(Gospel of John 6:60 - 6:71)
Hearing Jesus’ sermon, many of his disciples complained, "These teachings are hard to swallow! And who wants to listen to such things?"
Aware that his disciples were becoming disgruntled, Jesus spoke to them, "Do you find my teachings unbelievable? How then will you react when you see the Son of Man re-ascending to Heaven? ... It is the spirit that creates life; the flesh is powerless to do so. The message I have given you is of the spirit and of life. But there are those among you who do not believe it."
(Jesus knew from the start what disciples believed him and who did not and who was the one who would betray him.)
He added, "That is why I have told you that no one has come to me unless he has been granted leave to do so by my Father."
At this point many of his disciples turned away from Jesus and no longer followed him. Jesus addressed the twelve who remained and asked them, "Are you going to leave me as well?"
Simon-Peter answered for them, "Master, to whom would we go? You have the message of life everlasting. We have come to believe in you and to know that you are the Christ, the Son of the eternal God."
Jesus declared, "Did I not choose the twelve of you -- even though one of you will be an adversary?” (Jesus was referring to Judas Iscariot, son of Simon, who, though he was one of the Twelve Apostles, would betray him.)
Notes
1. It can hardly be surprising that many of those following Jesus would eventually choose to abandon him, especially after the impact of the miracles he performs wears off. Other evangelists, even prophets did not claim to be the Son of God, a divinity who will raise the dead, judge mankind, and bestow eternal life on those who please him. It would have been a little too much to accept even of a miracle maker. Owing to his claims, it is likely that most people, even those receptive to his message, would have regarded Jesus as an arrogant crackpot, even a lunatic, or else a preposterous fraud, a confidence man of the grandest pretensions. But, according to the text, the reason most of his followers desert him is that his message is difficult to comprehend and believe.
2. Those still following Jesus are the Twelve Apostles, not all of whom have yet been named in this Gospel. On the positive side, this culling of the herd allowed Jesus to have an entourage of manageable size and, as a teacher, a smaller class size. Did Jesus purposely drive away most of his disciples so that only a core of loyal followers remained?
3. Simon-Peter, who apparently is taking a leadership position among the apostles, speaks for them and gives Jesus an explanation for why they are staying with him. Basically, he tells Jesus that he is the real deal and that he is the only one from whom they can receive everlasting life. What he does not say is revealing. He does not say he wishes to be a disciple of Jesus so that he can preach his message, bring in believers, and save their souls. He does not express any admiration for Jesus as a master or that he is motivated to serve him and stay with him out of love and loyalty. It's as of the apostles are remaining with Jesus only for what they can get out of it.
4. Jesus has foreknowledge of who of his disciples will stay and who will leave. Also he knows that one of the Twelve Apostles is a ringer who will later betray him. If he knows this, why does he accept as his disciple the traitor (Judas). He seems to be setting up his own betrayal as a part of the passion play he is performing in; he has already selected Judas to play a particular role in it. Why Jesus needs to have one of his apostles betray him and why that betrayal, which, in the end, amounts to practically nothing, seems requisite to his ultimate crucifixion is anyone's guess.
5. Almost all translations call Judas a “devil.” This is incorrect; the Hebrew word should be translated “Satan,” which is, only in a modern context, the same thing. The original meaning of Satan is someone, not necessary a spirit being, who is an adversary, an antagonist, someone who opposes your interests. Judas is not Satan or the Devil, as we define it, but only someone who will work against Jesus.
Wednesday, July 30, 2014
Tuesday, July 29, 2014
The Food of Life
(Gospel of John 6:25 - 6:59)
Those who sought him did find Jesus on the other side of the Sea of Galilee. They questioned him, "When, Rabbi, did you arrive here?"
Jesus would only answer, "I tell you truly, the reason you are looking for me is not because you witnessed miracles, but because you were able to fill your bellies with bread. Crave not food that will spoil, but the food that brings life everlasting, that which will given to you by the Son of Man, in whom God the Father has invested his power.”
They then asked of him, "What must we do to accomplish the work God asks of us?"
Jesus told then, "The only work that God asks of you to do is to believe in the one he has sent."
They responded, "What miracle are you going to perform for us so we might believe in you? Well, what are you going to do for us? When our ancestors were in the desert they were given manna from Heaven to eat -- as it says in the scriptures, 'they were given food from Heaven to eat.'"
"Very truly I tell you, what Moses gave you was not food from Heaven. It is my Father who now offers you the true food from Heaven. For the food that God sends down from Heaven is that which brings life to the world."
"Please, sir, give us that food always."
Jesus told them, "I am that food of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry; whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. But, as I said, you have seen me and still do not believe. All those the Father sends will come to me, and no one who comes to me will be driven away. I have come down from Heaven, not to accomplish my own will, but the will of him who sent me. And this is his will: that I should not lose any of the souls he has delivered to me, but that I should raise them from the dead on the final day. For it is my Father's will that those who come to me and believe in me should enjoy everlasting life. And I will raise them from the dead on the final day."
The people grumbled among themselves, disputing his assertion that he was "the food that has come down from Heaven." They declared, "Hey, isn't this Jesus; isn't he the son of Joseph? Don't we know his parents? How can he now claim, 'I have come down from Heaven'?"
Jesus admonished them, “Quit your griping! No one can come to me unless the Father who has sent me draws them to me, and those, on the final day, will I raise from the dead. Just as it is recorded in the Scriptures, 'They will all be instructed by God.' Anyone who listens to the Father and learns what he says will then come to me. Of course, no one has actually seen the Father, save the one who was sent by him. He has seen him.
"I tell you truly, anyone who believes, he will achieve life everlasting. Yes, I am the food of life. Your ancestors ate manna in the desert, but they all eventually died. But he who eats the food that has come down from Heaven will never die. I am the food that has come down from Heaven. Anyone who eats this food will live forever. This food, which I offer so that the world may live, is my very flesh."
This precipitated a fierce debate among the people who posed the question, "How can this man give us his flesh to eat?"
Jesus told them, "Truly I say, that unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood you will not achieve life everlasting. But anyone who eats my flesh and drinks my blood will enjoy life everlasting and that person I will raise from the dead on the final day. For my flesh is the quintessential food and my blood the quintessential drink. Anyone who eats my flesh and drinks my blood becomes a part of me, and I, a part of him. Just as the living Father sent me, and I have life because of the Father, so the one who feeds upon me will have life because of me. This is the food that has come down from Heaven. It is unlike the manna your ancestors ate. They died, but whoever eats this food will live forever."
These things were said when Jesus was preaching in a synagogue in Capernaum.
Notes
1. Those pursuing Jesus after they had been miraculously fed find him. They seem interested in catching him performing another miracle. Jesus immediately suspects their motives and dismisses their interest in him as a craving for a free feed. But their appearance gives him the opportunity to preach his message to them. It is not clear, however, what part of the statements here were spoken to these particular people and what was delivered to an audience in the mentioned Capernaum synagogue.
2. I have used the word "food" rather than the usual "bread," since that is what is meant. Even today, bread is sometimes used in a general sense as a synonym for food of all types. But, for clarity, I have used the unambiguous, if less poetic "food."
3. Many of the people are skeptical of Jesus' claim that he is the Son of God -- hardly surprising, one would think. They knew him as the son of Joseph. He was just a guy from the neighborhood. Now they're supposed to believe he's divine. --- This confirms two conclusions that the reader of this Gospel might have already drawn, firstly, that Jesus was generally believed to be the son of Joseph, not his adopted son, or stepson, and secondly, that no evidence of his divine origin was seen, at least by those outside his family, during his childhood and youth.
4. Jesus, who often speaks symbolically, in metaphors and allegories, probably means that his followers should eat his flesh and drink his blood in some figurative sense. (This, for the obvious reason: if he died and his body butchered, there would not be enough of it to go around for all his followers to consume.) However, his listeners are confused and, as we will learn later, pretty much turned off by the analogy, for, on the surface, it seems an invitation to cannibalism. The belief that by consuming a dead person's flesh one may acquire his attributes, eg. bravery, is commonly held by primitive societies who practice ritualistic cannibalism. How one may metaphorically eat flesh and drink blood is not made clear. So far Jesus has demanded acceptance and belief as a condition of enjoying the life everlasting he promises. Why would he relate eating flesh to believing? Did he merely want to shock his audience? Was this his way of presenting himself as a human sacrifice?
5. Jesus references Moses again and the manna, the physical food that Jehovah fed to the Israelites when they were wandering in the desert during the Exodus. Jesus tends to put down Moses at every opportunity and seems to regard him in adversarial light. He dismisses the importance of the manna, which did keep the Israelites alive, and extols his own "food" which bestows life everlasting. Why does he find the situations analogous? Jesus, though, never really explains what his food is, save that it is a message the people must accept and believe in.
6. Those who are followers and believers of Jesus, those who come to him, are ordained by the Father to do so. Are some people predestined to be believers and enjoy everlasting life and others not? Or does God inspire worthy persons to seek out Jesus?
Those who sought him did find Jesus on the other side of the Sea of Galilee. They questioned him, "When, Rabbi, did you arrive here?"
Jesus would only answer, "I tell you truly, the reason you are looking for me is not because you witnessed miracles, but because you were able to fill your bellies with bread. Crave not food that will spoil, but the food that brings life everlasting, that which will given to you by the Son of Man, in whom God the Father has invested his power.”
They then asked of him, "What must we do to accomplish the work God asks of us?"
Jesus told then, "The only work that God asks of you to do is to believe in the one he has sent."
They responded, "What miracle are you going to perform for us so we might believe in you? Well, what are you going to do for us? When our ancestors were in the desert they were given manna from Heaven to eat -- as it says in the scriptures, 'they were given food from Heaven to eat.'"
"Very truly I tell you, what Moses gave you was not food from Heaven. It is my Father who now offers you the true food from Heaven. For the food that God sends down from Heaven is that which brings life to the world."
"Please, sir, give us that food always."
Jesus told them, "I am that food of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry; whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. But, as I said, you have seen me and still do not believe. All those the Father sends will come to me, and no one who comes to me will be driven away. I have come down from Heaven, not to accomplish my own will, but the will of him who sent me. And this is his will: that I should not lose any of the souls he has delivered to me, but that I should raise them from the dead on the final day. For it is my Father's will that those who come to me and believe in me should enjoy everlasting life. And I will raise them from the dead on the final day."
The people grumbled among themselves, disputing his assertion that he was "the food that has come down from Heaven." They declared, "Hey, isn't this Jesus; isn't he the son of Joseph? Don't we know his parents? How can he now claim, 'I have come down from Heaven'?"
Jesus admonished them, “Quit your griping! No one can come to me unless the Father who has sent me draws them to me, and those, on the final day, will I raise from the dead. Just as it is recorded in the Scriptures, 'They will all be instructed by God.' Anyone who listens to the Father and learns what he says will then come to me. Of course, no one has actually seen the Father, save the one who was sent by him. He has seen him.
"I tell you truly, anyone who believes, he will achieve life everlasting. Yes, I am the food of life. Your ancestors ate manna in the desert, but they all eventually died. But he who eats the food that has come down from Heaven will never die. I am the food that has come down from Heaven. Anyone who eats this food will live forever. This food, which I offer so that the world may live, is my very flesh."
This precipitated a fierce debate among the people who posed the question, "How can this man give us his flesh to eat?"
Jesus told them, "Truly I say, that unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood you will not achieve life everlasting. But anyone who eats my flesh and drinks my blood will enjoy life everlasting and that person I will raise from the dead on the final day. For my flesh is the quintessential food and my blood the quintessential drink. Anyone who eats my flesh and drinks my blood becomes a part of me, and I, a part of him. Just as the living Father sent me, and I have life because of the Father, so the one who feeds upon me will have life because of me. This is the food that has come down from Heaven. It is unlike the manna your ancestors ate. They died, but whoever eats this food will live forever."
These things were said when Jesus was preaching in a synagogue in Capernaum.
Notes
1. Those pursuing Jesus after they had been miraculously fed find him. They seem interested in catching him performing another miracle. Jesus immediately suspects their motives and dismisses their interest in him as a craving for a free feed. But their appearance gives him the opportunity to preach his message to them. It is not clear, however, what part of the statements here were spoken to these particular people and what was delivered to an audience in the mentioned Capernaum synagogue.
2. I have used the word "food" rather than the usual "bread," since that is what is meant. Even today, bread is sometimes used in a general sense as a synonym for food of all types. But, for clarity, I have used the unambiguous, if less poetic "food."
3. Many of the people are skeptical of Jesus' claim that he is the Son of God -- hardly surprising, one would think. They knew him as the son of Joseph. He was just a guy from the neighborhood. Now they're supposed to believe he's divine. --- This confirms two conclusions that the reader of this Gospel might have already drawn, firstly, that Jesus was generally believed to be the son of Joseph, not his adopted son, or stepson, and secondly, that no evidence of his divine origin was seen, at least by those outside his family, during his childhood and youth.
4. Jesus, who often speaks symbolically, in metaphors and allegories, probably means that his followers should eat his flesh and drink his blood in some figurative sense. (This, for the obvious reason: if he died and his body butchered, there would not be enough of it to go around for all his followers to consume.) However, his listeners are confused and, as we will learn later, pretty much turned off by the analogy, for, on the surface, it seems an invitation to cannibalism. The belief that by consuming a dead person's flesh one may acquire his attributes, eg. bravery, is commonly held by primitive societies who practice ritualistic cannibalism. How one may metaphorically eat flesh and drink blood is not made clear. So far Jesus has demanded acceptance and belief as a condition of enjoying the life everlasting he promises. Why would he relate eating flesh to believing? Did he merely want to shock his audience? Was this his way of presenting himself as a human sacrifice?
5. Jesus references Moses again and the manna, the physical food that Jehovah fed to the Israelites when they were wandering in the desert during the Exodus. Jesus tends to put down Moses at every opportunity and seems to regard him in adversarial light. He dismisses the importance of the manna, which did keep the Israelites alive, and extols his own "food" which bestows life everlasting. Why does he find the situations analogous? Jesus, though, never really explains what his food is, save that it is a message the people must accept and believe in.
6. Those who are followers and believers of Jesus, those who come to him, are ordained by the Father to do so. Are some people predestined to be believers and enjoy everlasting life and others not? Or does God inspire worthy persons to seek out Jesus?
Jesus Walks on Water
(Gospel of John 6:16 - 6:21)
When evening came, the disciples went down to the shore, boarded a boat, and set out across the Sea of Galilee to Capernaum. By now it was dark, but Jesus had still not rejoined them. A strong wind was stirred up and the waters became very choppy. After the disciples had rowed about 3 or 4 miles, they spotted Jesus coming toward the boat -- walking on the surface of the water! They were alarmed. Only after Jesus had reassured them, "It's only me. Don't be afraid!" did they allow him to come into the boat, which then immediately reached the shore -- the very place they were heading.
The next day the crowd on the opposite shore noticed that only a single boat had been there and that Jesus had not entered it with his disciples, who had departed alone. Some boats from Tiberias landed near the place where the bread had been eaten (after grace had been said). Convinced that neither Jesus nor his disciples were still there, they boarded the boats and set out to Capernaum in search of Jesus.
Notes
1. The "walking on water" miracle is among the most famous and the one least likely to have a non-supernatural explanation, although many have suggested one, eg. Jesus was walking on some rocks just below water level -- in a stormy, rough sea? Since Jesus was not just seen walking on water, but afterwards came into the boat, one may dismiss the explanation that it might have been his wraith or his astral, rather than physical body that was viewed by the disciples. Levitation is a phenomenon reported of saints and mediums, but no adequate explanation of it has been put forward. With levitation, however, the body is usually in a static pose and rises slowly into the air without the kind of natural and vigorous movement that Jesus exhibited.
2. Why did Jesus choose to walk over the surface of the water, rather than make the crossing in the normal way, in a boat? The miracle produced no benefit to anyone, so one may assume Jesus was merely performing a magic trick, showing off a superhero power, to impress his disciples and further convince them of his divinity.
3. Shortly after Jesus boards the boat it reaches its destination, the other shore of the sea. Was this also a miracle? Did Jesus cause the boat to make more headway than it might have in the heavy weather?
3. By choosing to cross the Sea of Galilee in the way he did Jesus arouses further suspicions of those people he had miraculously fed. They are now more convinced than ever that is the Prophet, and they apparently want a piece of him. Jesus has sought to elude them, but by working another miracle, he only has them on his tail again.
When evening came, the disciples went down to the shore, boarded a boat, and set out across the Sea of Galilee to Capernaum. By now it was dark, but Jesus had still not rejoined them. A strong wind was stirred up and the waters became very choppy. After the disciples had rowed about 3 or 4 miles, they spotted Jesus coming toward the boat -- walking on the surface of the water! They were alarmed. Only after Jesus had reassured them, "It's only me. Don't be afraid!" did they allow him to come into the boat, which then immediately reached the shore -- the very place they were heading.
The next day the crowd on the opposite shore noticed that only a single boat had been there and that Jesus had not entered it with his disciples, who had departed alone. Some boats from Tiberias landed near the place where the bread had been eaten (after grace had been said). Convinced that neither Jesus nor his disciples were still there, they boarded the boats and set out to Capernaum in search of Jesus.
Notes
1. The "walking on water" miracle is among the most famous and the one least likely to have a non-supernatural explanation, although many have suggested one, eg. Jesus was walking on some rocks just below water level -- in a stormy, rough sea? Since Jesus was not just seen walking on water, but afterwards came into the boat, one may dismiss the explanation that it might have been his wraith or his astral, rather than physical body that was viewed by the disciples. Levitation is a phenomenon reported of saints and mediums, but no adequate explanation of it has been put forward. With levitation, however, the body is usually in a static pose and rises slowly into the air without the kind of natural and vigorous movement that Jesus exhibited.
2. Why did Jesus choose to walk over the surface of the water, rather than make the crossing in the normal way, in a boat? The miracle produced no benefit to anyone, so one may assume Jesus was merely performing a magic trick, showing off a superhero power, to impress his disciples and further convince them of his divinity.
3. Shortly after Jesus boards the boat it reaches its destination, the other shore of the sea. Was this also a miracle? Did Jesus cause the boat to make more headway than it might have in the heavy weather?
3. By choosing to cross the Sea of Galilee in the way he did Jesus arouses further suspicions of those people he had miraculously fed. They are now more convinced than ever that is the Prophet, and they apparently want a piece of him. Jesus has sought to elude them, but by working another miracle, he only has them on his tail again.
Jesus Feeds the Multitude
(Gospel of John 6:1 - 6:15)
Afterwards, Jesus crossed to the far side of the Sea of Galilee, also called the Sea of Tiberias. A large crowd continued to follow him because they had witnessed the miracles he had performed in healing the sick. Jesus climbed a hill and sat there with his disciples about him. (It was nearly time for the observance of the Jewish Passover.) When he noticed a huge crowd of people coming up the hill, he turned to Philip and asked him, "Where can we buy food for all these people?" He asked this of Philip only to see how he would respond, for Jesus had already decided what he was going to do.
Philip answered, "Why 200 denarii, 6 month's wages, wouldn't be enough to give all these people any more than a bite!"
Another disciple, Andrew, the brother of Simon-Peter, spoke up, "There's a boy here who has 5 small loaves of barley bread and 2 small fish -- but how far will they go to feed so many?"
Jesus announced, "Tell everyone to sit down." There was plenty of grass on the slopes and all the people, who numbered 5000, sat down upon it. Jesus took the loaves of bread and, after saying grace, passed them out among the people who sat there. Then, he likewise distributed the fish, giving every person as much as he wanted. When everyone was full, Jesus told his disciples, "Pick up the leftovers so that nothing will be wasted."
When the leftover pieces of bread were gathered up by the disciples, they filled 12 baskets -- just the scraps left by those who eaten the 5 barley loaves!
When the people realized the miracle that had just been accomplished, they began to talk among themselves, "Surely this the Prophet who was to come into the world." Jesus, though, saw that they were going to mob him and acclaim him their king, so he retreated to the hills to be by himself.
Notes
1. Jesus has gained such a reputation that he has thousands of people following him. They do so not to hear his preaching, his message, but to witness the miracles he is performing. There would also probably be a number of the sick who came to him to be healed. Jesus does not use the opportunity, an audience of 5000 seated on a grassy hillside, to preach. Instead, he decides to feed them and show off with a flashy miracle.
2. Feeding the 5000 with 5 loaves and 2 fishes is one of several Gospel miracles that cannot be explained or explained away. If it did indeed occur, some supernatural agency must have been involved. Jesus did not likely have a cache of bread and fish hidden in the hills so that, with sleight of hand, he could refill the baskets as he distributed provisions to the masses.
3. The crowd recognizes Jesus as a prophet or, perhaps, the Prophet, but they want to make him their king. Jesus takes off to the hills to get away from them. It is strange the people do not wish to hear what Jesus has to say. Nor do they treat him with what one would expect to be the obligatory reverence due a prophet.
Afterwards, Jesus crossed to the far side of the Sea of Galilee, also called the Sea of Tiberias. A large crowd continued to follow him because they had witnessed the miracles he had performed in healing the sick. Jesus climbed a hill and sat there with his disciples about him. (It was nearly time for the observance of the Jewish Passover.) When he noticed a huge crowd of people coming up the hill, he turned to Philip and asked him, "Where can we buy food for all these people?" He asked this of Philip only to see how he would respond, for Jesus had already decided what he was going to do.
Philip answered, "Why 200 denarii, 6 month's wages, wouldn't be enough to give all these people any more than a bite!"
Another disciple, Andrew, the brother of Simon-Peter, spoke up, "There's a boy here who has 5 small loaves of barley bread and 2 small fish -- but how far will they go to feed so many?"
Jesus announced, "Tell everyone to sit down." There was plenty of grass on the slopes and all the people, who numbered 5000, sat down upon it. Jesus took the loaves of bread and, after saying grace, passed them out among the people who sat there. Then, he likewise distributed the fish, giving every person as much as he wanted. When everyone was full, Jesus told his disciples, "Pick up the leftovers so that nothing will be wasted."
When the leftover pieces of bread were gathered up by the disciples, they filled 12 baskets -- just the scraps left by those who eaten the 5 barley loaves!
When the people realized the miracle that had just been accomplished, they began to talk among themselves, "Surely this the Prophet who was to come into the world." Jesus, though, saw that they were going to mob him and acclaim him their king, so he retreated to the hills to be by himself.
Notes
1. Jesus has gained such a reputation that he has thousands of people following him. They do so not to hear his preaching, his message, but to witness the miracles he is performing. There would also probably be a number of the sick who came to him to be healed. Jesus does not use the opportunity, an audience of 5000 seated on a grassy hillside, to preach. Instead, he decides to feed them and show off with a flashy miracle.
2. Feeding the 5000 with 5 loaves and 2 fishes is one of several Gospel miracles that cannot be explained or explained away. If it did indeed occur, some supernatural agency must have been involved. Jesus did not likely have a cache of bread and fish hidden in the hills so that, with sleight of hand, he could refill the baskets as he distributed provisions to the masses.
3. The crowd recognizes Jesus as a prophet or, perhaps, the Prophet, but they want to make him their king. Jesus takes off to the hills to get away from them. It is strange the people do not wish to hear what Jesus has to say. Nor do they treat him with what one would expect to be the obligatory reverence due a prophet.
Wednesday, July 9, 2014
Son of God
(Gospel of John 5:16 - 5:47)
Because Jesus was accomplishing these things on the Sabbath, the Jewish religious authorities began to harass and persecute him. Jesus gave them his answer, "My Father ceases not in his labor, nor do I." But the authorities were all the more resolved to destroy him: he was not only guilty of violating the Sabbath, but of claiming that God was his own Father -- exalting himself to be an equal of God!
Jesus explained to them, "Truly I tell you, the Son may do nothing on his own, but only what he has seen his Father do, for whatever the Father does, the son does likewise. The Father loves the Son and teaches him all that he does. Indeed, he will teach him to perform greater wonders than this, such as will astonish you. As the Father raises the dead and restores them to life, so the Son may bring to life whomever he wishes. The Father passes judgment on no one, but has given the right to judge to his Son so all will honor the Son as they do the Father. Anyone who does not honor the Son, is not honoring the Father who has sent him.
"Truly I say, those who believe in my message and in the God who sent me will achieve life everlasting. They will never be condemned for their sins, and they have already crossed over from death to life. And I can assure you that the time will come -- has, in fact, now come -- when the dead will be summoned by the voice of God, and, hearing it, will be restored to life. For the Father is the creator of life and has granted to his Son the power to instill life.
“Moreover, the Son has been granted the power to pass judgment, for he is the Son of Man. Do not be surprised at this, for the time is coming that all who are now in their graves will, when they hear his voice, rise out of them. Those who have done good will be resurrected to life, while those who have done evil will be resurrected to damnation.
"As for myself, I can do nothing on my own. I can only judge according to God's instructions. Therefore, my judgments will be fair and impartial, because I execute the will of him who sent me and not my own.
"If I testify on my own behalf, my testimony will be seen as biased. But there is another who testifies in my favor, and I assure you what he says of me is true. You have, in fact, sent men to interrogate John, and he has told them the truth. I, of course, do not require human testimony, but I mention it for the sake of your salvation. John was a burning, shining lamp, and, for a time, you were content to bask in his light. But I present testimony more powerful than John's. The works that the Father has tasked me to accomplish, those that I labor on now, provide the proof that the Father has sent me. And the Father who sent me has also testified on my behalf. You have not heard his voice or seen his face, and his message cannot be within you, for you do not believe in the one he has sent. You study the Scriptures meticulously in the conviction that you will find therein life everlasting. Those very Scriptures speak of me. Yet, you refuse to come to me to be granted that life.
“I crave not the approbation of men. I know you and I know that you do not have the love of God within you. I have come in my Father's name, but you reject me. Others come in their own name, and you readily accept them. You lend credence to one another, but not to the one who alone comes from God. But it will not be I who will accuse you before Father; your accuser will be Moses, upon whom all your hopes are set. If you really believe in Moses, you will believe in me, for he wrote of me. But since you will not believe what he wrote, how are you going to believe what I say?"
Notes
1. The author of John has Jesus clearly state his mission. Among the points made are these: 1. Jesus is the son of God. 2. He has been tutored by his Father, whom he emulates. 3. Everything he does is authorized by God. 4. God teaches his Son to perform miracles, including raising the dead 5. God the Father has delegated to him the authority to judge man. 6. Jesus, having no self interest, will be an impartial judge. 7. The dead will be resurrected and judged. 8. The evil will be damned, the good and those who believe in Jesus will be granted life everlasting. 9. Those who do not accept Jesus as the Son of God and believe in his message are not true followers of God. 10. Believers will be forgiven their sins and escape punishment for them. 11. The message of Jesus and the miracles he performs are the proofs that he is the Son of God. 12. The scriptures prophecy his coming.
2. Rather shockingly, Jesus more or less does away with the commandment to observe the Sabbath, at least strictly, as is demanded by Moses. He pooh-poohs the idea that God rests on the seventh day, but asserts that he works continuously without taking any sort of regular holiday. He, therefore, is free to follow his example.
3. Jesus here is presumably addressing the Pharisees who dominate the religious establishment. He rips and rebukes them on several grounds, primarily for not believing him to be the Son of God, but also for accepting other evangelical figures (including, for a time, John the Baptist), for not recognizing that their beloved Moses wrote of him, and for not being sincere in their faith.
4. Jesus insists that he is referred to by Moses, but does not specify where in the Torah he is mentioned and in what context. Prophecies that arguably refer to a Messiah come from Isaiah and other later Old Testament books. In Genesis only a vague blessing by a dying Jacob to his son Judah could be so interpreted.
5. Jesus' attitude would surely have been interpreted by those he addressed as insufferable and arrogant to the nth degree. (The term "chutzpah" would surely not be out of place.) Humility, tolerance, forgiveness are nowhere evident here. Jesus, whose feelings are obviously hurt by rejection, is angry and defensive and not very concerned about antagonizing his critics. He is dismissive, even belittling of the Pharisee's religious views, but expects and demands acceptance of his. They must all receive him as the Son of God, which means they must renounce any authority they might have assumed to interpret religious law. It's Jesus’ way or the highway -- Heaven or Hell. They must bow to Jesus not only as their master, but as their God. In spite of any miracles he might have performed, is it really surprising that they would not do so? From their standpoint, Jesus could only be a heretic, even a crazed fanatic, but at any rate, a challenge to their authority, a dangerous man who would have to be discredited or destroyed. One would think claiming to be the Son of God would, if untrue, be the ultimate blasphemy, and one so claiming could only be evil or insane.
6. Jesus tries to turn their own beliefs against the Pharisees by telling them that it will be Moses who will condemn them for not believing in him. He equates believing in him with believing in Moses, whom they regard as an absolute authority. (One feels that Jesus' attitude toward Moses is rather like a 21st Century politician's attitude toward Thomas Jefferson -- yes, a founding father, great man to be revered, but not an unimpeachable authority on contemporary politics and policy.)
7. Jesus makes a very attractive offer to his followers. You may live forever and never be punished for your sins. All you have to do is believe in Jesus and accept him as the Son of God. Nothing else seemed to be demanded. Of course, if you don't believe, you're going to be damned and won’t get in on that life everlasting, whatever it is to be.
Because Jesus was accomplishing these things on the Sabbath, the Jewish religious authorities began to harass and persecute him. Jesus gave them his answer, "My Father ceases not in his labor, nor do I." But the authorities were all the more resolved to destroy him: he was not only guilty of violating the Sabbath, but of claiming that God was his own Father -- exalting himself to be an equal of God!
Jesus explained to them, "Truly I tell you, the Son may do nothing on his own, but only what he has seen his Father do, for whatever the Father does, the son does likewise. The Father loves the Son and teaches him all that he does. Indeed, he will teach him to perform greater wonders than this, such as will astonish you. As the Father raises the dead and restores them to life, so the Son may bring to life whomever he wishes. The Father passes judgment on no one, but has given the right to judge to his Son so all will honor the Son as they do the Father. Anyone who does not honor the Son, is not honoring the Father who has sent him.
"Truly I say, those who believe in my message and in the God who sent me will achieve life everlasting. They will never be condemned for their sins, and they have already crossed over from death to life. And I can assure you that the time will come -- has, in fact, now come -- when the dead will be summoned by the voice of God, and, hearing it, will be restored to life. For the Father is the creator of life and has granted to his Son the power to instill life.
“Moreover, the Son has been granted the power to pass judgment, for he is the Son of Man. Do not be surprised at this, for the time is coming that all who are now in their graves will, when they hear his voice, rise out of them. Those who have done good will be resurrected to life, while those who have done evil will be resurrected to damnation.
"As for myself, I can do nothing on my own. I can only judge according to God's instructions. Therefore, my judgments will be fair and impartial, because I execute the will of him who sent me and not my own.
"If I testify on my own behalf, my testimony will be seen as biased. But there is another who testifies in my favor, and I assure you what he says of me is true. You have, in fact, sent men to interrogate John, and he has told them the truth. I, of course, do not require human testimony, but I mention it for the sake of your salvation. John was a burning, shining lamp, and, for a time, you were content to bask in his light. But I present testimony more powerful than John's. The works that the Father has tasked me to accomplish, those that I labor on now, provide the proof that the Father has sent me. And the Father who sent me has also testified on my behalf. You have not heard his voice or seen his face, and his message cannot be within you, for you do not believe in the one he has sent. You study the Scriptures meticulously in the conviction that you will find therein life everlasting. Those very Scriptures speak of me. Yet, you refuse to come to me to be granted that life.
“I crave not the approbation of men. I know you and I know that you do not have the love of God within you. I have come in my Father's name, but you reject me. Others come in their own name, and you readily accept them. You lend credence to one another, but not to the one who alone comes from God. But it will not be I who will accuse you before Father; your accuser will be Moses, upon whom all your hopes are set. If you really believe in Moses, you will believe in me, for he wrote of me. But since you will not believe what he wrote, how are you going to believe what I say?"
Notes
1. The author of John has Jesus clearly state his mission. Among the points made are these: 1. Jesus is the son of God. 2. He has been tutored by his Father, whom he emulates. 3. Everything he does is authorized by God. 4. God teaches his Son to perform miracles, including raising the dead 5. God the Father has delegated to him the authority to judge man. 6. Jesus, having no self interest, will be an impartial judge. 7. The dead will be resurrected and judged. 8. The evil will be damned, the good and those who believe in Jesus will be granted life everlasting. 9. Those who do not accept Jesus as the Son of God and believe in his message are not true followers of God. 10. Believers will be forgiven their sins and escape punishment for them. 11. The message of Jesus and the miracles he performs are the proofs that he is the Son of God. 12. The scriptures prophecy his coming.
2. Rather shockingly, Jesus more or less does away with the commandment to observe the Sabbath, at least strictly, as is demanded by Moses. He pooh-poohs the idea that God rests on the seventh day, but asserts that he works continuously without taking any sort of regular holiday. He, therefore, is free to follow his example.
3. Jesus here is presumably addressing the Pharisees who dominate the religious establishment. He rips and rebukes them on several grounds, primarily for not believing him to be the Son of God, but also for accepting other evangelical figures (including, for a time, John the Baptist), for not recognizing that their beloved Moses wrote of him, and for not being sincere in their faith.
4. Jesus insists that he is referred to by Moses, but does not specify where in the Torah he is mentioned and in what context. Prophecies that arguably refer to a Messiah come from Isaiah and other later Old Testament books. In Genesis only a vague blessing by a dying Jacob to his son Judah could be so interpreted.
5. Jesus' attitude would surely have been interpreted by those he addressed as insufferable and arrogant to the nth degree. (The term "chutzpah" would surely not be out of place.) Humility, tolerance, forgiveness are nowhere evident here. Jesus, whose feelings are obviously hurt by rejection, is angry and defensive and not very concerned about antagonizing his critics. He is dismissive, even belittling of the Pharisee's religious views, but expects and demands acceptance of his. They must all receive him as the Son of God, which means they must renounce any authority they might have assumed to interpret religious law. It's Jesus’ way or the highway -- Heaven or Hell. They must bow to Jesus not only as their master, but as their God. In spite of any miracles he might have performed, is it really surprising that they would not do so? From their standpoint, Jesus could only be a heretic, even a crazed fanatic, but at any rate, a challenge to their authority, a dangerous man who would have to be discredited or destroyed. One would think claiming to be the Son of God would, if untrue, be the ultimate blasphemy, and one so claiming could only be evil or insane.
6. Jesus tries to turn their own beliefs against the Pharisees by telling them that it will be Moses who will condemn them for not believing in him. He equates believing in him with believing in Moses, whom they regard as an absolute authority. (One feels that Jesus' attitude toward Moses is rather like a 21st Century politician's attitude toward Thomas Jefferson -- yes, a founding father, great man to be revered, but not an unimpeachable authority on contemporary politics and policy.)
7. Jesus makes a very attractive offer to his followers. You may live forever and never be punished for your sins. All you have to do is believe in Jesus and accept him as the Son of God. Nothing else seemed to be demanded. Of course, if you don't believe, you're going to be damned and won’t get in on that life everlasting, whatever it is to be.
Healing on the Sabbath at Bethesda
(Gospel of John 5:1- 5:15)
Some time after, Jesus was in Jerusalem during one of the Jewish holy days. There is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a healing pool called, in Aramaic, Bethesda. It is surrounded by five porticoes under which would gather large numbers of ill and disabled people, the blind, the lame, and the crippled. Among them was one poor man had been an invalid for 38 years. When Jesus saw him and learned that he had been ailing for such a long time, he asked him, "Do you want to get well?"
"I'm not able to, sir," the invalid replied. "For you see, whenever the water is stirred up, there is no one to lower me into the pool, and when I try to make it there on my own, someone always gets there ahead of me and blocks the way."
"Rise up!" Jesus bid him. "Pick up your mat and walk."
The man, at once cured, did pick up his mat and walked.
As this occurred on the Sabbath, the Jewish religious authorities reproved the man who had been cured, "This is the Sabbath. It’s against the law to carry a mat!"
"It was the man that cured me who told me to 'pick up your mat and walk,'" the man explained.
"Who then is this man who told you to 'pick up my mat and walk'?'" they demanded.
The man who was cured had no idea who it was, for Jesus had already slipped away into the crowd. Later, though, Jesus ran into the man at the Temple and spoke to him. "Ah, so I see you are well. But you must refrain from sinning, so that nothing worse may befall you."
The man then left and reported to the religious authorities that it was Jesus who had made him well.
Notes
1. The pool at Bethesda possessed healing powers due to some supernatural agency that would, from time to time, stir up the waters. Just afterward, anyone entering the pool would be cured of whatever affliction he suffered from. (Many texts include this explanation.) Bethesda, a name familiar to us as the city in Maryland that is home to the Walter Reed hospital, is also called Bethsaida and Bethzatha. In almost all cultures water manifests healing and restorative powers. Pools and springs are often places where numinous forces manifest themselves. Bethesda reminds one of the most famous modern healing waters, those at Lourdes in France.
2. The narrative does not specific what ailed the soon-to-be-cured man, save that he could not walk. One gets the impression that his disability was due to disease rather than injury. He was, however, well enough over a period of years to come to Bethesda to try his luck at the healing pool. The later remark by Jesus, that he needn't to quit sinning so that no other tragedy might befall him, suggests a cause-and-effect connection between immorality and bad behavior and illness and misfortune. Belief in that connection is something we all wish to hold on to. We wish bad things to happen only to bad people and nothing but good things to good people, yet experience constantly reminds us that such a connection often does not hold true.
3. The cured man, as the story is told, not only shows no gratitude to Jesus, but, when the opportunity presents itself, gets Jesus in trouble by reporting him to the religious authorities. Of course, the man is present at the Temple, so we might concluded he had gone there to give his thanks to God.
4. The religious authorities, zealous in their strict enforcement of Mosaic law, rebuke the healed man merely for carrying a mat on the Sabbath -- carry a mat? After he was healed one supposed the cured man had no choice but to pick up the mat and carry it with him. (If he left it under the portico, he probably would have been guilty of some other offense.) Of course, doing any sort of work during the Sabbath is expressly in violation of the Ten Commandments. Regarding carrying a mat as work is an extremely strict interpretation.
Some time after, Jesus was in Jerusalem during one of the Jewish holy days. There is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a healing pool called, in Aramaic, Bethesda. It is surrounded by five porticoes under which would gather large numbers of ill and disabled people, the blind, the lame, and the crippled. Among them was one poor man had been an invalid for 38 years. When Jesus saw him and learned that he had been ailing for such a long time, he asked him, "Do you want to get well?"
"I'm not able to, sir," the invalid replied. "For you see, whenever the water is stirred up, there is no one to lower me into the pool, and when I try to make it there on my own, someone always gets there ahead of me and blocks the way."
"Rise up!" Jesus bid him. "Pick up your mat and walk."
The man, at once cured, did pick up his mat and walked.
As this occurred on the Sabbath, the Jewish religious authorities reproved the man who had been cured, "This is the Sabbath. It’s against the law to carry a mat!"
"It was the man that cured me who told me to 'pick up your mat and walk,'" the man explained.
"Who then is this man who told you to 'pick up my mat and walk'?'" they demanded.
The man who was cured had no idea who it was, for Jesus had already slipped away into the crowd. Later, though, Jesus ran into the man at the Temple and spoke to him. "Ah, so I see you are well. But you must refrain from sinning, so that nothing worse may befall you."
The man then left and reported to the religious authorities that it was Jesus who had made him well.
Notes
1. The pool at Bethesda possessed healing powers due to some supernatural agency that would, from time to time, stir up the waters. Just afterward, anyone entering the pool would be cured of whatever affliction he suffered from. (Many texts include this explanation.) Bethesda, a name familiar to us as the city in Maryland that is home to the Walter Reed hospital, is also called Bethsaida and Bethzatha. In almost all cultures water manifests healing and restorative powers. Pools and springs are often places where numinous forces manifest themselves. Bethesda reminds one of the most famous modern healing waters, those at Lourdes in France.
2. The narrative does not specific what ailed the soon-to-be-cured man, save that he could not walk. One gets the impression that his disability was due to disease rather than injury. He was, however, well enough over a period of years to come to Bethesda to try his luck at the healing pool. The later remark by Jesus, that he needn't to quit sinning so that no other tragedy might befall him, suggests a cause-and-effect connection between immorality and bad behavior and illness and misfortune. Belief in that connection is something we all wish to hold on to. We wish bad things to happen only to bad people and nothing but good things to good people, yet experience constantly reminds us that such a connection often does not hold true.
3. The cured man, as the story is told, not only shows no gratitude to Jesus, but, when the opportunity presents itself, gets Jesus in trouble by reporting him to the religious authorities. Of course, the man is present at the Temple, so we might concluded he had gone there to give his thanks to God.
4. The religious authorities, zealous in their strict enforcement of Mosaic law, rebuke the healed man merely for carrying a mat on the Sabbath -- carry a mat? After he was healed one supposed the cured man had no choice but to pick up the mat and carry it with him. (If he left it under the portico, he probably would have been guilty of some other offense.) Of course, doing any sort of work during the Sabbath is expressly in violation of the Ten Commandments. Regarding carrying a mat as work is an extremely strict interpretation.
Jesus Heals an Official's Son in Galilee
(Gospel of John 4:43- 4:54)
At the end of the two days, Jesus departed for Galilee. Although Jesus observed that a prophet is accorded no honor in his homeland, he was in fact well received by the Galileans who had been in Jerusalem during the Passover festivities and had witnessed what he had done there.
Jesus revisited Cana in Galilee, the place where he had transformed the water into wine. There was a court official whose son lay ill in nearby Capernaum. When he learned that Jesus had returned to Galilee from Judea, he came to see Jesus and begged him to come to Capernaum to heal his son, who was on the brink of death.
Jesus questioned, "Will you people never believe in me unless you witness miracles and wonders?"
But the official pleaded with him. "Please, sir, come before my little boy dies."
"Go home; you're son will live," Jesus assured him.
The man believed what Jesus had told him and started home. On the way, he encountered some of his slaves who informed him that his son was alive and well. He asked them at what hour he began to recover.
"It was yesterday, at about one o'clock in the afternoon," they told him. This was exactly the time that Jesus told him, "You're son will live." As a result, he and all his household became believers. This was the second miracle that Jesus had performed since coming to Galilee from Judea.
Notes
1. Jesus has apparently already built up a considerable reputation not only as a baptist, but as a healer. An official's young son is dying of some undetermined illness, but Jesus is able to heal him without even seeing him or learning anything about the boy.
2. This is the second miracle performed by Jesus since his return to Galilee. The author does not seem to want to tell us anything about the first miracle.
3. Jesus already seems annoyed by people pestering him to perform miracles and heal the sick. He assents to heal the official's son, but reluctantly; he seems very cavalier about it and manifests no real concern about the boy's life or the father's feelings. One already detects the onset of compassion fatigue that those who devote themselves to helping others often end up feeling.
At the end of the two days, Jesus departed for Galilee. Although Jesus observed that a prophet is accorded no honor in his homeland, he was in fact well received by the Galileans who had been in Jerusalem during the Passover festivities and had witnessed what he had done there.
Jesus revisited Cana in Galilee, the place where he had transformed the water into wine. There was a court official whose son lay ill in nearby Capernaum. When he learned that Jesus had returned to Galilee from Judea, he came to see Jesus and begged him to come to Capernaum to heal his son, who was on the brink of death.
Jesus questioned, "Will you people never believe in me unless you witness miracles and wonders?"
But the official pleaded with him. "Please, sir, come before my little boy dies."
"Go home; you're son will live," Jesus assured him.
The man believed what Jesus had told him and started home. On the way, he encountered some of his slaves who informed him that his son was alive and well. He asked them at what hour he began to recover.
"It was yesterday, at about one o'clock in the afternoon," they told him. This was exactly the time that Jesus told him, "You're son will live." As a result, he and all his household became believers. This was the second miracle that Jesus had performed since coming to Galilee from Judea.
Notes
1. Jesus has apparently already built up a considerable reputation not only as a baptist, but as a healer. An official's young son is dying of some undetermined illness, but Jesus is able to heal him without even seeing him or learning anything about the boy.
2. This is the second miracle performed by Jesus since his return to Galilee. The author does not seem to want to tell us anything about the first miracle.
3. Jesus already seems annoyed by people pestering him to perform miracles and heal the sick. He assents to heal the official's son, but reluctantly; he seems very cavalier about it and manifests no real concern about the boy's life or the father's feelings. One already detects the onset of compassion fatigue that those who devote themselves to helping others often end up feeling.
Samaritan Woman at the Well
(Gospel of John 4:1 - 4:42)
The Pharisees became aware that Jesus was gaining more converts and baptizing more people than John was -- although actually it was his disciples and not Jesus himself who performed the baptisms. When Jesus learned this, he left Judea and started on his way back to Galilee. To reach it, he had to travel through Samaria. Thus he came to a Samaritan town called Sychar, near a parcel of land that Jacob had willed to his son Joseph. Jacob's well was located there and Jesus, tired by the journey, paused by it to rest. It was midday.
A Samaritan woman came to the well to draw water and Jesus asked her, "Could you please give me a drink?" (The disciples had gone into town to buy food.)
The Samaritan woman responded, "You're a Judean man and I'm a Samaritan woman. How come you ask me for a drink?" (Generally, Judeans have nothing to do with Samaritans.)
Jesus answered, "If you only knew the gift God is bestowing upon you and who it is that is asking you for water, you would ask me for water -- and I would present you with life-giving water."
"But sir," she replied, "you have nothing to draw water with and the well is deep. Where would you get this ‘life-giving water’? Do you really think you're a better man than our ancestor Jacob and that your water is better than that he and his sons and livestock drank?"
"Every person that drinks the water from that well will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks from my water will never be thirsty again. My water will become a bubbling spring within bringing life everlasting."
"Please, sir, give me then this water of yours so I won't have to keep returning here to draw water whenever I'm thirsty."
"Go then, call your husband and bring him back here."
"But I do not have a husband."
"You are correct in saying that you do not have a husband. In fact, you have had no less than five husbands, and the man you live with now is not your husband. ... Your answer was quite true."
"Sir, you must be a prophet! ... Tell me then, why do you Judeans say that God should be worshiped at Jerusalem while we Samaritans say it should be at Mount Gerizim, where our ancestors worshiped?"
Jesus answered her: "The time will come when you will worship the Father neither at Jerusalem nor on your mountain. You Samaritans are ignorant of the god you worship, but we of Judea know the god we worship. The salvation of man will come through the tribe of Judah. The time will come -- indeed, it has come now -- when true believers will worship the Father sincerely with their spirit, for they are the kind of worshipers God desires. God is of the spirit and must be worshiped sincerely with the spirit."
"I know that the Messiah they call the Christ is coming. When he does, he will explain everything to us."
"But I am he, the very one speaking to you!" Jesus announced.
At that moment, the disciples returned and were quite surprised to see that Jesus was talking to a woman. No one dared question him, though, "What do you want with that woman?" or "Why are you talking to her?"
The woman left her water jar beside the well and hurried back to town to tell her people, "Come and see the man who told me everything I've done in my life! Could he possibly be the Messiah?" And so the people left the town and came out to see him.
Meanwhile, the disciples were urging Jesus, "Rabbi, please, have something to eat."
"I partake of a food you know nothing about, " he told them.
The disciples asked each other, "How could someone have brought him any food?"
Jesus then explained to them. "My sustenance is doing the will of him that sent me and accomplishing his mission. You are familiar with the adage, 'Four months between planting and harvest.' I say, take a good look at the fields, they're ready for harvesting now! The harvester is already being paid to take in the crop of everlasting life, so that the planter and the harvester may celebrate together. Here, the adage holds true: 'one plants and another harvests.' For I send you to harvest what you have not planted. Others have done that work so you might enjoy the fruits of their labor."
Many Samaritans from the town believed in him because of the woman's declaration, "He told me everything I've done in my life." When they came to see him, they invited Jesus to stay with them. He remained there for two days. During that time many more came to believe in him when they heard his message. These people told the woman, "It is no longer only because what you said that we believe. We have now heard for ourselves and realize that he is indeed the Savior of the World."
Notes
1. Judea has apparently become too hot for Jesus. His success has attracted too much attention, and he is fearful that the Pharisees, who disapprove of him, will cause him trouble. Therefore, he decides to leave Judea and return to his homeland of Galilee, a northward journey that take him through Samaria, the third sub-province or toparchy of the Roman Iudaea. Jesus, at least at this point, does not pursue a strategy of confrontation with authority. He presumably will not alter his message or back down to ingratiate himself with the Pharisaical authorities, but he can place himself out of their reach or at least out of their sight. Most Galileans practiced the Jewish religion, but there were many areas, including large cities, that had been Hellenized and where the deities of the Greeks and Romans were worshiped. As a result, Galilee had a reputation for greater tolerance and diversity than Samaria or Judea. And its ruler at that time, Herod Antipas, a son of King Herod the Great, exercised a considerable degree of autonomy from Rome and from the religious authorities in Jerusalem.
2. Interesting that Jesus reportedly performed no baptisms himself, but had his disciples do the work for him.
3. The Samaritan woman identifies Jesus as a Judean, which is incorrect: he is a Galilean. Her mistake is probably do to the fact that Jesus and his disciples have come from Judea. At any rate, the point is hereby made that Samaritans and Judeans have little use for one another and, while both practice the Jehovan, or Jewish religion, their customs differ. Judeans regarded the Samaritans as heretics at best, pagans at worst. There is a history of animosity between the two regions dating back to when the Israel of David and Solomon was divided north and south. Jesus, who does not offer to deny that he is a Judean, supports a Judean point of view. (Jesus would, in fact, often be referred to as a Judean and would even call himself a Judean, as a member of the tribe of Judah. --- The term “Jew” did not really exist at this time.) Jesus seems to deny the Samaritans the right to worship either at Jerusalem or at Mount Gerizim and condemns them for knowing nothing about the god they worship. This is a serious slight and seems a gratuitous put down of the Samaritans from one who is a guest in their country. But it allows Jesus to mention the prophecy that the Messiah will come from the tribe of Judah, from which his father Joseph was descended. (This is a questionable, if not specious interpretation of a line from the 49th Chapter of Genesis; Jacob’s blessing upon Judah was always assumed to refer to King David, a descendant of Judah.)
4. The tendency of Jesus to speak symbolically, metaphorically is consistently lost on his audience. The Samaritan woman thinks the “life-giving water" is a beverage she can drink. His disciples, no less literal minded, think the food their rabbi is speaking of is physical and not spiritual sustenance. Jesus is a bit too deep!
5. The disciples are told they are harvesters, in a metaphorical, spiritual sense. Their task is to convert the population, which is ripe for conversion. The ground work for this has been laid by others. By what others? It is unclear what Jesus means by this. If they are the harvesters, who are the planters with whom they will celebrate? Perhaps he means all the prophets who have come before.
6. Jesus again reveals his preternatural abilities when he tells the Samaritan woman, a stranger, the details of her private life -- five former husbands and currently shacking up with a man to whom she is not married. (He refrains from condemning her for this.) This is sufficient to convince her and the townspeople that Jesus could be the Messiah. When the Samaritans talk to Jesus themselves and hear his message, they are thoroughly convinced. This must be the Messiah, they conclude. At their invitation, Jesus tarries there for a couple days, not really very long considering he had made such a big hit with the local populace, (even while he trashed their religious practices). Still, one imagines he is anxious to go back home to Galilee.
The Pharisees became aware that Jesus was gaining more converts and baptizing more people than John was -- although actually it was his disciples and not Jesus himself who performed the baptisms. When Jesus learned this, he left Judea and started on his way back to Galilee. To reach it, he had to travel through Samaria. Thus he came to a Samaritan town called Sychar, near a parcel of land that Jacob had willed to his son Joseph. Jacob's well was located there and Jesus, tired by the journey, paused by it to rest. It was midday.
A Samaritan woman came to the well to draw water and Jesus asked her, "Could you please give me a drink?" (The disciples had gone into town to buy food.)
The Samaritan woman responded, "You're a Judean man and I'm a Samaritan woman. How come you ask me for a drink?" (Generally, Judeans have nothing to do with Samaritans.)
Jesus answered, "If you only knew the gift God is bestowing upon you and who it is that is asking you for water, you would ask me for water -- and I would present you with life-giving water."
"But sir," she replied, "you have nothing to draw water with and the well is deep. Where would you get this ‘life-giving water’? Do you really think you're a better man than our ancestor Jacob and that your water is better than that he and his sons and livestock drank?"
"Every person that drinks the water from that well will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks from my water will never be thirsty again. My water will become a bubbling spring within bringing life everlasting."
"Please, sir, give me then this water of yours so I won't have to keep returning here to draw water whenever I'm thirsty."
"Go then, call your husband and bring him back here."
"But I do not have a husband."
"You are correct in saying that you do not have a husband. In fact, you have had no less than five husbands, and the man you live with now is not your husband. ... Your answer was quite true."
"Sir, you must be a prophet! ... Tell me then, why do you Judeans say that God should be worshiped at Jerusalem while we Samaritans say it should be at Mount Gerizim, where our ancestors worshiped?"
Jesus answered her: "The time will come when you will worship the Father neither at Jerusalem nor on your mountain. You Samaritans are ignorant of the god you worship, but we of Judea know the god we worship. The salvation of man will come through the tribe of Judah. The time will come -- indeed, it has come now -- when true believers will worship the Father sincerely with their spirit, for they are the kind of worshipers God desires. God is of the spirit and must be worshiped sincerely with the spirit."
"I know that the Messiah they call the Christ is coming. When he does, he will explain everything to us."
"But I am he, the very one speaking to you!" Jesus announced.
At that moment, the disciples returned and were quite surprised to see that Jesus was talking to a woman. No one dared question him, though, "What do you want with that woman?" or "Why are you talking to her?"
The woman left her water jar beside the well and hurried back to town to tell her people, "Come and see the man who told me everything I've done in my life! Could he possibly be the Messiah?" And so the people left the town and came out to see him.
Meanwhile, the disciples were urging Jesus, "Rabbi, please, have something to eat."
"I partake of a food you know nothing about, " he told them.
The disciples asked each other, "How could someone have brought him any food?"
Jesus then explained to them. "My sustenance is doing the will of him that sent me and accomplishing his mission. You are familiar with the adage, 'Four months between planting and harvest.' I say, take a good look at the fields, they're ready for harvesting now! The harvester is already being paid to take in the crop of everlasting life, so that the planter and the harvester may celebrate together. Here, the adage holds true: 'one plants and another harvests.' For I send you to harvest what you have not planted. Others have done that work so you might enjoy the fruits of their labor."
Many Samaritans from the town believed in him because of the woman's declaration, "He told me everything I've done in my life." When they came to see him, they invited Jesus to stay with them. He remained there for two days. During that time many more came to believe in him when they heard his message. These people told the woman, "It is no longer only because what you said that we believe. We have now heard for ourselves and realize that he is indeed the Savior of the World."
Notes
1. Judea has apparently become too hot for Jesus. His success has attracted too much attention, and he is fearful that the Pharisees, who disapprove of him, will cause him trouble. Therefore, he decides to leave Judea and return to his homeland of Galilee, a northward journey that take him through Samaria, the third sub-province or toparchy of the Roman Iudaea. Jesus, at least at this point, does not pursue a strategy of confrontation with authority. He presumably will not alter his message or back down to ingratiate himself with the Pharisaical authorities, but he can place himself out of their reach or at least out of their sight. Most Galileans practiced the Jewish religion, but there were many areas, including large cities, that had been Hellenized and where the deities of the Greeks and Romans were worshiped. As a result, Galilee had a reputation for greater tolerance and diversity than Samaria or Judea. And its ruler at that time, Herod Antipas, a son of King Herod the Great, exercised a considerable degree of autonomy from Rome and from the religious authorities in Jerusalem.
2. Interesting that Jesus reportedly performed no baptisms himself, but had his disciples do the work for him.
3. The Samaritan woman identifies Jesus as a Judean, which is incorrect: he is a Galilean. Her mistake is probably do to the fact that Jesus and his disciples have come from Judea. At any rate, the point is hereby made that Samaritans and Judeans have little use for one another and, while both practice the Jehovan, or Jewish religion, their customs differ. Judeans regarded the Samaritans as heretics at best, pagans at worst. There is a history of animosity between the two regions dating back to when the Israel of David and Solomon was divided north and south. Jesus, who does not offer to deny that he is a Judean, supports a Judean point of view. (Jesus would, in fact, often be referred to as a Judean and would even call himself a Judean, as a member of the tribe of Judah. --- The term “Jew” did not really exist at this time.) Jesus seems to deny the Samaritans the right to worship either at Jerusalem or at Mount Gerizim and condemns them for knowing nothing about the god they worship. This is a serious slight and seems a gratuitous put down of the Samaritans from one who is a guest in their country. But it allows Jesus to mention the prophecy that the Messiah will come from the tribe of Judah, from which his father Joseph was descended. (This is a questionable, if not specious interpretation of a line from the 49th Chapter of Genesis; Jacob’s blessing upon Judah was always assumed to refer to King David, a descendant of Judah.)
4. The tendency of Jesus to speak symbolically, metaphorically is consistently lost on his audience. The Samaritan woman thinks the “life-giving water" is a beverage she can drink. His disciples, no less literal minded, think the food their rabbi is speaking of is physical and not spiritual sustenance. Jesus is a bit too deep!
5. The disciples are told they are harvesters, in a metaphorical, spiritual sense. Their task is to convert the population, which is ripe for conversion. The ground work for this has been laid by others. By what others? It is unclear what Jesus means by this. If they are the harvesters, who are the planters with whom they will celebrate? Perhaps he means all the prophets who have come before.
6. Jesus again reveals his preternatural abilities when he tells the Samaritan woman, a stranger, the details of her private life -- five former husbands and currently shacking up with a man to whom she is not married. (He refrains from condemning her for this.) This is sufficient to convince her and the townspeople that Jesus could be the Messiah. When the Samaritans talk to Jesus themselves and hear his message, they are thoroughly convinced. This must be the Messiah, they conclude. At their invitation, Jesus tarries there for a couple days, not really very long considering he had made such a big hit with the local populace, (even while he trashed their religious practices). Still, one imagines he is anxious to go back home to Galilee.
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