Continuing with the the study of John, we continue to read into John 4. In this chapter, it is revealed by the actions of Jesus that he brings the good news of salvation not just to the Jews, but to everyone which includes the groups that the Jews wouldn't dare associate with. And we read another sign of Jesus's power to heal and save people.

Jesus Touches The Untouchable

[John 4:5 ESV] So he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph.
[6] Jacob’s well was there; so Jesus, wearied as he was from his journey, was sitting beside the well. It was about the sixth hour.
[7] A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.”
[8] (For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.)
[9] The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.)

Due to historical issues between Samaritans and the Jews, the Jews didn't associate with them and generally didn't have any business with them either. So when Jesus interacted with the Samaritans, he was showing his love for not just the Jews, but also the groups of people who were considered by the Jews to be people who shouldn't even be spoken to.

Being caught by surprise that a Jew would interact with her, the Samaritan woman asked why Jesus was even speaking to her. And so he began to share who he was and what he had to offer.

[Book 4:10 ESV] Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.”
[11] The woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water?
[12] Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.”
[13] Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again,
[14] but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
[15] The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.”

Now Jesus isn't talking about literal water that makes people never thirst for water again, he is talking about something much greater than that. He is talking about something that would bring eternal life to those who drink this thing Jesus is talking about.

However having missed what he was saying, the woman confuses what he is saying with water that would simply make her life more convenient. Imagine never being thirsty, in our modern age in the developed world, we just go to the tap and out comes clean, drinking water. However back in the time period Jesus was alive and even in less developed places of our world today, water can be dangerous depending on where it comes from. Will it make you sick? Or will it quench your thirst? Is it clean? And how far do you need to walk to get the water and how far back do you need to carry a heavy container in the sun. Getting water was inconvenient, and potentially dangerous.

But Jesus drops a bomb on her with the next passage.

[John 4:16 ESV] Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.”
[17] The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’;
[18] for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.”
[19] The woman said to him, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet.
[20] Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.”
[21] Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father.
[22] You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews.
[23] But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him.
[24] God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”
[25] The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, he will tell us all things.”
[26] Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am he.”

"I who speak to you am he." in short he announces to her that he was the messiah they are expecting. And he proved it by telling her things he had no way of knowing without being God.

What do you think was going through this woman's mind as Jesus spoke about her private life with no way he could have known besides being God himself? What do you think about this moment where he confirms being the Christ to her?

Jesus Heals An Official's Son

[Book 4:46 ESV] So he came again to Cana in Galilee, where he had made the water wine. And at Capernaum there was an official whose son was ill.
[47] When this man heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee, he went to him and asked him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death.
[48] So Jesus said to him, “Unless you see signs and wonders you will not believe.”
[49] The official said to him, “Sir, come down before my child dies.”
[50] Jesus said to him, “Go; your son will live.” The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and went on his way.
[51] As he was going down, his servants met him and told him that his son was recovering.
[52] So he asked them the hour when he began to get better, and they said to him, “Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him.”
[53] The father knew that was the hour when Jesus had said to him, “Your son will live.” And he himself believed, and all his household.

Faith is trust in God, and in this case his son was sick, on the verge of death even. The fear and anxiety this man must have felt for his son's life must have been huge. So when Jesus told him "Go; your son will live." The amount of faith needed here just to trust the words Jesus spoke would be quite high, especially when he had to head home after. In these days it took days to walk to places, so to start walking back without confirmation and only Jesus's words, would have been difficult.

Having heard Jesus's past signs might have made it easier for him, but faith was still required. Even Jesus was calling out the fact that the man wanted to see signs that what he said would come true. But he had to put his faith in Jesus, and he was rewarded with for it.

If this man was you, how do you think you would have acted here? Would words be enough? Or would you demand more? Is there a purpose to Jesus not following him to the son like he did for others? What might that have been?

What do you dear reader think of this chapter in the bible? What draws your interest, raises questions, or speaks to you? Leave a comment below with your thoughts as you read the bible. God Bless you 😄