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Jesus A modern English blending of the New Testament Everything Jesus said and did, nothing more, nothing less.
Introduction Table of Contents
Chapters
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Word came to Jesus that John had been arrested and was in
prison in Jerusalem. In his sermons John had frequently denounced Herod for
marrying his sister-in-law, Herodias, and had spoken out against many other
injustices perpetrated by the king. Now Herod had added to his unsavory record
by putting John in prison. At approximately the same time, Jesus learned that the Pharisees
had been informed that he was winning and baptizing more converts than John.
(Actually, Jesus himself baptized no one; his disciples performed the rite.)
He therefore left Judea and headed for Galilee, which necessitated passing
through the province of Samaria. They arrived at the village of Sychar about noon. The disciples
went into town to buy food while Jesus, weary from the journey, sat down to
rest beside what is known as "Jacob's Well," since it is near the property
Jacob had given to his son Joseph many years ago. A Samaritan woman came
to the well to draw water. "Give me a drink, please," he said. Now the Jews despised the Samaritans, so the woman looked
at him suspiciously. "How is it that you, a Jew, ask me, a Samaritan, for
a drink?" "If you knew who I am and what God has for you, you'd
have asked me for a drink and I would have given you living water."
"But you haven't even got a bucket and this is a deep well.
Where are you going to get this 'living water'? Are you suggesting that you're
a greater man than our forefather Jacob who gave us this well and drank from
it himself, as did his family and his livestock?" "Drink this water and you'll be thirsty again. But anyone
drinking the water I have will never be thirsty again. Indeed, it will become
a spring, welling up within into a life that never ends." "I'd like some of that water, sir. Give me some so
that I'll never have to come here again and never be thirsty again." "Go get your husband." "I don't have one." "That's the truth. You've had five, and the one you're
living with now isn't your husband." "I see you're a prophet," she said. "All right, our ancestors
have worshiped here on this hillside for generations, but you Jews insist
that the only proper place to worship God is in Jerusalem." "Listen to me, woman," Jesus said, "the time is coming
when it won't make the slightest difference where God is worshiped.
You Samaritans don't comprehend whom you worship, but we do - and don't forget,
the world is to be saved through the Jews. The time is coming, it's here
now, when men will worship God in the way he wants: in their hearts and
in their daily lives. The Father is seeking such people to worship him.
God is a spirit and those who worship him can only do so in spirit and in
reality." "Oh, I know that the Messiah is coming - the one they call
the Christ - and when he comes he'll explain everything." "I am he." Jesus said. It was at this point that the disciples returned from the
town. They were surprised to find Jesus talking with the woman but said nothing.
As for the woman, she rushed off to the town, forgetting her water jar.
"Come with me!" she said to everyone she met. "You must
see this man. He told me all my past. I think he's the Messiah!"
Soon a crowd had joined her. Meanwhile, the disciples were urging Jesus to have something
to eat. "I have food you don't know about," he told them. They looked
at each other, wondering whether someone had brought him lunch. He turned
to them. "Listen to me carefully," he said. "Don't make the mistake
of thinking that the harvest time is sometime in the future. Look about you:
the fields are ripe now. The man who reaps now will not only be rewarded
for his effort but will also be harvesting for the life to come. He and
the man who did the planting will celebrate together. That old saying is
true: "One man plants, another harvests." You, for instance, are being sent
out to harvest a crop you didn't plant. Others did the work, you get the
benefit." The crowd from town arrived. Some of them, who believed
in him because of what the woman had said, begged him to stay on in the town.
He stayed for two days, and as a result, many more became believers. As
they said to the woman later: "We believe he's the Christ, the Savior of
the world, not only because of what you told us, but because we heard him
for ourselves." When the two days had passed, Jesus left Sychar and pressed
on toward Galilee, although he himself had said that a prophet may be honored
anywhere but in his own country. But in his own Galileans welcomed him,
since they remembered what he'd done in Jerusalem during the Passover.
When Jesus arrived in Cana, he was met by a government official
from Capernaum. This man, having learned that Jesus was heading for Galilee,
had gone to Cana hoping to intercept him and persuade him to go to Capernaum
to heal his dying son. "You want to see miracles," Jesus said, "or you won't believe."
The man was not deterred. "Please, sir," he said, "come
with me. Please, before he dies." "Go home in peace," he said. "Your son will live." The man trusted him and started for Capernaum. He was still
on the road when some of his servants met him. "He's alive! Your son's alive," they said. "When did the change for the better begin?" he asked. "Yesterday afternoon. About one." He knew that had been the time when Jesus had told him his
son would live, and he and his entire household became followers. Jesus and the disciples finally arrived in Capernaum, a
city on the shore of Lake Galilee in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali.
By settling there he fulfilled the prediction by the prophet Isaiah: |