After the two days he departed for Galilee. 44 (For Jesus himself had testified that a prophet has no honor in his own hometown.) 45 So when he came to Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him, having seen all that he had done in Jerusalem at the feast. For they too had gone to the feast. 46 So he came again to Cana in Galilee, where he had made the water wine. And at Capernaum there was an official whose son was ill. 47 When this man heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee, he went to him and asked him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death. 48 So Jesus said to him, “Unless you see signs and wonders you will not believe.” 49 The official said to him, “Sir, come down before my child dies.” 50 Jesus said to him, “Go; your son will live.” The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and went on his way. 51 As he was going down, his servants met him and told him that his son was recovering.52 So he asked them the hour when he began to get better, and they said to him, “Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him.” 53 The father knew that was the hour when Jesus had said to him, “Your son will live.” And he himself believed, and all his household. 54 This was now the second sign that Jesus did when he had come from Judea to Galilee.
The man in the text simply wanted healing for his son. He believed that Jesus might be able to do this because of what he had heard about Jesus. And when the Lord gave him his word but no miracle – at least not immediately – , The man had a choice to make: Walk away angry that Jesus would do what he so desperately wanted or…he could do as did:
The man took Jesus at his word and went home.
In and by this simple response, taking Jesus at his word, when as of yet there is no proof, he shows that he was not like the rest of the Galileans, simply interested in signs and wonders. And the trust he put in Jesus, confirmed subsequently by the healing of his son at that exact hour…produced a true confidence in Jesus Christ, now…not only as the healer, but as the Savior. And, as so often in the Bible, not the man only, but his household with him.
Now, it is always important that we see the context…this helps us not to make foolish mistakes. So, what is going on in chapter 4?
Perhaps we can now see the importance of the episode in Samaria. It sets up a contrast with the response of the Jews in Galilee.
The Samaritans saw Jesus for what he was and received him joyfully as the Messiah, the Savior of the world! Despised Samaritans believed in him, but his own people, the covenant community, either actively opposed him or refused to be interested in him beyond a fascination for miracles and, later, for politics. [Carson, 237]
He may have been popular in Samaria, but in his own homeland, public sentiment was decidedly against him, even if, at first, it was superficially for him. On the other hand, among the Jews were some who saw clearly that the miracles were only important for what they revealed about the true nature and mission of Jesus of Nazareth. And they believed in him and became his followers. They believed his word, not only his miracles. They believed in him not only in the amazing things he did.
Our Savior meets this official but does something far greater than a physical healing. We want to look at how our Savior feeds faith, how he so carefully cultivates it, through rebuke, teaching and promise and how He takes our desires, even if they are a bit misdirected and blesses us with so much more.
Jesus is saving all kinds of people. In chapter one, it is fishermen, hard working men of low reputation in the culture. In chapter 3 Jesus speaks with a self-righteous Pharisee and then in four a lowly Samaritan woman and here a nobleman out of a king’s court.
Or think of it this way: Jesus restored a Centurion’s servant, he restored the daughter of Jairus the ruler of the synagogue and then here, a nobleman’s son. Three distinct and leading classes: a Gentile soldier, the ruler of the synagogue who was a Jew of high ecclesiastical position and the noblemen high up in civil authority. Whenever our Lord gives faith, he sets himself to feed it…to foster it.
There was a germ of it in this man, the Lord had put it there and the Lord now will meet him and give far more than the man ever imagined was to be his when he went to Jesus in the first place. Remember, he just wanted his son healed…the Lord does that, but gives him so much more than he had asked for!
It is a trial that is the impetus…(this is important)…it is his despair…his deep sorrow…his searching for something, anything…he is beyond himself and cannot find hope.
The beginning that sets the man’s face to seek Jesus was a heart so broken, so despondent that he was beside himself. Sorrow had come to his house and it was this sorrow that is the angel in disguise as it sets him to seeking the face of a man who he thinks can help him.
We all know this in theory, but in practice it is a bit more difficult, namely that it is often our trials, our sorrows, our difficulties that are in fact, the Lord’s messengers to chase us to Him. And we learn only through such desperation.
I certainly know this, how about you? We find ourselves hurting whether due to our own failures, the consequences of our own sin…or things completely outside of ourselves. Nonetheless, we come to an end of ourselves, and there is nowhere for us to go and it is the pain or the distress that chases us to the Lord.
And then that which cannot be explained, how often it is that when all is said and done…we actually see the Lord’s blessing and goodness IN THE TRIAL, in what He brings us, that we could have never known if not FOR the trial. We drew close to the Savior in our suffering, in our pain, in a way that we would have never experienced otherwise. And although we would not want to go through it again, and might even wish that the reasons for the trial, if they are due to our own sin and foolishness, had not been the case, yet we stand in the end, in the joy and peace that He has brought to us.
Prayer: Father, forgive my unholy yawning…living as though Your grace, mercy and love mean so little. Open my eyes to see more clearly so that I might take Jesus at His word! Holy Spirit of God, give me sight to the unseen, to the promises that a living hope makes to seem seeable and touchable. Help me, that I would not be ashamed at the coming of my King and Savior, through Jesus Christ my Lord, Amen.
Hymn: A Mighty Fortress is Our God
