Day 24: John 4-6. Living Water, Signs, and Bread
The story of the Samaritan woman takes up most of John chapter 4, except a brief digression after Jesus leaves the village, but before we hear the results of the woman's evangelism (she is very successful; we could take lessons from her). The digression has to do with the disciples trying to get Jesus to eat something, and Jesus telling them that he has food they don't know about. (This is John's Gospel, and we KNOW that he doesn't literally mean bread; it's spiritual food; it's a METAPHOR.) As well (and it almost seems tacked on_ there's the story about the healing of the royal official's son at the very end of chapter 4. It is Jesus' second sign (count the signs in John; he calls them signs instead of miracles) and the idea is that the moment Jesus said the son was healed, he was healed, even though Jesus was far away at the time. But Jesus is the Word, and when the word is spoken, healing happens. Chapter 5 includes the healing at the pool ...