he went to him and begged him that he would come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death.’

‘When he heard that Jesus was come from Judea to Galilee’. It was well known that Jesus had been very successful in His ministry in Judea alongside John the Baptiser. His presence here was thus unexpected. This confirms that Judea had been in mind in the proverb. Everyone saw Judea and Jerusalem as His sphere. But it was they who had not honoured Him.

So he goes to Him and begs Him to heal his son, who is at the point of death.

4.48 ‘Jesus therefore said to him, “Unless you see signs and wonders you will never believe”.’

Jesus reply shows how disappointed He is at the attitude revealed in Jerusalem. They had only believed when signs were given. He links this high official with Nicodemus and the authorities there. ‘Unless you (plural) see signs and wonders you will not believe’. The inference is that the man has only come because he had heard of the sign at Cana.

4.49 ‘The high official says to him, “Sir, come down before my child dies”.’

Again the official pleads with Him. ‘Come down before my child dies’. It is the cry of a father’s heart. He will not argue the point or excuse himself. He longs only that his son be healed, and he is confident that Jesus can do it. His simplicity confirms his faith.

4.50 ‘Jesus says to him, “Go on your way, your son lives.” The man believed the words that Jesus spoke to him and he went his way.

Jesus puts his faith to the test. ‘Go your way, your son will live’, He says. And crucially the man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him. Here at least was one man who had confidence in Jesus and His word. He goes confidently on his way.

4.51-52 ‘And as he was now going down his servants met him to say that his son lived. So he enquired of then the hour when his began to improve. They said therefore to him, “The fever left him yesterday, at the seventh hour.’

As he and went his way he was met by his servants who told him that his son had recovered. Then he enquired as to what time his son had begun to mend and learns that it was at the very hour that Jesus had spoken His words of healing.

‘Going down’. Going to Capernaum from Cana one must go east across the Galilean hills and then descend to the Sea of Galilee. The 20 mile (33 kilometre) journey could not be made in a single day. The author is clearly familiar with Palestinian geography.

4.53 ‘So the father knew that it was at that hour in which Jesus said to him, “Your son lives”, and he himself believed, and all his house’. There is a contrast here between differing forms of belief. Previously his faith has been that of those who saw signs and wonders, but gradually it has grown. Now it is a deep faith of commitment (expressed by the inceptive aorist of the verb) that responds to Jesus and His words. That is what is lacking in others.

It is quite clear that this is a very different story from that of the centurion’s son in Luke 7.2-10 and Matthew 8.5-13, the only thing in common being the healing at a distance which Jesus must have done often. These particular stories are recounted because they carry a specific message in a context. In the account of the centurion’s son the centurion does not ask Him to his home, is confident that Jesus can heal at a distance, and asks Him to speak only the healing word, whereas in this account the man’s faith is not as great, although it is growing. For the centurion there was no rebuke, only praise, whereas for this official rebuke preceded action. The end result, however, is the same. They both finally come to a full faith.

4.54 ‘This is again the second sign that Jesus did when He had come from Judea to Galilee’. Up to this point Galilee has not been the scene of His miracles. Judea had been given the first chance to respond to its Messiah. They had been His prime target, His own country. Indeed even as a young teenager He had recognised Jerusalem as the centre of His ministry (Luke 2.46). Now he will bring the good news to His adopted home. The first sign in Galilee had revealed that Jesus had come to bring in the ‘good things’ of the age to come. The second revealed the power of His word and the need to accept it and respond in full faith.