Day 7

We are one week deep into the three week challenge of reading the book of John. Some people get more out of reading commentaries or listening to sermons on a scripture than just reading it straight, but I think we are still supposed to do both. The Holy Spirit gave the Word in it's entirety, not with addenda. Also, when the disciples asked why He taught in parables, He said those open to the Word would understand and I think that pertains to all of it. We understand it differently for all different points of our life. That's why the book is so timeless and even the true Bible scholars disagree on bits and change their views over time. 

So, now we're getting into more of the meat with things that can be interpreted in a variety of ways. From yesterday (John 6), I had these thoughts. If (and when) they differ from yours it doesn't mean either of us is right: 1) Whenever I've heard this feeding 5000 miracle taught, people make a point of mentioning that it's just 5000 men, and with women and children there would be many more. It's true, but it still makes me smile. Is the miracle really more impressive that the fish and loaves fed 15000 than if it fed 5000? Either way, a small boy's lunch was multiplied vastly. Transformed beyond any human's understanding. This truly was a time that the things that are impossible with men are possible with God (Lk 18:27). This is exactly what I'm talking about with how we limit God, but we do it even worse today. We pray for what we can imagine or what we desire, instead of loosing the Creative One who can do infinitely more. We pray for little things like that He would stretch our finances or make a conversation go well. Things that we could almost do ourselves, but it's just out of reach. But the things that are truly impossible, that we could never take credit for, like removing terminal diseases, making blind men see, donkeys talk, or fire burst from a watery hole, are "too big" for us to ask for. So we don't ask, and He doesn't do it. And He doesn't do it because we don't ask. Then we really don't ask because He didn't. Then we teach our children how to not dream so big, because they'll only be disappointed. And we give a dose of "reality" to our friends and loved ones who dare to hope that He is who He says He is, and the cycle of an apparently limited God continues. <End rant> 2) There are debates about the works that God requires. It's not that confusing. Clearly, if we have the Holy Spirit the love will overflow and cause great works. But this spells out the question and answer--"what must we do?", "believe in Him". If we really believe, we will follow. It won't always be easy, but if we really pursue Him we will know how to do it, and the hard parts get easier because we don't have the same values. Sometimes when I'm feeling down I think of some of the good times I used to have before I had Him. But truly all those times were missing something. Not perfect for some reason. Since I started living for Him I have had truly perfect moments, and I realize that the things from my past that occasionally tempt me are just not worth it to me now. People who think it isn't worth it just don't know how good it is on our side. 3) I'm interested in why so many turned away from Him when He was teaching about following God. I would like to think I would never do such a thing, but you never know. They didn't have the Holy Spirit yet, so even though it seems like a big deal to see all those miracles, they might not have had the clear vision that we do. But I can't help but wonder how many sleepless nights they had after (or, if they heard) the news of how He was resurrected and the curtain was torn.

Today's challenge reading is John 7:

     After this, Jesus went around in Galilee. He did not want to go about in Judea because the Jewish leaders there were looking for a way to kill him. But when the Jewish Festival of Tabernacles was near, Jesus’ brothers said to him, “Leave Galilee and go to Judea, so that your disciples there may see the works you do. No one who wants to become a public figure acts in secret. Since you are doing these things, show yourself to the world.”  For even his own brothers did not believe in him.

     Therefore Jesus told them, “My time is not yet here; for you any time will do.  The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify that its works are evil.  You go to the festival. I am not going up to this festival, because my time has not yet fully come.”  After he had said this, he stayed in Galilee.

       However, after his brothers had left for the festival, he went also, not publicly, but in secret. Now at the festival the Jewish leaders were watching for Jesus and asking, “Where is he?” Among the crowds there was widespread whispering about him. Some said, “He is a good man.” Others replied, “No, he deceives the people.”  But no one would say anything publicly about him for fear of the leaders.

      Not until halfway through the festival did Jesus go up to the temple courts and begin to teach. The Jews there were amazed and asked, “How did this man get such learning without having been taught?” Jesus answered, “My teaching is not my own. It comes from the one who sent me. Anyone who chooses to do the will of God will find out whether my teaching comes from God or whether I speak on my own.  Whoever speaks on their own does so to gain personal glory, but he who seeks the glory of the one who sent him is a man of truth; there is nothing false about him. Has not Moses given you the law? Yet not one of you keeps the law. Why are you trying to kill me?”

     “You are demon-possessed,” the crowd answered. “Who is trying to kill you?” Jesus said to them, “I did one miracle, and you are all amazed. Yet, because Moses gave you circumcision (though actually it did not come from Moses, but from the patriarchs), you circumcise a boy on the Sabbath. Now if a boy can be circumcised on the Sabbath so that the law of Moses may not be broken, why are you angry with me for healing a man’s whole body on the Sabbath?  Stop judging by mere appearances, but instead judge correctly.”

     At that point some of the people of Jerusalem began to ask, “Isn’t this the man they are trying to kill?  Here he is, speaking publicly, and they are not saying a word to him. Have the authorities really concluded that he is the Messiah?  But we know where this man is from; when the Messiah comes, no one will know where he is from.” Then Jesus, still teaching in the temple courts, cried out, “Yes, you know me, and you know where I am from. I am not here on my own authority, but he who sent me is true. You do not know him, but I know him because I am from him and he sent me.”  At this they tried to seize him, but no one laid a hand on him, because his hour had not yet come. Still, many in the crowd believed in him. They said, “When the Messiah comes, will he perform more signs than this man?”

    The Pharisees heard the crowd whispering such things about him. Then the chief priests and the Pharisees sent temple guards to arrest him. Jesus said, “I am with you for only a short time, and then I am going to the one who sent me. You will look for me, but you will not find me; and where I am, you cannot come.”

    The Jews said to one another, “Where does this man intend to go that we cannot find him? Will he go where our people live scattered among the Greeks, and teach the Greeks?  What did he mean when he said, ‘You will look for me, but you will not find me,’ and ‘Where I am, you cannot come’?”

 On the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud voice, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.” By this he meant the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were later to receive. Up to that time the Spirit had not been given, since Jesus had not yet been glorified.

      On hearing his words, some of the people said, “Surely this man is the Prophet.” Others said, “He is the Messiah." Still others asked, “How can the Messiah come from Galilee?  Does not Scripture say that the Messiah will come from David’s descendants and from Bethlehem, the town where David lived?” Thus the people were divided because of Jesus.  Some wanted to seize him, but no one laid a hand on him.

    Finally the temple guards went back to the chief priests and the Pharisees, who asked them, “Why didn’t you bring him in?” “No one ever spoke the way this man does,” the guards replied. “You mean he has deceived you also?” the Pharisees retorted.  “Have any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed in him?  No! But this mob that knows nothing of the law—there is a curse on them.” Nicodemus, who had gone to Jesus earlier and who was one of their own number, asked,  “Does our law condemn a man without first hearing him to find out what he has been doing?” They replied, “Are you from Galilee, too? Look into it, and you will find that a prophet does not come out of Galilee.”

Day 6

We're on day 6 of this fun challenge. Make sure to let me know what your thoughts have been, and what the Lord has revealed. Now we're getting into some of Jesus' healings, which all have taken on new meaning to me than they had before they were sick.

Thoughts from John 5: 1) We don't make a big deal about the pool at Bethesda but I don't know why not. I guess it's not as important as the rest of the Bible, but the footnotes in at least some versions say an angel stirred up the waters at a given time and whoever hopped in first was healed. What? For real. So, this was sort of normal back then. It gives a new insight on why some of the people were not totally impressed by the things He did, or maybe why some fell away when He mentioned they had to give up their lives for Him. Maybe they thought it would be easier to just wait by the water...2) The man who was healed had no idea who had healed him. I hope and pray that all of us who are healed know exactly who is responsible, whether or not He uses doctors or other people to get us there. 3) I never thought about God not judging us, that He gave all that responsibility to Jesus. I don't have a big deep thought about it, just something to keep in my heart for another day.

Here is the new reading, John 6: Some time after this, Jesus crossed to the far shore of the Sea of Galilee (that is, the Sea of Tiberias), and a great crowd of people followed him because they saw the signs he had performed by healing the sick.  Then Jesus went up on a mountainside and sat down with his disciples.  The Jewish Passover Festival was near.

     When Jesus looked up and saw a great crowd coming toward him, he said to Philip, “Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?” He asked this only to test him, for he already had in mind what he was going to do.

     Philip answered him, “It would take more than half a year’s wages to buy enough bread for each one to have a bite!”

    Another of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, spoke up, “Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many?”

    Jesus said, “Have the people sit down.” There was plenty of grass in that place, and they sat down (about five thousand men were there). Jesus then took the loaves, gave thanks, and distributed to those who were seated as much as they wanted. He did the same with the fish.

    When they had all had enough to eat, he said to his disciples, “Gather the pieces that are left over. Let nothing be wasted.” So they gathered them and filled twelve baskets with the pieces of the five barley loaves left over by those who had eaten.

    After the people saw the sign Jesus performed, they began to say, “Surely this is the Prophet who is to come into the world.”  Jesus, knowing that they intended to come and make him king by force, withdrew again to a mountain by himself.

    When evening came, his disciples went down to the lake, where they got into a boat and set off across the lake for Capernaum. By now it was dark, and Jesus had not yet joined them. A strong wind was blowing and the waters grew rough. When they had rowed about three or four miles,they saw Jesus approaching the boat, walking on the water; and they were frightened. But he said to them, “It is I; don’t be afraid.” Then they were willing to take him into the boat, and immediately the boat reached the shore where they were heading.

     The next day the crowd that had stayed on the opposite shore of the lake realized that only one boat had been there, and that Jesus had not entered it with his disciples, but that they had gone away alone. Then some boats from Tiberias landed near the place where the people had eaten the bread after the Lord had given thanks. Once the crowd realized that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they got into the boats and went to Capernaum in search of Jesus.

      When they found him on the other side of the lake, they asked him, “Rabbi, when did you get here?”

     Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw the signs I performed but because you ate the loaves and had your fill. Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For on him God the Father has placed his seal of approval.” Then they asked him, “What must we do to do the works God requires?” Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.”

      So they asked him, “What sign then will you give that we may see it and believe you? What will you do? Our ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written: ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’   Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, it is not Moses who has given you the bread from heaven, but it is my Father who gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is the bread that comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”  “Sir,” they said, “always give us this bread.”

      Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. But as I told you, you have seen me and still you do not believe. All those the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away.  For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all those he has given me,but raise them up at the last day. For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day.”

     At this the Jews there began to grumble about him because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven.”  They said, “Is this not Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, ‘I came down from heaven’?”

      “Stop grumbling among yourselves,” Jesus answered. “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws them, and I will raise them up at the last day. It is written in the Prophets: ‘They will all be taught by God'.

 Everyone who has heard the Father and learned from him comes to me. No one has seen the Father except the one who is from God; only he has seen the Father. Very truly I tell you, the one who believes has eternal life.  I am the bread of life.  Your ancestors ate the manna in the wilderness, yet they died. But here is the bread that comes down from heaven, which anyone may eat and not die.  I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats this bread will live forever. This bread is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.”

       Then the Jews began to argue sharply among themselves, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?”  Jesus said to them, “Very truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.  Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day. For my flesh is real food and my blood is real drink.  Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in them. Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on me will live because of me.  This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your ancestors ate manna and died, but whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.” He said this while teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum. On hearing it, many of his disciples said, “This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?”

      Aware that his disciples were grumbling about this, Jesus said to them, “Does this offend you? Then what if you see the Son of Man ascend to where he was before! The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you—they are full of the Spirit and life. Yet there are some of you who do not believe.” For Jesus had known from the beginning which of them did not believe and who would betray him. He went on to say, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless the Father has enabled them.”  From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him.

      “You do not want to leave too, do you?” Jesus asked the Twelve.  Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and to know that you are the Holy One of God.”

     Then Jesus replied, “Have I not chosen you, the Twelve? Yet one of you is a devil!” (He meant Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, who, though one of the Twelve, was later to betray him.)

Day 5

This is the second post of the day, which will get us back on track with the 21-day challenge. I also wanted to update you all of a few prayer requests and answers we've had. I am taking these from comments people post, so some of you might have seen them by now.

Marlena: Praise! asked for prayer for her cancer and chemo side-effects and God is helping so much. After just one treatment her doctor can no longer feel her tumor and she will be having an ultrasound soon to get the official results. Pray every bit of cancer is gone, that the chemo side effects continue to reduce, that her energy increases and that the Lord will give her any guidance for future cancer-related decisions.

Crystal: Young, stage 4 girl we've been praying for. I haven't technically gotten an update but I think I would have if there was a big miracle, so let's keep praying for it! And pray that all her horrendous cancer-related ailments and problems will disappear!

Jenny: Praise! Had a mastectomy last week (cancer recurred) and the initial report showed no cancer in the lymph nodes, which would mean it didn't spread. Pray for continued, accurate results and that every trace of the cancer is gone.

Nancy: Has a recurrence of blood cancer called Multiple Myeloma. She has had a ton of health problems through much of her life and we just need to pray and believe every bit of this and all other attempts to destroy her body and mind will be thwarted.

Nina's Sister: This whole family has dealt with breast cancer! The mother and her twin had it and now at least two daughters. It's crazy to me that they can isolate genetic links but that thus far that's not actually helping with treatment. Anyway, please pray that everyone in the family will be completely healed and will learn to trust Him fully, and for them to completely bow to Him.

Teri: Praise! She was thrilled to learn there is no BRCA link to the cancer in her body, please keep praying for all the cancer to leave and for her energy and stamina to keep working and praising His name!

Cheryl: Mother of three, grandmother of two, is fighting stage 4 breast cancer. That is not too big for God, it's just a number. Pray He will heal her entirely, for His glory.

Please keep praying for Barbara H. as well as all the others I have been posting on here. I don't update the list entirely all the time to keep it a bit shorter.

Here are my thoughts on John 4: 1) I never noticed before that it wasn't Jesus who baptized. I wondered why so quickly looked it up. Seems like there isn't one perfect answer, but that people would have equated water baptism with salvation and maybe a few other thoughts. 2) I think it's funny that these disciples left everything to follow Him, are living entirely for this ministry, and then say, "Could someone have given Him food?". Really? Why were they so with it on some occasions and not the others? I suppose we have the Holy Spirit and learning history on our side and they didn't. 3) I don't really understand why Jesus answered the official's request by saying they wanted signs and wonders, but I guess they were asking for the healing as more of a test than a favor 4) I wish this healing story had more details. I don't think it's a matter of the official's great faith, because it wasn't until the boy was healed that the official saw the time and noted the miracle. I think if it was because of His faith it would have been worded more that he went off skipping and cheering because he knew he would be healed. I guess the official asked for it to see Jesus prove Himself, and that's what Jesus did. We don't want to need proofs like that, or put Him to the test. BUT it's encouraging to remember that if we really, honestly, want to know if He's real, He will show us. If you aren't sure today, ASK Him. It doesn't have to be for a huge miracle, which is sort of like putting Him through your own personal science experiment. But it's not too much to ask Him to show you something that would be meaningful to you. He knows you. He knows every hair on your head. He knows what would be a treasure or sign that would change everything for you, and He will do that! If you want to know more, I will email you a few things like that that He's done for me. I have lots, but because they were just for me it can be hard to explain in a brief blog post.

Are we having fun yet? Here is Day 5's reading.

John 5

    Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish festivals. Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda[a] and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. Here a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?”  “Sir,” the invalid replied, “I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.”

Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked.

     The day on which this took place was a Sabbath, and so the Jewish leaders said to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath; the law forbids you to carry your mat.” But he replied, “The man who made me well said to me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’ ”So they asked him, “Who is this fellow who told you to pick it up and walk?” The man who was healed had no idea who it was, for Jesus had slipped away into the crowd that was there. Later Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, “See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.” The man went away and told the Jewish leaders that it was Jesus who had made him well.

    So, because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath, the Jewish leaders began to persecute him. In his defense Jesus said to them, “My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I too am working.” For this reason they tried all the more to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God. Jesus gave them this answer: “Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does. For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does. Yes, and he will show him even greater works than these, so that you will be amazed.  For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son gives life to whom he is pleased to give it. Moreover, the Father judges no one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son, that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father, who sent him.

     “Very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life. Very truly I tell you, a time is coming and has now come when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear will live. For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself. And he has given him authority to judge because he is the Son of Man.

    “Do not be amazed at this, for a time is coming when all who are in their graves will hear his voice and come out—those who have done what is good will rise to live, and those who have done what is evil will rise to be condemned. By myself I can do nothing; I judge only as I hear, and my judgment is just, for I seek not to please myself but him who sent me.

     “If I testify about myself, my testimony is not true. There is another who testifies in my favor,and I know that his testimony about me is true. “You have sent to John and he has testified to the truth.  Not that I accept human testimony;but I mention it that you may be saved. John was a lamp that burned and gave light, and you chose for a time to enjoy his light.

 “I have testimony weightier than that of John. For the works that the Father has given me to finish—the very works that I am doing—testify that the Father has sent me. And the Father who sent me has himself testified concerning me. You have never heard his voice nor seen his form, nor does his word dwell in you, for you do not believe the one he sent. You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life.

    “I do not accept glory from human beings, but I know you. I know that you do not have the love of God in your hearts. I have come in my Father’s name, and you do not accept me; but if someone else comes in his own name, you will accept him. How can you believe since you accept glory from one another but do not seek the glory that comes from the only God?

    “But do not think I will accuse you before the Father. Your accuser is Moses, on whom your hopes are set. If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me. But since you do not believe what he wrote, how are you going to believe what I say?”

Day 4

I'm a bit late on this but will post the next one later today to get back on track. My notes from John 3 were: 1) This born again thing is a hard one for non-believers or skeptics. On the surface all it's saying is that you give up your old life for the new one, starting from scratch. It's as easy as that, which is just a willing-heart type of thing. It gets deeper, of course, because in the long run it's hard to change your past tendencies to better, new ones, when you aren't quite as motivated day after day. The answer is to stay close to God every single minute of every day. We all mess up though, and for those (many, many, many) times, we have grace from Him. He forgives us and gets us back on track, there is nothing we can do to separate us from His love (Romans 8:31-39). He loves us like a father, forever, from the minute we ask and believe in Him. (end of long rant!) 2) I've heard that John 3:16 ("for God so loved the world...") is the most frequently cited verse in the Bible, but I haven't looked it up. It is the description of who Christians are, why we are all here, and explains the love and controversy of it all. He loves us and proved it. No it's our turn to prove our gratitude. Not by the things we do, those are just evidence of our heart. But by just turning and walking His way. If we know we should but don't, that is always an issue with our own pride (no matter what words we use to explain it away), and pride always begets a fall (Proverbs 16:18) 3) MOST importantly, anyone who knows Jesus but rejects Him cannot go to heaven. It is impossible. That is why we try to share the gospel!!!!

John 4

    Now Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that he was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John— although in fact it was not Jesus who baptized, but his disciples. So he left Judea and went back once more to Galilee. Now he had to go through Samaria. So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon.

      When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” (His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)

The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.)

     Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”  “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?”

   Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.” He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.”  “I have no husband,” she replied.

Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.”

      “Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”   “Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”  The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”  Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.”

       Just then his disciples returned and were surprised to find him talking with a woman. But no one asked, “What do you want?” or “Why are you talking with her?”  Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, “Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?” They came out of the town and made their way toward him.

      Meanwhile his disciples urged him, “Rabbi, eat something." But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about.” Then his disciples said to each other, “Could someone have brought him food?” “My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. 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. 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. Thus the saying ‘One sows and another reaps’ is true. 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 labor.

       Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I ever did.” So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days. And because of his words many more became believers.

 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 Savior of the world.”

       After the two days he left for Galilee. (Now Jesus himself had pointed out that a prophet has no honor in his own country.) 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. 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 sick at Capernaum. 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.

     “Unless you people see signs and wonders,” Jesus told him, “you will never believe.”  The royal official said, “Sir, come down before my child dies.”  “Go,” Jesus replied, “your son will live.” The man took Jesus at his word and departed. While he was still on the way, his servants met him with the news that his boy was living. When he inquired as to the time when his son got better, they said to him, “Yesterday, at one in the afternoon, the fever left him.”  Then the father realized that this was the exact time at which Jesus had said to him, “Your son will live.” So he and his whole household believed. This was the second sign Jesus performed after coming from Judea to Galilee.