But her physician, who had also come out with her earlier, hurried ahead to prepare the best lodging and as plentiful a supper as possible for Me with his servants. When he entered the house, however, he could not cease marveling that his people were already nearly finished with everything he had intended to arrange. In the best of spirits he asked them who had told them to do this. They said, ‘A young man of the most glorious appearance came and said in the gentlest voice, “Do this! For the Lord, who will soon come into this house, needs all these things!” When we had heard this in such a wondrous way, we dropped everything and did, and are still doing, what the extraordinary young man commanded us.’
The physician was astonished and asked, ‘Where is this extraordinary young man?’ But the servants answered, ‘We do not know, for after telling us to do these things he quickly left the house, and we do not know where he has gone.’ The physician said, ‘Then keep at it cheerfully, for great salvation is coming to this house, and all of you will share in it!’
The physician then hurried quickly out of the city again to report to Me that everything was now ready.
But some ultra-Mosaists met him, stopped him, and said, ‘Friend, it is not fitting to run like this on a Sabbath. Do you not know the many ways in which one can profane Jehovah’s day?’
The physician says, ‘You sticklers for the letter of Moses! You consider it a sin to walk quickly on a Sabbath that is now, since the sun has already set, only an after-Sabbath. But when you dishonor your wives and maidservants on the Sabbath and practice the most blatant indecency, fornication, and adultery with them, what do you consider that? Did Moses command you to do that on a holy day of Jehovah?’ The Samaritans say, ‘If today were not the Sabbath, we would stone you for speaking like this! But this time we will let it pass.’ The physician says, ‘Well, well, your words and your disposition show up particularly well at a time when the long-promised Messiah is staying just outside the gates of Sychar, and I am now hurrying to meet Him and tell Him that everything in His house is already prepared to receive Him! Have you not yet heard what happened today outside the gate of our city?’
The Samaritans say, ‘We have certainly heard that a Jewish caravan has made camp outside at the well, and that a Jew, probably the leader of the caravan, claims to be Christ! You are a physician, yet you do not grasp that the Jews have devised a trick to play on us in this way, and are just now intending to carry it out on us supposed idiots! A fine Messiah that would be for us! Do you think we do not know him? Are we not from Galilee, and now your fellow believers, strictly following the ordinances of Moses? But since we are from Galilee, we know this Nazarene, who is a carpenter’s son. Since work no longer suits him, he now lets himself be used as a vile tool of the Pharisees, performs a few magic tricks he has learned, and passes himself off as the Messiah at their expense! And donkeys and oxen of your sort fall for him and believe his enticing words! They should all be seized, soundly flogged with rods, and thrown across the border like dung and filth!’
‘Oh, you blind ones! In the house where I live, angels of God await Him and would bring food, drink, and beds for Him from the heavens—and you speak like this!’
As the physician says this, ten of them instantly become mute, and none can speak another word. They remain mute throughout the two days of My stay in Sychar. But the physician leaves them and hurries to Me.
When he comes to Me, he says, ‘Lord, Your house is well prepared! Wondrous things are happening there, but on the way out to You, O Lord, I came upon a number of wicked people who tried to give me an evil account of You. But their shouting did not last long! Your angel struck them on the mouth, and all but two became completely mute. The two, however, were greatly frightened and fled. All this, O Lord, has happened within half an hour!’ I say, ‘Be calm; it had to happen this way so that those who already believe in My name would not be turned away from us. But now let us go, and you, My dear woman from Samaria, do not forget your pitcher!’ The woman at once draws fresh water and takes it home with her. Thus half a day was spent outside Sychar at Jacob’s well, and quite an abundant harvest was gathered in this city.