Sir, come down before my child dies!

 Now after the two days He departed from there and went to Galilee.  For Jesus Himself testified that a prophet has no honor in his own country.  So when He came to Galilee, the Galileans received Him, having seen all the things He did in Jerusalem at the feast; for they also had gone to the feast.

So Jesus came again to Cana of Galilee where He had made the water wine.  And there was a certain nobleman whose son was sick at Capernaum.  When he heard that Jesus had come out of Judea into Galilee, he went to Him and implored Him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death.  Then Jesus said to him, "Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will by no means believe."  The nobleman said to Him, "Sir, come down before my child dies!"  Jesus said to him, "Go your way; your son lives."  So the man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him, and he went his way.  And as he was now going down, his servants met him and told him, saying, "Your son lives!"  Then he inquired of them the hour when he got better.  And they said to him, "Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him."  So the father knew that it was at the same hour in which Jesus said to him, "Your son lives."  And he himself believed, and his whole household.  This again is the second sign Jesus did when He had come out of Judea into Galilee.

- John 4:43-54

Yesterday we read the continuation of the story of Jesus' encounter with the Samaritan woman.  After He had revealed Himself to her as Messiah, at this point His disciples came, and they marveled that He talked with a woman; yet no one said, "What do You seek?" or, "Why are You talking with her?"  The woman then left her waterpot, went her way into the city, and said to the men, "Come, see a Man who told me all things that I ever did.  Could this be the Christ?"  Then they went out of the city and came to Him.  In the meantime, His disciples urged Him, saying, "Rabbi, eat."  But He said to them, "I have food to eat of which you do not know."  Therefore the disciples said to one another, "Has anyone brought Him anything to eat?"  Jesus said to them, "My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work.  Do you not say, 'There are still four months and then comes the harvest'?  Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest!  And he who reaps receives wages, and gathers fruit for eternal life, that both he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together.  For in this the saying is true:  'One sows and another reaps.'  I sent you to reap that for which you have not labored; others have labored, and you have entered into their labors."  And many of the Samaritans of that city believed in Him because of the word of the woman who testified, "He told me all that I ever did."  So when the Samaritans had come to Him, they urged Him to stay with them; and He stayed there two days.  And may more believed because of His own word.  Then they said to the woman, "Now we believe, not because of what you said, for we ourselves have heard Him and we know that this is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the world."

 Now after the two days He departed from there and went to Galilee.  For Jesus Himself testified that a prophet has no honor in his own country.  So when He came to Galilee, the Galileans received Him, having seen all the things He did in Jerusalem at the feast; for they also had gone to the feast.  Jesus' own country is Galilee.   This saying that a prophet has no honor in his own country is repeated in all four Gospels (see also Matthew 13:57, Mark 6:4, Luke 4:24).  It tells us, importantly, about the nature of what prophets reveal, and our unwillingness or difficulty to see beyond our own assumptions and certitudes.  Galileans were present at Jerusalem during the Passover (see this reading).  There Jesus had performed many signs.  While the Galileans received Christ having seen His signs, greater credit is given by St. John Chrysostom for accepting Christ based on words alone without accompanying signs (see also 20:29).

So Jesus came again to Cana of Galilee where He had made the water wine.  And there was a certain nobleman whose son was sick at Capernaum.  When he heard that Jesus had come out of Judea into Galilee, he went to Him and implored Him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death.   Today's reading gives us the second sign of seven described in John's Gospel, although we're told there were others, such as at the feast, above (the first was at the wedding at Cana).  Although Jesus has already revealed He can see into the hearts of people from a distance (such as when He spoke to Nathanael, 1:45-48), in today's sign He reveals that He can heal from a distance.  My study bible says that this shows that His divine power knows no earthly limits.  Although there are similarities between this sign and the miracle of Matthew 8:5-13, the story of the healing of the centurion's servant, there are also crucial differences; these are considered two different encounters.

Then Jesus said to him, "Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will by no means believe."  Here Christ admonishes the people in general (you is plural both times), and not simply the nobleman.  My study bible comments that faith based on miraculous works alone is insufficient for salvation; this kind of incomplete faith quickly turns to scorn if the miracles cease (19:15).

The nobleman said to Him, "Sir, come down before my child dies!"  Jesus said to him, "Go your way; your son lives."  So the man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him, and he went his way.  And as he was now going down, his servants met him and told him, saying, "Your son lives!"  Then he inquired of them the hour when he got better.  And they said to him, "Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him."  So the father knew that it was at the same hour in which Jesus said to him, "Your son lives."  And he himself believed, and his whole household.  This again is the second sign Jesus did when He had come out of Judea into Galilee.  My study bible notes here that the nobleman's concern is clearly for his child, although his faith in Christ is weak.  He doesn't comprehend that Christ is Lord over illness even from a distance.   Neither does He understand that Jesus would have the power to heal even if the child were to die.  In the end, he inquires about the timing of the healing, still not completely trusting in the authority of Christ.  Only after all of this is confirmed, he and his whole household believe.  Therefore we  infer that Jesus heals not only the body of the child but also the soul of the nobleman.

Sometimes we desperately pray for things, and we have to wait for what we want.  Although this nobleman's child is healed instantly when Jesus speaks to him, he still has the experience of anxiously praying in an urgent situation, and waiting on Jesus' word.  Even as Jesus speaks to him and tells him, "Go your way; your son lives," the nobleman still has to experience waiting -- as he does not believe until he has it confirmed to him that indeed the child is healed.  Our prayers are similar, in that our own expectations define what we pray for.  There is a timing and a method of how our prayers are answered that is determined only by Christ, by God.  In a strange sense, we frequently find in retrospect a complicated divine timing no human being could have planned in the answers to prayers.  Most frequently, I personally would add, the answers to my prayers do not come in the form that I asked for!  But there is a deeper meaning, answer, and divine plan at work that gives instead what I need -- and that is particularly true for the need I have of growing in faith.  The complex answers to prayers may sometimes be disheartening, a letdown, a disappointment -- but the answer, I find, is always one that in the end tests and strengthens our faith, if we but follow the road of God set out for us.  Often there are hidden gems within disappointments.  Even a death, in my personal experience, which seemed entirely tragic, turned out in retrospect to have been a blessing for the one who passed, as deeper and complex health issues leading to great suffering were revealed after the fact.  Praying is a simple thing for us, seemingly, to do.  But the depth of complexity behind the prayers, and into which we step when we pray, is something absolutely beyond the comprehension of any of us.  We step into a cosmos of the created order, including saints and angels we know not of, when we enter into prayer and participate in this kingdom of heaven.  We pray with the angels.   Intercessory prayer enters into a communion with others, even those who have passed but who live to Christ.  This depth of complexity also leads us into the issue of time itself, such as is the focus of today's reading.  What is Christ's time?  It is eternal, not in the way that we experience time.  And yet, timing in an answer to a prayer often seems so astoundingly apt, precise, something happens in ways we can't calculate ourselves, in the right order, in the time we needed it.  Life is complex and mysterious, but those very factors are things that become a part of ourselves when we participate in the life of God through prayer.  We don't realize it, but we intersect with what is vast and deep, and yet also concerned with each one of us.  Jesus teaches us that the very hairs of our head are numbered, and that not even a sparrow falls to the ground without the awareness of God the Father (Luke 12:6-7).  The healing of the nobleman's son is an astonishing second sign in the Gospel of John, but our own lives remain every bit as dramatic, as full, as intersected into the life of God as this -- if we can but see what God asks us to see, and to listen and hear in the communion we can know through prayer.