Jesus now performs his second identified miracle. Again, it is in Cana of Galilee, the hometown of Nathanael. Many commentators have compared this miracle to the healing of the centurion’s servant (Mt 8:1, 5-13; Lk 7:1-10).^6-1 There are several similarities: (1) Jesus is entreated to heal a beloved son/servant. (2) Jesus performs the healing from a distance. (3) The city of Capernaum is involved.

There are several significant differences here, however: (1) Jesus was in Cana as opposed to Capernaum (Lk 7:1). (2) The nobleman asked Jesus to come to his house, the centurion discouraged it. (3) Jewish elders entreated Jesus on behalf of the centurion, a Gentile. (4) Jesus commends the centurion’s faith but rebukes the nobleman for seeking a sign.

Although the narratives may look similar, their general tone, time, and purpose are different. The point of the centurion narrative is to demonstrate his great faith in Jesus. The point of the nobleman narrative is to demonstrate Jesus’ rising popularity and the faith which his miracles generated.

 Jn 4:46-48 — ⁴⁶Once more he visited Cana in Galilee, where he had turned the water into wine. And there was a certain royal official whose son lay sick at Capernaum. ⁴⁷When this man heard that Jesus had arrived in Galilee from Judea, he went to him and begged him to come and heal his son, who was close to death.

⁴⁸”Unless you people see miraculous signs and wonders,” Jesus told him, “you will never believe.”

This royal official is quite possibly a servant of Herod Antipas. At least Josephus uses this same word some six hundred times to designate a servant of Herod. We find other noble servants of Herod in the NT such as Cuza (Lk 8:3) and Manaen (Acts 12:1), who are, perhaps, co-laborers with this man. “It is possible that the official was a Gentile. If so, the three persons Jesus interviewed in this early ministry represented the Jews, the Samaritans, and the Gentiles—in short, the world he came to save” (Tenney, p. 60). Whoever he is, he is acting within the cultural belief that this famed rabbi has powerful prayers. We note, however, that the nobleman’s faith goes beyond asking for prayer for healing. He asks Jesus to come down to his house and act as a miracle-worker.

In response to his request, Jesus rebukes him and the crowd (note the plural), for seeking a sign. This won’t be the last time Jesus shows disdain for miracle-mongers (cf. Mt 11:20-24). Jesus wants us to believe in him for who he is, not just for what he does (Jn 10:38; 14:11; 15:22-24; 20:29). Miracles are evidence of Jesus’ identity. They were even used to bolster the faith of John the Baptist (Mt 11:4-5), but they will never satisfy the insatiable curiosity of thrill-seekers, nor will they force faith on those who refuse to submit to Jesus (Mt 12:38-45). How disappointing this must be for Jesus to come down from Sychar of Samaria, where they flocked to him because of his words alone, unto Galilee, his own people, who demand a circus show.

Why does Jesus rebuke this poor man for a lack of faith? Isn’t that a bit harsh? After all, his son is on his deathbed and he comes to Jesus begging for some divine help. But his faith falls short in two ways. First, he assumes that Jesus has to come to his house to heal the boy. Second, he only believes that Jesus can heal the boy, not raise him from the dead. We must also remember that Jesus does not rebuke this man alone, but the entire crowd. Perhaps something in their expressions reveals their delight that Jesus would do yet another sign. Before we get too critical of Jesus, we should note that he did, in fact, heal the boy!

Jn 4:49-54 — ⁴⁹The royal official said, “Sir, come down before my child dies.”

⁵⁰Jesus replied, “You may go. Your son will live.”

The man took Jesus at his word and departed. ⁵¹While he was still on the way, his servants met him with the news that his boy was living. ⁵²When he inquired as to the time when his son got better, they said to him, “The fever left him yesterday at the seventh hour.”

⁵³Then the father realized that this was the exact time at which Jesus had said to him, “Your son will live.” So he and all his household believed.

⁵⁴This was the second miraculous sign that Jesus performed, having come from Judea to Galilee.

This nobleman is urgent. He pleads for help. Jesus responds to this urgent father. He heals the child from about twenty miles away. Likewise, the nobleman responds to Jesus. He takes Jesus at his word and starts off toward Capernaum.

The boy’s fever broke about 1 p.m. The servants keep a close eye on him through the night. By morning it’s obvious that the lad is going to be all right. These servants are so excited, they can’t wait for their master’s return. They run out to meet him halfway. Meanwhile, the nobleman has spent the night somewhere along the twenty mile trek from Cana to Capernaum.^6-2 Sometime the next morning he meets his happy band of servants. They’ve got good news! His child is healed. The father naturally verified the time at which the fever broke. It coincided precisely with the time at which Jesus gave the declaration that the child was healed.

There is no way for this to be psychosomatic, nor much likelihood of coincidence. Not only does he believe, but so does his entire household. (For other household conversions cf. Acts 10:23-26; 16:14-15, 34; 18:8).

Most Americans can expect to alive between 70-85 years, according to statistics. But the statistical tables don’t always work out with real-life precision.

For example, we expect to face the deaths of our parents someday. We don’t expect, however, to face the deaths of our children.

Neither did Nicholas Wolterstorff. But one bright Sunday afternoon, a numbing telephone call brought news of a mountain-climbing accident. In his book Lament for a Son, the bereaved father reflects upon his painful feelings: “Gone from the face of the earth. I wait for a group of students to cross the street, and suddenly I think: He is not there. I go to a ballgame and find myself singling out the 25-year olds; none of them is he. In all the crowds and streets and rooms and churches and schools and libraries and gatherings of friends in our world, on all the mountains, I will not find him. Only his absence.

“When we gather now there’s always someone missing, his absence as present as our presence, his silence as loud as our speech. Still five children, but one always gone. When we’re all together, we’re not all together.

“It’s the neverness that is so painful. Never again to be there with us–never to sit with us at table, never to travel with us, never to laugh with us, never to cry with us, never to embrace us as he leaves for school, never to see his brothers and sister marry. All the rest of our lives we must live without him.”

As we turn to our lesson today, the emotion of another father who fears the death of his son bleeds through the page.

  “After the two days he left for Galilee. {44} (Now Jesus himself had pointed out that a prophet has no honor in his own country.) {45} When he arrived in Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him. They had seen all that he had done in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, for they also had been there. {46} Once more he visited Cana in Galilee, where he had turned the water into wine. And there was a certain royal official whose son lay sick at Capernaum.”

This third interview of Jesus which closed the series of His public presentations took place in Galilee two days after the visit to Samaria. His reception there was the result of His ministry in Jerusalem.

This ministry in Galilee lasted some 16 months. The religious parties were not so bitter here. The Galileans who had made the pilgrimage to the feast had seen His signs, or at least had heard of them, and were quite ready to welcome Him (the reference connects with the narrative of 2:23).

Their belief was grounded on the works that He did, not their faith in His person. John echoed Jesus’ utterance which is quoted in all the gospels, that a “prophet is without honor in his own country,” although the reception accorded to Jesus in Galilee was more friendly than in Judea.

Of all places it was in Nazareth where He was known by so many. They should have had the greatest respect and admiration for Him. But they seemed of all people the least interested in Him. But isn’t that common, even today? A preacher or teacher who has been faithfully serving his congregation many years…are members often most critical and unappreciative?

The same is true in our homes: mothers and fathers who with unselfish devotion seek to provide the very best for their children, are frequently misunderstood and even despised by their own children. How tragic that we do not give respect and honor where it is due.

The key to the healing of the nobleman’s son is given in the idea that he “once more” or “again” was in the city. He had performed a miracle here before, so He had a reputation as a healer and wonder worker.

This is the second sign which Jesus did after he had come from Judaea into Galilee.

Most of the commentators think this is another version of the story of the healing of the centurion’s servant told in Matthew 8:5-13 and Luke 7:1-10; but there are differences which justify us in treating it as quite independent.

Certain things about the conduct of this courtier are an example to all men.

(i)  Here is a courtier who came to a carpenter.  The Greek is basilikos which could even mean that he was a petty king; but it is used for a royal official and he was a man of high standing at the court of Herod.  Jesus on the other hand had no greater status than that of the village carpenter of Nazareth.  Further, Jesus was in Cana and this man lived in Capernaum, almost twenty miles away.  That is why he took so long to get back home.

There could be no more improbable scene in the world than an important court official hastening twenty miles to beg a favour from a village carpenter.  First and foremost, this courtier swallowed his pride.  He was in need, and neither convention nor custom stopped him brining his need to Christ.  His action would cause a sensation but he did not care what people said so long as he obtained the help he so much wanted.  If we want the help which Christ can give we must be humble enough to swallow our pride and not care what any man may say.

(ii)  Here is a courtier who refused to be discouraged.  Jesus met him with the at first sight bleak statement that people would not believe unless they were supplied with signs and wonders.  It may well be that Jesus aimed that saying, not so much at the courtier himself, as the crowd that must have gathered to see the outcome of this sensational happening.  They would be there all agape to see what would happen.

But Jesus had a way of making sure that a person was in earnest.  He did that to the Syro-Phoenician woman (Matthew 15:21-28).  If the man had turned irritably and petulantly away; if he had been too proud to accept a rebuke; if he had given up despairingly on the spot-Jesus would have known that his faith was not real.  A man must be in earnest before the help of Christ can come to him.

(iii)  Here was a courtier who had faith.  It must have been hard for him to turn away and go home with Jesus’s assurance that his little lad would live.  Nowadays men are beginning to realize the power of thought and of telepathy in such a way that no one would reject this miracle simply because it was wrought at a distance; but it must have been difficult for the courtier.  Yet he had faith enough to turn and walk back that twenty mile road with nothing but Jesus’s assurance to comfort his heart.

It is of the very essence of faith that we should believe that what Jesus says is true.  So often we have a kind of vague, wistful longing that the promises of Jesus should be true.  The only way really to enter into them is to believe in them with the clutching intensity of a drowning man.  If Jesus says a thing, it is not a case of “It may be true”; it is a case of “It must be true.”

(iv)  Here was a courtier who surrendered.  He was not a man who got out of Christ what he wanted and then went away to forget.  He and all his household believed.  That would not be easy for him, for the idea of Jesus as the Anointed One of God must have cut across all his preconceived notions.  Nor would it be easy at the court of Herod to profess faith in Jesus.  He would have mockery and laughter to endure; and no doubt there would be those who thought that he had gone slightly mad.

But this courtier was a man who faced and accepted the facts.  He had seen what Jesus could do; he had experienced it; and there was nothing left for it but surrender.  He had begun with a sense of desperate need; that need had been supplied; and his sense of need had turned into an overmastering love.  That must always be the story of the Christian life.

Most New Testament scholars think that at this point in the Fourth Gospel the chapters have somehow become misplaced.  They hold that chapter 6 should come before chapter 5.  The reason is this.  Chapter 4 finishes with Jesus in Galilee (John 4:54).  Chapter 5 begins with Jesus in Jerusalem.  Chapter 6 again shows us Jesus in Galilee.  Chapter 7 begins with the implication that Jesus had just come into Galilee because of the opposition which he met in Jerusalem.  The changes between Jerusalem and Galilee become very difficult to follow.  On the other hand chapter 4 (4:54) ends:  “This the second sign that Jesus did, when he had come from Judaea to Galilee.”

Chapter 6 begins (6:1):  “After this thing Jesus went to the other side of the Sea of Galilee,” which would be a natural sequence.  Chapter 5 then shows us Jesus going to Jerusalem for a Feast and meeting with very serious trouble with the Jewish authorities.  We are in fact told that from that time they began to persecute him (5:10).  Then chapter 7 begins by saying that Jesus went about in Galilee and “would not go about in Judea, because the Jews sought to kill him” (7:1).

Here we have not altered the order; but we must note that to take chapter 6 before chapter 5 does give an easier and more natural order of events.

 “When this man heard that Jesus had arrived in Galilee from Judea, he went to him and begged him to come and heal his son, who was close to death.”

The word translated “royal official” is “basilikos,” meaning “king’s man.” Obviously a person of prestigious rank, this man is probably one of Herod’s trusted officers…he was possibly a courier of Herod the Tetrarch.

But his rank means nothing to him now. His son’s life is at stake. He doesn’t go to Herod; he goes to Jesus, the very Source of life. His interest in Jesus was prompted by the sickness of his son, who had been ailing for some time. The gradual decline of the child’s health, with a sudden turn for the worse, drove him to look for aid wherever he could find it.

The Greek language also adds a point often missed here: the imperfect tense of the verb “begged” or “requested” is used, giving the nuance of continuous action. It could better be translated “he kept on begging Him over and over again.”

Although we can understand his urgency, we shouldn’t overlook two matters:

1. He told Christ how to handle the need
2. He presented the need before presenting himself

This event causes us to think for a moment: isn’t it amazing how infirmity draws people to Christ faster than prosperity does.  But sometimes that’s what it takes!  C. S. Lewis said: “how hard it is to turn our thoughts to God when everything is going well with us.”

  {48} “Unless you people see miraculous signs and wonders,” Jesus told him, “you will never believe.”

  Jesus’ answer was a protest against the popular feeling concerning Him. Before we judge Jesus’ words too harshly, we must understand that a “circus” atmosphere was developing around Christ. Too many people, He was fast becoming a traveling sideshow: “Come one, come all! See the Galilean Miracle Worker!” Jesus also had a way of testing men and women to determine the sincerity of their faith.

Jesus’ rebuke should cause us to think about what we do in the name of helping others. Are we more dedicated to the pursuit of truth or to the pursuit of comfort? Are we more concerned that people believe or that they are delivered from their emotional discomfort?

I have often been warned and rebuked by the following words from Henri Nouwen:

“A minister is not a doctor whose primary task is to take away pain….Perhaps the main task of the minister is to prevent people from suffering for the wrong reasons. Many people suffer because of the false supposition on which they have based their lives. That supposition is that there should be no fear or loneliness, no confusion or doubt. But these sufferings can only be dealt with creatively when they are understood as wounds integral to our human condition. Therefore ministry is a very confronting service. It does not allow people to live with illusions of immortality and wholeness. It keeps reminding others that they are mortal and broken, but also that with the recognition of this condition, liberation starts.”

I believe that Jesus was deeply concerned for the suffering father and his dying child, but I believe that He was even more concerned about their relationship with God. Jesus wanted the child to be healed and the father’s heart not to be broken, but He wanted lost people to be saved even more.

Jesus saw that the greatest need in the life of the royal official that day was not deliverance from physical death; it was God! Jesus also saw that the possible death of a son had opened this man to his greatest need.

Before continuing the story, we all need to ask ourselves what our most pressing concern is at this moment. What issue is weighing on your mind right now? Although it is important to you, it is probably not your greatest need. However, it may be the very matter that helps you to recognize your greatest need—-to open your heart to God!

“The royal official said, “Sir, come down before my child dies.” {50} Jesus replied, “You may go. Your son will live.” The man took Jesus at his word and departed.”

Without question, the nobleman’s comment displayed his faith, though verse 50 put him in a dilemma: should he take Jesus at his word or not? To his credit, he did!  Standing by and watching as another brings healing requires little faith…but to believe without being there, without seeing for yourself? That takes faith!

It should be noted, too, that the nobleman asked for one thing while God did another..yet the son was healed. This is the way it is today with our prayers!

Four Important Traits:

1. He did not let position, pride or effort prevent him from coming to seek Christ’s aid.
2. He stood the test of faith.
3. He showed the reckless type of faith (not ignorant) which Jesus desires; the only way to receive the full benefit of the promises of God’s Word is to believe in Jesus unreservedly.
4. He became a witness for the Lord. Verse 53 shows that others believed.

“While he was still on the way, his servants met him with the news that his boy was living. {52} When he inquired as to the time when his son got better, they said to him, “The fever left him yesterday at the seventh hour.” {53} Then the father realized that this was the exact time at which Jesus had said to him, “Your son will live.” So he and all his household believed. {54} This was the second miraculous sign that Jesus performed, having come from Judea to Galilee.”

Again, the Greek language gives us a special picture: the imperfect tense of the verb “saying” is used in verse 51, again indicating continual action. Apparently, the slaves were jumping up and down with joy, repeating over and over, “Your son’s alive…he’s alive…he’s well.”

The healing not only caused enthusiasm on the road, it also created revival at home: verse 53 shows us the belief of the man and his household!

An interesting cross-reference is found in Luke 8:1-3: “After this, Jesus traveled about from one town and village to another, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God. The Twelve were with him, {2} and also some women who had been cured of evil spirits and diseases: Mary (called Magdalene) from whom seven demons had come out; {3} Joanna the wife of Cuza, the manager of Herod’s household; Susanna; and many others. These women were helping to support them out of their own means.”

 Look closely at verse 3. Joanna was the wife of Chuza, Herod’s steward, who was in charge of the king’s financial books–a close, trusted official, occasionally called “the king’s man.”

Yet, though the king’s man, he and his wife supported Jesus out of their private means. Very possibly‚ Chuza and Joanna were the grateful parents of the young man in John 4.

 There are a number of facts which make this a notable miracle:

1. It was a cure performed at a distance from the sick child. Distance is no barrier to God! Location has nothing to do with His healing.  This is one of several miracles at a distance:

– He healed the centurion’s servant at a distance (Matt. 8:5-13) and note that it was also in Capernaum

– He healed the daughter of the Canaanite woman (Matt. 15:21-28)

* These two were Gentiles and, spiritually speaking, were “at a distance” (Eph. 2:12-13).

2. It was performed for a distinguished officer of the king’s court.
3. Jesus said no peculiar “healing formula.”
4. The child evidently did not have any faith in Jesus.
5. The child was at the point of death.

 Search the gospel and you will find only one time in the 31 instances of healing where the Lord required faith: Matthew 9:28: “When he had gone indoors, the blind men came to him, and he asked them, “Do you believe that I am able to do this?” “Yes, Lord,” they replied.”

In nine cases there is no evidence at all of faith; in four others faith is very unlikely; in four others there is no faith possible(Luke 7:11-17; John 5:2-13; John 11:1-46; and Matt. 9:18-26).

Verse 54 is difficult to comprehend completely: Jesus did the first miracle in Cana (2:1) and this is called the second. But John 2:23 tells us that many more were performed in Jerusalem.  This was the second miracle performed in Cana of Galilee!