[Music] Amen. Please turn your Bibles to the Gospel of John 4, beginning at verse 3. After the two days, he departed for Galilee, for Jesus himself had testified that a prophet has no honor in his own town. 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.
So he came again to Cana in Galilee, where he had made the water wine. And at that time, there was an official whose son was ill. 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, who was at the point of death. Jesus said to him, “Unless you see signs and wonders, you will not believe.”
The official said to him, “Sir, come down before my child dies.” Jesus said to him, “Go; your son will live.” The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and went on his way. As he was going down, his servants met him and told him that his son was recovering.
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.” 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. This was now the second sign that Jesus did when he had come from Judea to Galilee.
This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
Let us pray. Lord, you have given us your word, a word which contains the record of many of your signs and wonders. Help us to believe by their account. Help us to believe, seeing signs and wonders in the world around us, seeing them as belonging to you, though they seem otherwise ordinary. Help us to believe without seeing, having faith and trusting you because you are God. We pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen.
One of the unique peculiarities of John’s gospel is how the Evangelist notates Jesus’s miracles as signs. Some of them are referenced generally, as in chapter 2, where it says many believed in his name when they saw the signs he was doing, while others are more specific. As this was the first of his signs Jesus did in Cana in Galilee and manifested his glory, and his disciples believed in him.
Back in John 2, traditionally, the church has identified seven specific signs emphasized by John. When Jesus turned the water for ceremonial washing into wine at the wedding in Cana, when Jesus healed the official’s son by his mere word of command at a great distance, when Jesus healed a paralytic, when Jesus fed the 5,000, when Jesus walked on the water—a sign unseen except by his disciples—when Jesus healed the man who was born blind, and of course, when Jesus raised Lazarus, his friend, from the dead.
Each of these signs serves as evidence supporting Jesus as God the Son, the Logos. Each sign displays a different element or aspect of his divinity, and each sign proves not only that Jesus is God but that he is the same God of the Old Testament—that he actually is the Lord Yahweh and not another God. The God of the Bible is one and the same across both testaments, unlike the suggestion of various early heresies.
We previously saw how Jesus’s transformation of the water to wine manifested his glory at the first sign, being both a blessing and a sign of his mediatorial authority—transforming the water of obligation into the wine of gladness, signifying a change in the New Covenant from the law of Moses to the gospel of Christ, and pointing ahead to the wedding feast of the Lamb.
Now, to see here in the second sign how Jesus’s word of healing demonstrates his divine sovereign authority, his mercy, and the capacity of his power to merely speak and have his command fulfilled.
So after two days, he departed from Samaria. After Jesus had spent an additional two days in the village of Sychar, teaching his new Samaritan disciples at their invitation, Jesus and his disciples continued on their way up. However, now a reason is given which may seem unusual and counterintuitive to us, for Jesus had testified that a prophet has no honor in his own hometown.
The proverb about a prophet in his home that Jesus and John reference points to the Prophet Jeremiah. Therefore, thus says the Lord concerning the men of Anathoth: ‘Seek your life and say, ‘Do not prophesy in the name of the Lord, or you will die by our hand.” Anathoth was the birthplace of Jeremiah, and also, ‘Even your brothers and the house of your father, even they have dealt treacherously with you. They cry after you; do not believe them till they speak friendly words to you.’
Elsewhere in the Synoptics, Jesus speaks this proverb, but he speaks it in direct reference to the people of his hometown, Nazareth. The Nazareth rejection is the reason Jesus is going to Galilee. Within the greater context of John’s gospel, and more narrowly here in this chapter, the proverb is understood differently from its use in the Synoptics. When Jesus said it there, it was in regard to the Nazarenes rejecting him after his claim of fulfilling Isaiah’s prophecy.
Here, when Jesus uses John’s gospel within the context of the signs, the claims, and evidences of his divinity, it becomes clear that the hometown he intends is Jerusalem because Jerusalem is God’s City, and the temple, God’s house, is in Jerusalem. Jerusalem—or Zion, as it was also known—is Jesus’s Father’s earthly home.
Once we recognize this shift in perspective, at the beginning of chapter 4, Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John. He left Judea and departed again for Galilee.
The true reason why Jesus left Judea when he did becomes apparent. The Pharisees encouraged him to move along; they drove him away because they were rejecting him and his teaching. Thus, when we read, “So he came to Galilee,” the Galileans welcomed him. In this proverbs’ life, we understand that while Jesus was welcomed in Galilee, he had no honor in Jerusalem.
Why was he welcomed so gladly? Because the Galileans had seen all that he had done in Jerusalem at the feast, for they too had come to the feast because they saw and heard the prophetic signs that Jesus performed in the temple—his religious zeal, overturning the tables and driving out the money changers, and his words concerning the Temple’s destruction.
This explains why the majority of Jesus’s recorded ministry across all four gospels takes place in Galilee, and how Jesus became so well-known and famous so quickly. This is an explanation that is taken for granted in the other gospels. See, Jesus was famous in Galilee because people from Galilee were in Jerusalem for Passover and they saw his early signs. Then when they went home, they spread the word about him everywhere.
Jesus was not famous because he visited every town and every synagogue; he visited every town and synagogue because he was already famous and because people were interested in hearing what he had to say because of his prophetic signs and wonders.
So after leaving Samaria, Jesus came again to Cana in Galilee, where he made the water wine. Likely, this was part of a preaching tour—a circuit that is described in Mark 1:38 or Luke 4:43. Meanwhile, there was an official whose son was ill.
Now, what does Scripture tell us about this official? Our English translations do not give us as many details, but the Greek actually provides more depth. This official was a basilicos, and the term basilicos was derived from a Greek word, basileus, which means king.
This official, this basilicos, was then likely a royal official in Herod’s government, either that or there was a surviving relation to the previous Hasmonean dynasty. It’s very unlikely that this official was a Gentile or that he was working for the Roman government.
So it’s this difference in social status and station between he and Jesus that increases this story’s impact. This man was a noble, high-ranking, and influential government official—someone for whom expenses would have been of little concern, especially when their family’s welfare was concerned.
We would reasonably expect that, having a sick child, a deathly ill son, every possible remedy or suggestion cure would have been explored and every doctor consulted, making the story which John tells suggest that this official had now reached the point of utter desperation.
But then, when he heard about Jesus—when his man heard that Jesus had come down from Judea to Galilee—he went to him and asked him to come down and heal his son, who was at the point of death. This man lost all hope, but then he heard some good news that restored his hope.
Hope is a wonderful thing, isn’t it? Hope drives and empowers us to do all that we do. But the important question is: What is our hope? In whom or what do we hope? We all hope for the future; we hope for our children’s prosperity.
We hope that the stock market will rise, and we hope that prices will go down. We hope that we will have a good day at work; we hope that we will return home safely at the end of the day. We hope that the presidential election will go the way we prefer, and we hope that the results will ultimately be accepted by everyone and that there will be an orderly transfer.
We hope that the U.S. government will never become wicked and oppressive. We hope for the salvation of the lost; we hope that the sick will be healed; we hope that people will love one another and be kind. We hope that there will be peace on earth someday; we hope in the resurrection on the last day; and we hope in Christ Jesus as our justification before the judgment seat of God.
But how do we live out of that hope? How did this royal official act out of his hope?
He went to Jesus and asked him to come down and heal his son. This is really no different from what we do when we pray. Actually, this official acted very differently from most of us today because of how he approached Jesus. First and foremost, he humbled himself before God.
This presumably rich, powerful, and influential official went to see Jesus—a poor itinerant preacher and common tradesman, a carpenter like his father, Joseph. The man with everything went to the man with nothing to beg him for the life and health of his dying son. Ordinarily, only such desperation would cause someone to humble themselves that much.
He further humbled himself by going to Jesus himself; he did not send a servant nor did he summon Jesus to come to him. He went to make a personal appeal. His father’s love for his son—traveling to where Jesus was—was exceptionally humbling for him. He came from the important trade town of Capernaum to the socially unimportant village of Cana.
Interestingly, most trade routes in the world have not changed over the centuries because the roads of antiquity were influenced by the terrain and topography. In every region, travelers would go around the hills instead of over them, taking the easier, lower rather than the rougher, more difficult high road, even if the rougher may have been shorter or faster.
Thus, the most reasonable route to use from Capernaum to Cana is likely pretty close to that of the first century. This route, according to Google Maps, is about 34 kilometers (around 21 miles). For the well-provisioned, dedicated, focused, determined hiker under good conditions, this would take between 8 to 9 hours of walking.
This would not be an easy trip today, especially in summer times. The journey would have been, and I don’t imagine it would have been an easy day trip during the first century. This would have been a planned and provisioned endeavor, requiring at least two days of travel just to go one way.
So it would have been a terrible inconvenience for this official to travel to Jesus. It would have been arduous, challenging, difficult, and maybe even dangerous, making it a costly trip in both time, money, and effort.
But the greatest possible cost lay with the nobleman risking humiliation by traveling to Jesus, because this desperate father risked not being present at his son’s passing by chasing after this last desperate hope, since his son was at the point of death.
Ultimately, this nobleman humbled himself by not leaning on his own understanding; instead, he trusted in the Lord with his heart. This nobleman humbled himself and went to beg Jesus for a miracle and ask him for something that only God could do.
So Jesus said to him, “Unless you see signs and wonders, you will not believe,” accusing the nobleman of being like so many others: unwilling and unable to believe except when provided with incontrovertible proof. Maybe “accusing” is too choice of words; “challenging” would be better because Jesus is God.
Therefore, Jesus must speak the truth, and Jesus knew that the man believed. But he also knew that the man did not yet understand that belief, and therefore, Jesus challenged him to trust him, to have faith and prove his belief through his actions.
The nobleman begged Jesus, “Sir, come down before my child dies,” asking the prayer of faith and demonstrating his confident belief that Jesus could and would heal his son. He asked Jesus for something he believed Jesus was able to do—something, according to Scripture and the Jewish faith, only God alone could do.
Thus, his act was a proclamation of hope and trust in Jesus, and Jesus answered the nobleman, “Go; your son will live.” The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and went on his way.
There are two major points we should take away from the story at this point. Hearing Jesus speak with authority, the nobleman believed Jesus and went on his way. Faith plus action works; going demonstrated far greater things and a stronger confidence than his initial journey to Cana.
Leaving proved the man’s faith. He did not ask Jesus for a sign; he demanded no proof or assurances, nor did he insist upon a guarantee or promise. Instead, he just trusted Jesus and accepted his word as truth.
Jesus made two authoritative pronouncements: he spoke, and it was so. He made the imperative command, “Go,” and the declaration, “Your son will live.” Jesus did not pray; he only had to say. Jesus spoke, and it was true.
Jesus needed to perform no elaborate act, no dramatic waving of hands or other prophetic action. So here, we see a glimmer of Jesus’s divinity as the Word through whom all things were made commanded into reality. Just as Moses wrote, “And God said,” and there was… Jesus did not mean to put on a show; Jesus did not mean to invoke the Lord’s favor.
He did not need to intercede and ask God to act; Jesus didn’t even need to do anything; he only needed to say, “Let there be…” God acted through Jesus as he acted through the prophets. Instead, Jesus acted as God in the name of God because Jesus is God, and the nobleman believed the word that Jesus spoke to him.
The nobleman trusted Jesus’s word as the word spoken by God, believing and trusting Jesus’s word, being filled with new hope. This nobleman then went to return home to his family.
Then, the next day, while still on his way home—I think he was hurrying home—he encountered some servants sent to bring him news. As he was going down, his servants met him and told him that his son was recovering.
Seeing them approach, I am sure this nobleman’s heart dropped. I’m certain his blood pressure rose, and his anxiety went up because who would not? I mean, seeing the approach, he knew that the only reason they were there was to bring him news about his son. He did not yet know what that news would be.
Doubt invaded his mind, wondering, “Is my hope in Jesus misplaced? Is Jesus a false prophet? Did my son die while I was gone? Was he alone? Did he feel abandoned? Was this trip to the Galilean land to see Jesus a waste of time and effort?”
But the nobleman should be blamed. Even the strongest and most devout Christian believers experience some of these kinds of feelings because they are the slings and arrows of Satan—the flaming darts of the evil one.
But although some of them might have been flung, we are fortunate that they can be caught and blocked, unable to greatly harm us because of the shield of faith.
This is spiritual warfare. We can almost hear his desperate plea, begging his servants to tell him news of his son. And then we can imagine his joy upon hearing the news that he was recovering, that he had survived. Just like Jesus had declared!
Praise the Lord! He asked them when his son recovered. So he asked them when he began to get better. They said to him, “Yesterday at the seventh hour, the fever left him.” This was the hour when Jesus had said to him, “Your son will live.”
The nobleman’s hope in Jesus was confirmed. This is no coincidence; his faith was proven true, his confidence was reaffirmed and improved. This was clear evidence for him of a miracle—an event that something supernatural and extraordinary had happened.
Just as God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light, so Jesus said, “Your son will live,” and the boy lived. After going home and seeing the evidence with his own eyes and embracing his living child once again, then he himself believed, and his whole household.
That doesn’t mean that he didn’t believe before, but now he knew and understood what he believed. Now he admitted to believing in and trusting in Jesus.
Now his faith was made public; now it was no longer based merely on feelings or opinions. Now he knew. He had seen, and he had knowledge—that Jesus is God, that Jesus is trustworthy and true, that Jesus’s word is authoritative truth.
Not only did he believe but also all his household—his son and his family, along with all of his servants. Everyone in close contact who knew about the miracle believed because they saw the sign and wonder of the boy’s recovery.
Just as Jesus challenged the nobleman, they saw the evidence of God’s power and glory manifested through Jesus’s word. They knew and therefore they believed.
This was now the second sign that Jesus did when he had come from Judea to Galilee. The first sign manifested Jesus’s glory as that of the Lord God. The second demonstrated the authority of Jesus’s word as that of the Lord God.
As God the Son, Jesus spoke, therefore it was so. The story demonstrates Jesus’s authority differently than the synoptics.
We see the attitudes when Jesus finished. The crowds were astonished at his teaching for he was teaching them as one who had authority, and not as their scribes. There, the sense of authority came from the depth of his teaching.
But I say to you, yet here his authority is that of an active cause with a definite effect. This also differentiates Jesus from the Old Testament miracle-performing prophets like Elijah, Elisha, and Moses.
When Elijah commanded the widow of Zarephath to use oil, he did so by explaining, “For thus says the Lord, the God of Israel,” invoking the Lord’s authority to command. When Elisha healed the spring of Jericho, he said, “Thus says the Lord, I have healed this water,” invoking God’s power and crediting him with the action.
When Moses worked miracles in Egypt, he spoke with implicit authority as the messenger. The miracles still occurred by him obeying God’s direct prescription. The Lord said to Moses, “Say to Aaron, ‘Stretch out your hand and your staff over the rivers, over the canals, pools, and make frogs come up on the land of Egypt.’”
Moses still had to ask God, and Moses cried to the Lord, and the frogs came. His word was as God’s word, and Jesus’s word truly was God’s word itself.
The prophets needed to pray and ask for the Lord’s blessing and action; Jesus spoke, and he commanded, and it was so—without needing to invoke the Lord’s authority.
He did not need to ask God to heal people; Jesus healed them himself. The power and authority of Jesus’s word prove that Jesus’s word is the greatest and highest authority we believe.
We believe that Scripture is his definitive word, inspired by the Holy Spirit and recorded. We believe that Scripture carries the full authority of Christ concerning everything it says.
We believe Scripture has been given for our instruction, reproof, and training in righteousness. This means that listening to Jesus and obeying him and his word means we will not go wrong, although we may misinterpret and misunderstand his word at times.
If we are faithful, diligent, and conscientious about applying Scripture to our lives, it shall lead towards our greatest good.
Beyond the authority of Scripture, we also need to learn from the example of the nobleman. As Christians, we need to live out of our expectations. We need to live as if we believe our hope in Christ Jesus will be fulfilled and may be fulfilled at any moment.
What if we lived like we honestly believe that Jesus will return any minute? What would that do to our anxieties? How would they shift or change?
What if we lived as if we believed we might die at any minute and would be immediately translated to glory? Would you live any differently? What would you do now?
Would you waste as much time on your trivialities as you do now? This nobleman—he lived out his hope in Jesus—acted at the risk of great personal cost. He believed that Jesus could change his life, so he went and asked him to change it.
Then when he asked, he obeyed Jesus’s command because he trusted Jesus’s authoritative word. Jesus said he believed it.
As you trust in Jesus for your salvation, and he tells you to go and sin no more, then you must live repentant and live differently. You must actually go and sin no more.
Just having faith in Christ, believing in and trusting in Jesus is not enough for our salvation—it’s only the first part. First, we must believe, then we must trust him and do as he commands.
This nobleman demonstrated his belief by going to Jesus, trusting that Jesus would take care of him. He left his dying son because he had faith that Jesus would heal him.
This nobleman acted in response to what he believed God would do. He humbled himself before Jesus.
He did not assume his entitlement or privilege, this powerful and influential man humbled himself and asked another for help.
Do we humble ourselves when we pray as modern Christians? How often do we assume that God will respond to our prayers merely because we ask?
How often do we pray from a sense of entitlement, believing that we deserve and that God must answer? How often do we expect Jesus to answer our prayers because of who we are, instead of because of who he is?
That’s something we all, myself included, especially need to repent of and let the Spirit change within us.
So remember to first humble yourself when you pray. Remember that God answers because of who he is, not because of who you are. And that is the reason that gives you great cause for joy, because we deserve none of the good that God gives us.
Remember to live out your faith. Live as if you honestly believe that Christ is coming soon. Expect the expected to happen in unexpected ways and at unexpected times.
Know and believe that Jesus is true and that the truth speaks with authority. Believe that Scripture is the highest authority we can appeal to because it is God’s holy word.
Last, welcome Christ and rejoice that he is in your life. You can see and know about all the unique and wonderful things that he has done. The evidence of his many signs and wonders are available right here at your fingertips.
So go and seek for yourself, believe in him, and believe him. Repent of your sin and trust Jesus Christ enough to obey him in all things. Amen.
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