Go your way; your son lives

 

 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 that, while Jesus was speaking to the Samaritan woman at Jacob's well (just after His revelation that He is the Christ), 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 many 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.   John reports Jesus' testimony that a prophet has no honor in his own country; this statement is present in all four Gospels (see also Matthew 13:57, Mark 6:4, Luke 4:24).  Galileans were present at Jerusalem during the Passover (John 2:13-25), when Jesus performed many signs, my study Bible explains.  While the Galileans received Christ having seen His signs, St. John Chrysostom gives greater credit to the Samaritans (see the readings from Wednesday and Thursday) based on words alone without the accompanying signs (see also John 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.  Then Jesus said to him, "Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will by no means believe."  My study Bible comments that Christ is admonishing the people in general (you in Christ's statement is plural both times) and not merely the nobleman.  Faith based on miraculous works only is insufficient for salvation.  This kind of incomplete faith quickly turns to scorn should the miracles cease (John 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 nobleman's concern is clearly for his child, although his faith in Christ is weak, my study Bible says.  He doesn't understand that Christ is Lord over illness even from a distance, nor does he sense that Jesus would have the power to heal even if the child were to die.  He finally asks about the timing of the healing, still not completely trusting in the authority of Christ.  It's only after everything is confirmed that he and his whole household believe.  My study Bible concludes that thus, in healing the child from a distance, Jesus heals not just the body of the child, but also the soul of the nobleman.  

This again is the second sign Jesus did when He had come out of Judea into Galilee.   As the text tells us, the story of the nobleman's son in today's reading is the second sign of seven reported in John's Gospel.  My study Bible remarks that having revealed that He can see into the hearts of people from a distance (see the story of the calling of Nathanael, John 1:45-48), Christ now demonstrates that He can heal from a distance, showing us that His divine power knows no earthly limits.  There are certain similarities between this sign and the miracle recorded in Matthew 8:5-13, but there are also many crucial differences, which make clear they are two different encounters.  

Why is ti important for us to know that Christ can heal from a distance?  This revelation must be given to us for a reason.  It not only reveals Christ to be divine, but it also adds certain perspectives on our faith to us, that are relevant to our own lives and how we experience faith itself.  We need to understand Whom it is with which we engage in communion and relationship.  My study Bible comments that Christ's action in today's reading shows that His divine power knows no earthly limits. This is a theme which appears in many of the miraculous signs in the Gospels.  But if His power is not bound by the worldly limits to which we're subject -- that of distance, in this case -- then it means that His power can also effectively reach us.  It means that when we enter into worship and prayer, we're not just practicing something alone that we do from a distance.  Rather, this "unlmiting" of earthly limits mean that Christ can be present with us, too ("I am with you always, even to the end of the age" - Matthew 28:20).  And not only Christ enters into communion with us, but when we worship there also present that great cloud of witnesses to whom St. Paul refers in Hebrews 12:1.   In the readings involving the Samaritan woman of the past two days, Jesus revealed that "the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him."  To worship in spirit and truth indicates a lack of earthly barriers; not only does it mean that as temples of God (1 Corinthians 3:16), God's spirit may dwell in us, but it also means that there are no barriers within our participation in the life of Christ, and Christ in us.  In Matthew's Gospel, Jesus says to the disciples, "Are not two sparrows sold for a copper coin? And not one of them falls to the ground apart from your Father’s will. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered" (Matthew 10:28-31).  Therefore we are to understand that our unlimited God sees everything, and is with us in all the details, even to the number of hairs on our head.  So everything that Christ does tells us of Gods' concern and care and presence with us.  From a distance He heals this nobleman's child, and in so doing, He heals the nobleman as well.  This is another aspect of what it means that Christ's power is unlimited, for it reaches into all aspects of our lives and can heal in ways we don't even understand that we are broken.  Our lives intersect with God's power and love which reaches everywhere, but so often we don't understand how God cooperates with us in our lives and requires our cooperation as well.  Building on even a weak faith, Christ can come to us and dwell with us (John 14:23).  Our expectations of life are one thing, and also what we call perfection, but there are times when even an infirmity or sadness may be used by God to help expand our faith (2 Corinthians 12:9).  Let us consider, at each moment of our day, in every tiny place in our lives, how Christ can be present with us, for our God is the God who sees, who is with us even when we are abandoned (Genesis 16:7-13).  Today's passage tells us that when Jesus said to him, "Go your way; your son lives," this man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him, and he went his way.  We don't all know what it would be like to speak to Jesus face-to-face, as human being, but let us seek to take confidence in His word, in our time with Him in worship, and in private prayer.