Where Jesus walked, part 4

By Andrew McIlwrick, 7th December 2025

Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Emphasis occasionally added.

We have seen the Lord walking amongst His people and nation, from Nazareth to Bethlehem, to Jerusalem and Egypt and back to Nazareth. We saw Him walking to be baptised by John and tempted of the devil in the wilderness, and returning to Bethabara to meet up with five disciples who would follow him to Cana to the wedding, then on to Capernaum and back to Jerusalem for the Passover. We finally saw Him last week travelling amongst His own people of Judah, in the towns and villages, preaching and teaching the need for repentance and trust in Him for salvation.

In the first three verses of the chapter (John 4), we see Him working in and around the area of Judah, gaining popularity, convincing men and women of sin and their need for faith in Him and repentance of sin and baptism as a sign of that turning to God in faith that He had forgiven their sin and they were washed clean and walking anew. This was a new teaching, that the Kingdom of God did not involve sacrifice and priestly office any more, but faith in the One who could forgive sin eternally, no more going to the temple to make sacrifices. This was a huge offence to the religious groups, who would see their livelihood and position of respect dwindling away and would either recognise the truth of it, like Nicodemus did as we saw last week, and we are told so did others, and trust in Jesus as their Saviour, or like many of the religious rulers, reject Him and want to do away with Him. They would stir up the people and threaten to have them thrown out of the synagogues and banned from the temple for following this Man. It became known that Jesus was having great success among the people and many were following Him. These towns were too close to Jerusalem for comfort and as Jesus’ popularity and success grew, evidenced by those prepared to step out in faith and trust Him and be baptised, so the opposition and challenge would grow from the religious leaders.

At this point he leaves Judea and goes back to Galilee, far enough away not to trouble the religious leaders.

8. From the Judean towns to Sychar’s well (John 4:4–26)

His Omniscience

Having spent time preaching to His own, He now will do something no self respecting Jew would ever do, He heads to Samaria with the intention of meeting up with a woman of ill repute, meeting with her at a well and offering her the same salvation as He has been offering to His own people.

He does not tell his disciples what He is planning, just that He must travel through Samaria. Having gone to the villages in Judea to reach the people, He now travels to a place where the people are despised of the Jews because they were of the original tribes of Israel, but had intermarried with the heathen tribes of the land, worshipped their gods, and were therefore hated. They were no more God’s chosen people and were lost. I suppose the modern equivalent is that rather flippant saying, often in fun but with deep significance, “your dead to me”. You no longer have any part in my life or dealings. This was the attitude, and yet Jesus approaches Sychar’s well with the express intention of meeting an individual whose life story would horrify the righteous Jew and who would be avoided at any cost. Five husbands later and on her sixth partner, and Jesus deems her worthy of His time, love, and compassion.

He sends the disciples into to town while He rests at the well. It would protect her from their insensitivities and allow Him time to talk to her One to one. She is shunned by the townsfolk even in her own town. She has had to fetch water at the worst time of day, in the heat when no-one else is there, when it is the least safe to travel, especially a lone female.

Jesus begins an innocuous conversation with the woman, simply asking for a drink of water, a reasonable request given the heat of the day and the journey. The woman expresses surprise that a Jew would even speak to her, it is unusual, but she continues the conversation and the Lord Jesus explains the opportunity for salvation to her, which she accepts, runs back to the village and tells everyone of the stranger at the well. The disciples are wondering why He would even speak to her, but said nothing as they could not figure it out and did not want to question it openly.

She leaves her water pot, which allows them to have a drink, and rushes back to town and through her testimony, many of the Samaritans believe in Jesus.

We see in this illustration Jesus’ omniscience, He had need to go via Samaria because there was this woman to meet, He knew before the event that she would be there and the outcome.

He demonstrates to his disciples the command before he departs of “go into all the world, and preach the gospel”, not just to Israel.

He did not shy away from the shunned and people that were considered the most immoral in their society.

He did not ignore her sin, but offered the water of eternal life first. Once she accepted he demonstrates His omniscience again in describing her background and reveals himself to her. So often we want to condemn peoples sin and not show them an alternative first, that there is One who loves them, who paid the price for their sin, who died to save them. It is this that will enable them to see their sin and confess it and seek forgiveness from God, not my condemnation. But that does not mean we can ignore it.

Am I afraid to approach those who are despised and rejected, those who live in a way that does not fit in with my idea of people who may be saved?

Am I supporting those who are able, who are willing even if I am unable, in prayer and giving? Or am I like the disciples, “what is he doing, why on earth would you spend time with them”, and yet they recognised in their silence that that the Lord would never do anything that was wrong, even if they did not understand it. It is a lesson that still applies today when things happen we do not understand, we have to trust in the One who does.

This diversion on the way from Judah to Galilee meant that He spent two days in the town at their request, which we will see is not always the case, and many people were saved because the Lord needed to go via Samaria. He will always go where there are those who need Him, and we will see that in the passages as we follow His footsteps across the land of Palestine. His preaching to one who was to be avoided brought many to Him to receive the water of life.

Second recorded One to one.

9. From Samaria back to Cana in Galilee. A nobleman’s son healed from a distance – His Omnipotence (John 4:44–53)

On return to Cana, where He had not long before been at the wedding and changed water into wine, which a number of the locals would recall. There is a nobleman there whose son was ill who lived in Capernaum. This man would have been fairly wealthy and have good contacts for all he needed because he is related in some way to Herod Antipas or his court as a nobleman. He would have the ability to call on the finest physicians of the day, with the latest training from Rome in all likelihood because of his position, and yet we are told his son is sick and nearing death.

He was evidently aware of this man called Jesus and had seen or heard of the miracles that He had done, so in desperation sets out to go to Cana to ask for help from this One who may be able to heal his son.

So he pleads with Jesus to come down and heal his son, but Jesus raises the issue that the people only want to see signs and miracles before they will believe, they will not take on trust that He is the Son of God unless He performs some wonderful work. This man is asking for miraculous healing of his son and needs Jesus to come immediately.

Despite the comments, this noblemen is prepared to fight for his son because he believes Jesus is able to heal him, so he asks again for Jesus to come and heal his son who is near death. What a lovely picture of a parent pleading for their child with the Saviour that they may be saved. It may not happen the first time, but there is a lesson on keep believing and keep asking, believing that He is able to open the hardest heart. What a reminder for us all not to give up in prayer before God for others.

What is wonderful is that when the Lord says his son is healed, and to go home, he restrains his desire to take the Lord with him just in case, but trusts and obeys, he immediately heads for home. It is on the way that he meets his servants and they inform him of the restoration of his son to health, and it happened at precisely the time that Jesus spoke to him that his son lived and that it was the hour he believed that Jesus could do it from where He was, He did not need to come down. I love the fact that his servants thought so much of their master that they could not wait to tell him of the restoration of his son, but got on the road to go and find him to tell him, with very little to go on, other than where he had gone and who he had gone to see.

The result, a family saved, an influential family. It is a reminder of the words of the Lord later on that “not many” rich will be saved, but it does not say “not any”.

10. From Cana to Nazareth – the fulfilment of prophesy. (Luke 4:16–32) His Omniscience – 5 miles

Jesus leaves Cana and heads home. This short section describes exactly His comment on the fact that a prophet is without honour in His own country, the area where He is well known.

His return to the region of His home is marked by a reminder of what many have found, that those who know you, have grown up with you, often will not recognise the changes and skills you have acquired and not give you the respect for them “he is just so and so’s son or daughter”, they recall all the events of your childhood and growing up, not your response to them since. Here Jesus indicates that whilst many would recognise Him for who He is and follow Him and recognise the goodness in His teaching and respond to it, those of His home town in Galilee would not, to them He is just the young Man from a poor home who learned carpentry from His father and has now left home and gathered himself a fan base and abandoned His mother and family.

John chapter 1:11 reminds us: He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. The other areas outside of His home town receive Him and those who had travelled up to Jerusalem had seen what He had done there, had seen Him drive out the money changers and animal sellers, would have heard all about it and seen the anger of the priests and religious leaders, and no doubt there would have been some who were delighted and felt that some got their comeuppance. They had seen all the things He had done, and narrative suggests He had done miracles that had been witnessed by those who went up with Him to Jerusalem for the recent Passover, and were prepared to believe. I was reminded of that verse we read the last few Sundays (John chapter 20 v 30 & 31), that many things were done by Jesus that are not written, and this would be an example, but others knew and believed at the time. He was welcomed outside of His own area but not at home.

He does what He has always done on the Sabbath, that is Saturday to you and I, and heads for the synagogue, the place of meeting outside of Jerusalem, a place where the teaching of the people is given, where the Law is discussed and examined and considered, where its application to the lives of the people is explained by the religious leaders of the day. All eyes would be on Him, they knew of the miraculous things He had been doing, there may have been some at the wedding of Cana, or had heard about the healing of the nobleman’s son, that would have hit the headlines of the ‘Capernaum Times’, and the gossip columns as the local people of importance saw a change in the family as the Lord had come into their lives and changed them, and they no longer took part in some of the things they may have done in the past.

What would He do here, this One who grew up amongst them, who they had observed follow His father into carpentry, had left home and become a teacher with His own followers and everything, who now thought He was better than them…

Here is the prophet in His own town and the predicted response.

Jesus does not disappoint, He stands up and takes the scriptures and reads to them from that great prophet of the people, Isaiah, and reads of the prophecy of His coming and His work, to tell of the arrival of the Messiah, the coming of the gospel, the change to the new covenant with God through him. They will not accept it.

Their response to His reading and His claim that it has been fulfilled that day in front of their eyes is to say “isn’t this Joseph’s son?” In other words, who does He think He is, coming around here and telling us how wonderful He is with His followers in tow.

He reminds them that prophets are not accepted at home and that the scriptures speak of people healed and helped in times of Israel’s difficulties and they were not Jews. He showed them their faults and they did not like it and were angry at Him. They were so annoyed at what they saw, at his presumption of failure, that they failed to recognise someone of importance, so indignant that He would claim to be the Messiah, so embarrassed at the truth, that they decide to follow Him? No they decide to take Him out of town and attempt to throw Him off a cliff to end the matter and silence this imposter.

His Omnipotence – He disappears from sight, He becomes literally the invisible man and they are left standing at the edge of a cliff looking a little dumb and possibly wondering how they got there and how He did that. I wonder how they reacted, if any of them changed their minds about who He is and that He was who he claimed to be. This was not some pre-planned coup, or some organised attack, but mob rule, where the implications of what had been said had so stung them, the evidence of their failures and sin of the nation on display and taken so personally, that they joined those before them who would kill the prophets, who would give them no honour in their own town, only this one was able to walk through them unseen and leave them arguing above a cliff top.

We are not told anywhere that He ever returned to Nazareth to preach to them. That is in some ways a solemn warning about despising God, and rejecting His Son. The only way the people would hear from Him in his own town again was to get up and go out of town and find Him. He was available but they had to go out to find Him. That is the challenge for many who reject Him, when they have heard, He may leave town and they will have to decide to seek Him having missed the opportunities that He offered for salvation.

That just about sums up the first year of recorded incidents in the life of Jesus, distilled down to ten journeys, but with multiple occurrences at each, many that we are not told about.

But we are told that He did all that we are expected to do in the way Jesus conducted himself, to honour God and put Him first, to obey our parents, to be baptised, to reject temptation, to do good to others, to show up, to fulfil our duties, to be kind, to share the gospel, to regularly go to meet with other Christians, to make sure we worship in spirit and in truth, to learn of God in discussion and listening, to be prepared for opposition, that being a Christian requires effort and preparation, that we are to trust in God and salvation through the Son.

We learned of His life’s work – to do the will of His Father

We learned of His Life’s ability:

We learn of His leadership by example.

May we be challenged as we consider these things.