We continue with our fascinating study in the Gospel of John. It is important to remember John’s purpose in 20:31 that he wrote so that we may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God and that believing,
“we may have life in His name.”
John highlights a triad of three areas: Who Jesus is (Christ, Son of God), our response (believing), and the result (life in His name). All of his gospel continues to develop these three themes. Jesus was sent by God and equal with God because we could not help ourselves.
We believe in Him, not in ourselves, as the one who saves us and died in our place. When we do this, we have real life, eternal life from Him that truly satisfies.
In our section, John centers more on believing in Jesus as he shows two dangers to belief, one solution, and one surprising result.
43 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 Festival, 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. 47 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.
48 “Unless you people see signs and wonders,” Jesus told him, “you will never believe.”
49 The royal official said, “Sir, come down before my child dies.”
50 “Go,” Jesus replied, “your son will live.”
The man took Jesus at his word and departed. 51 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, “Yesterday, at one in the afternoon, the fever left him.”
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 his whole household believed.
54 This was the second sign Jesus performed after coming from Judea to Galilee.
The situation
As Jesus enters Galilee from Samaria, John summarizes that the people did not really honor Jesus even though they welcomed Him. They held Jesus more at arm’s length and did not treat Him as they should or believe in Him as they should. Our story illustrates this as does much of the gospel.
Jesus was in Cana in the hills of Galilee and the government official we meet was down in Capernaum, a distance of over 30 km away. This man’s son was at the point of death and the father was so desperate that he left him and the family to go 2+ days to find Jesus. He had faith but we will see his faith was crippled, much like the faith in the region and maybe like ours too.
Dangers to our faith in Jesus
“The first danger we see is a faith dependent on feelings. ”
Jesus could see this man’s faith depended on being propped up by continual signs. Miracles were supposed to be pointers to a greater reality of Jesus and who He was but this man centered on the miracles instead.
He was not honoring Jesus as who He was and was relying on feelings of awe, excitement, or certainty instead. His faith was shallow and his feelings became a crutch.
Why is this dangerous?
It enslaves our faith so it goes up and down according to how we are doing and feeling.
It takes our eyes off of Jesus and on to ourselves and how we feel about Him or the situation.
“The second danger is a faith dependent on our plans.”
The man had Jesus’ method of healing all figured out - He needed to come to Capernaum to heal his son, which is twice repeated. It was not enough for the what, the healing, but also he was telling Jesus the how of doing it.
This also does not honor the Lord as we seek to manage Him according to our own thoughts of how He should work. We are looking to ourselves to figure it all out for God to then do it. It also limits our faith to whatever we can conceive God can do.
Both of these dangers have a common element - me. I become the center of my faith and not Jesus.
One solution
Jesus’ answer to the man is to go home, your son will live. How does this answer help the man drop his crutches inhibiting his faith? He did not see the answer yet so his feelings could not be the main reason. Plus, it was not according to his plan.
It required a simple faith in who Jesus was and His word. The man had a hard choice to believe in Jesus and he dropped his crutches and started walking home, despite whatever feelings or misgivings he had. A whole day plus some of the next tested his faith but he kept at it and trusted the Lord. His faith was being healed.
A surprising result
The man meets his servants the following day who came with the news that his boy was totally healed. As he asked about the timing, it was right when Jesus said his boy will live. His faith was confirmed and now different than before. As he heads home to the happy reunion, he tells his family and servants and friends and their faith is born. But the man had to tell how he just believed in Jesus and His word so they could believe as well. Our faith in Jesus can help others believe in Him too.
It is interesting that another similar incident happens later in Matthew 8:5-13 with a Roman centurion from all places, Capernaum. The centurion had a sick servant and came to Jesus. But when Jesus said He would come to heal the servant, the centurion said all He needed to do was say the word.
“Jesus responded that his faith was the greatest He had seen in all the land.”
Whether or not this centurion had contact with our father in our story, as it seems likely, faith is simply trusting the Lord to act and not looking to ourselves and our feelings and our plans.
This challenges us in evaluating how we are trusting the Lord. As believers, how well do we rely on Jesus and His word? Even unbelievers can say that they don’t have enough faith to believe, thinking they have to feel a certain way before they could trust in Jesus. We honor the Lord by our just believing in Him and not limiting Him by our own thoughts.
