reflects the characteristic spirit of the leaders.
John greatly renews his witness to Jesus with fresh emphasis and
earnestness.[27]

But as Jesus sees that His presence is only being made a bone of
contention He quietly slips away from Judea, turning north through
Samaria towards Galilee. Then comes the great story of the visit to
Sychar, with the exquisitely tactful winning of the sinful woman to a
life of purity, and then using her as a messenger to her people.
Imbedded in the story is another bit of Jesus' simple great teaching
talk.[28]

Then comes a brief connecting link. Finding no acceptance in Judea, His
own country, Jesus goes to Galilee, where visitors at the Jerusalem
Feast of Passover had been spreading the news of His words and deeds,
and so a gracious welcome now awaits Him.[29]

And here in Galilee He wins the believing love of a roman officer of
noble birth, whose son is desperately ill. The father's faith passes
through three stages, the belief that comes to ask for help, the deeper
belief that rests upon Jesus' word to him and starts back home, and the
yet deeper that gets confirmation of Jesus' word and power in the
recovery of his son from the very time Jesus spoke the assuring
word.[30]

These are the three incidents in this group away from the Jerusalem
district. It is striking that this group away from Jerusalem stands in
sharp contrast with that first group centering in Jerusalem. _There_ is
rejection by the nation's leaders running from contemptuous silence to
the beginning of open opposition. _Here_ with less evidence there is
acceptance by a Samaritan and a Roman; the one of no social standing;
the other of the highest.

The rejection of Jesus by the leaders stands in contrast thus far with
acceptance of Him by five Galileans, by a cultured scholarly aristocrat,
a half-breed Samaritan, and a Roman of gentle birth. Acceptance seems to
grow with the distance from Jerusalem. Yet everything hinged in
Jerusalem. _There_ had been the flood-light. Jerusalem was meant to be
the gateway to the world. The irony of sin! The blinding of greed! The
self-cheating of being self-centered!

Climbing towards the Climax.

And now, true to his controlling thought, John goes straight back to
Jerusalem with his story, ignoring intervening events. There's another
feast, not called a Passover, but commonly and probably correctly so
reckoned, another crowd-gathering Passover. An extreme chronic case o