The Saviour Of The World

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’ve ever done. Could this be the Messiah?’ ³⁰ They came out of the town and made their way towards 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 labour.’

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’ve ever done.’ 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 Saviour of the world.’

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 honour 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 ill 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 enquired 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 realised 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.