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JOHN 5
page 957
and from finishing his work. 35 You know the saying, ‘Four months between planting and harvest.’
But I say, wake up and look around. The fields
are already ripe* for harvest. 36 The harvesters
are paid good wages, and the fruit they harvest
is people brought to eternal life. What joy awaits
both the planter and the harvester alike! 37 You
know the saying, ‘One plants and another harvests.’ And it’s true. 38 I sent you to harvest where
you didn’t plant; others had already done the
work, and now you will get to gather the harvest.”
Many Samaritans Believe
39 Many Samaritans from the village believed in
Jesus because the woman had said, “He told me
everything I ever did!” 40 When they came out
to see him, they begged him to stay in their village. So he stayed for two days, 41 long enough
for many more to hear his message and believe.
42 Then they said to the woman, “Now we believe, not just because of what you told us, but
because we have heard him ourselves. Now we
know that he is indeed the Savior of the world.”
Jesus Heals an Official’s Son
43 At the end of the two days, Jesus went on to
Galilee. 44 He himself had said that a prophet
is not honored in his own hometown. 45 Yet the
Galileans welcomed him, for they had been in
Jerusalem at the Passover celebration and had
seen everything he did there.
46 As he traveled through Galilee, he came to
Cana, where he had turned the water into wine.
There was a government official in nearby Capernaum whose son was very sick. 47 When he
heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee, he went and begged Jesus to come to Capernaum to heal his son, who was about to die.
48 Jesus asked, “Will you never believe in me
unless you see miraculous signs and wonders?”
49 The official pleaded, “Lord, please come
now before my little boy dies.”
50 Then Jesus told him, “Go back home. Your
son will live!” And the man believed what Jesus
said and started home.
51 While the man was on his way, some of his
servants met him with the news that his son
was alive and well. 52 He asked them when the
boy had begun to get better, and they replied,
“Yesterday afternoon at one o’clock his fever
suddenly disappeared!” 53 Then the father realized that that was the very time Jesus had told
him, “Your son will live.” And he and his entire
household believed in Jesus. 54 This was the second miraculous sign Jesus did in Galilee after
coming from Judea.
4:35 Greek white. 5:2 Other manuscripts read Beth-zatha;
still others read Bethsaida. 5:3 Some manuscripts add an
expanded conclusion to verse 3 and all of verse 4: waiting for
a certain movement of the water, 4for an angel of the Lord came
from time to time and stirred up the water. And the first person
to step in after the water was stirred was healed of whatever
disease he had.
Jesus Heals a Lame Man
Afterward Jesus returned to Jerusalem for
one of the Jewish holy days. 2 Inside the city,
near the Sheep Gate, was the pool of Bethesda,*
with five covered porches. 3 Crowds of sick
people—blind, lame, or paralyzed—lay on the
porches.* 5 One of the men lying there had been
sick for thirty-eight years. 6 When Jesus saw him
and knew he had been ill for a long time, he
asked him, “Would you like to get well?”
7 “I can’t, sir,” the sick man said, “for I have
no one to put me into the pool when the water
bubbles up. Someone else always gets there
ahead of me.”
8 Jesus told him, “Stand up, pick up your mat,
and walk!”
9 Instantly, the man was healed! He rolled up
his sleeping mat and began walking! But this
miracle happened on the Sabbath, 10 so the Jewish leaders objected. They said to the man who
was cured, “You can’t work on the Sabbath! The
law doesn’t allow you to carry that sleeping mat!”
11 But he replied, “The man who healed me
told me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’”
12 “Who said such a thing as that?” they demanded.
13 The man didn’t know, for Jesus had disappeared into the crowd. 14 But afterward Jesus
5
• Desires
JOHN 4:10-14
“Lookin’ for love in all the wrong places”
is a line from a song that could have been
written for the Samaritan woman. A string
of failed and illicit relationships had left
her with a bad reputation and no closer
to the joy and satisfaction she craved.
She came to draw water at noon, most
likely to avoid the stares and comments
of the other women who visited the well
first thing in the morning. There she met
Jesus, who—despite the cultural taboo
against a Jewish man speaking to a
Samaritan woman—did not hesitate to
share with her the living water that could
satisfy her thirsty heart. Countless people
plunge daily into a pursuit of satisfaction,
love, and happiness through sex and
superficial relationships. Sooner or later,
they discover that the promises of our
culture are empty. Human relationships
are created by God to be good and fulfilling, but they can never satisfy the deepest needs of our soul. Only the love of
God in Christ is an inexhaustible fountain
of love, joy, and peace. From what well
have you been drawing lately?