Thoughts on John 4:46-54

Therefore He came again to Cana of Galilee where He had made the water wine. And there was a royal official whose son was sick at Capernaum. When he heard that Jesus had come out of Judea into Galilee, he went to Him and was imploring Him to come down and heal his son; for he was at the point of death.

Jesus performed His first sign in Cana, turning water into wine. This doesn’t happen every day. The whole region was impacted. So, when this royal official’s son was near death he sought out Jesus for help. The father implored Him. He was desperate. When desperate, people go to the power. They’re not interested in experimentation. They are at full-blown, face-like-a-flint intensity.

I believe that we see much less healing because (at least) two things dilute that potential faith which is born of desperation: 1.) People first run to the many options available because they believe it’s their best chance for relief. 2.) Available medical assistance makes tolerable an otherwise desperate condition.

I do not say this to criticize. It’s merely an observation from my own life and from what I see in our culture. Truth be told, I don’t like being desperate. Yet in this encounter, and most others, those who approach Jesus have utterly exhausted all Internet options.

Oddly, Jesus gives a slight reproof saying, Unless you people see signs and wonders, you simply will not believe. Wasn’t that why He was doing the signs; to reveal the Kingdom of Heaven and to inspire folks to believe in Him? I’m a pinch baffled by that comment. Perhaps He is testing the father’s heart.

Consumed by his need, the father disregards the reproof and says, Sir, come down before my child dies. Jesus sees the only thing that exists in that father’s universe and speaks directly to it, Go; your son lives.

Does that not blow your mind? Such a laser word! Such simplicity. It’s beyond positive – it’s searing. It was the voice of the Everlasting God – El Shadai, purely declared. It was the voice that spoke, Let there be light. The possibility of its not producing what Jesus intended did not exist. It quickened the man’s spirit like the clap of thunder. The father spent no time debating whether or not to believe. These were not only the most delicious words he’d ever tasted, they were the only ones he would permit himself to consume. Desperate.

The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and started off.

As he was now going down, his slaves met him, saying that his son was living. So he inquired of them the hour when he began to get better. Then they said to him, “Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him.”

After his slaves met and told him that his son was living the father knew that it was at that hour in which Jesus said to him, “Your son lives.” Even though he'd still not seen his son, he knew he'd heard Jesus’ word.

Not only did he believe, but his whole family now opened fully to the living faith. There was a faith-quake among his relatives. No doubt the entire region was, again, greatly shaken for good.