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Joh_4:44-54
Thus He proceeded, until He reached Cana of Galilee, which was the scene of his first recorded miracle, and was destined to be that of the second, of which a full account is given.
It was while He was here, that a nobleman, belonging to the court of Herod Antipas, and whose residence was at Capernaum, having heard of, or witnessed, his miracles of healing at Jerusalem, and being apprised of his arrival in Galilee, hastened to Him to implore Him to come down and heal his son who was at the point of death. There is some doubt as to the precise meaning of the word translated “nobleman,” and the question need not detain us. It is enough that he was some person in authority at court. Some have supposed it was Chuza, Herod’s steward, whose wife was, at a later period, one of the holy women who ministered to the Lord of their substance (Luk_8:3).
Our Lord’s reply to this application seems less gracious than his usual answers to distressed suppliants, and bears an aspect of repulsion and rebuke: “Except ye see signs and wonders, ye will not believe.” There must have been a reason for this, We shall perceive very often that the answers of Jesus apply much less to the questions asked and petitions addressed to Him, than to the frame of mind, the disposition of heart, which his searching eye discovered in the querist or suppliant. It is hence that on occasions which bear much resemblance to each other in externals, the answers are often materially different. There were miracle seekers, who had no regard to the higher ends for which they were performed—that of producing faith in Christ—but who rather wished to make this heavenly power subservient to their earthly ends, and were desirous of thereby gratifying either low desires or mere idle curiosity. Against such Jesus was always strict and stern, often repelling their solicitations unheard. There were also those who were drawn to the Redeemer by the sense of craving inward wants which He alone could satisfy, and who under that influence attached themselves strongly to Him. These He loved best, and met with Divine tenderness and affection. There was yet another class between these, who at first were drawn to Him by their instant external needs; and who often afterwards, when they had obtained relief, joined Him with feelings of love. The present nobleman belonged to this class. He is not disinclined to believe; but it is necessity alone, and not an inward impulse, which brings him to Christ.
Jesus—lately come from Samaria, where the people had been drawn to Him by the Divine power of his words and his appearance, without any miracles—could not but contrast this with the insensibility to Divine impressions among the Jews, whose faith—wrapped up as they were in formal Pharisaism—seemed continually to need the support and exciting stimulus of signs and wonders. Hence our Lord’s answer, or rather remark, on this occasion, is expressed in the plural form, though suggested by the application of the nobleman.
This answer did not, however, amount to a refusal; and a father conflicting for a son’s life is not easily repelled. So the nobleman pressed his supplication with still greater urgency of supplicating entreaty—“Sir, come down ere my child die!” Who does not hear a groan, and see a hot tear in every word of this? The man was a very anxiously loving father, but a very weak believer. He had not the least idea that Jesus could heal his son unless He went down to Capernaum, and performed some kind of operation or manipulation upon him. Hence his urgency that He should “come down.” Still less did he suppose that there was power in Jesus to burst the bands of death; and hence his anxiety that He should hasten his departure that He might be there, before the child’s death should render the case past hope or cure.
Perceiving this state of mind, our Lord, who in all his dealings with men, kept their higher interests in view; resolved to try his faith, and to strengthen it by the trial. He said to him, “Go thy way; thy son liveth.” There must have been something good, some germ of true faith, in this man—or rather he received grace to believe—for he was satisfied with this simple assurance, that all would go well with the child whom he had left in the last gasps of life. So well was he satisfied, that his anxiety altogether vanished. This is evinced by the fact, that although there was plenty of time for him to have gone home that afternoon, as it was but the seventh hour, he delayed his departure till the next day, perhaps that he might see and hear more of Jesus. The day after, when he was on his return, he was met by some of his servants, who had been sent to relieve him from his anxiety by informing him that the child was well. He then inquired the time when he began to mend; and hearing that “yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him,” he knew that it was at the very time when Christ had said to him, “thy son liveth.” He now perceived and knew that Jesus had been more kind to him than he had even dared to ask. If Christ had gone with him to Capernaum, it is quite likely that the child might have been dead before they arrived; and although it is possible the Lord might have raised him from the dead, yet this was more than the nobleman would have hoped or expected, and he would conclude that it was too late, that it was all over then. But Jesus had come to the relief of the child far sooner than the parent asked; for in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, He had laid an arrest upon the fever, and poured health into the child’s veins, while the father was asking the Deliverer to walk twenty miles before he gave a cure.
The effect was most salutary upon the mind of this nobleman: he “himself believed, and his whole house.” Believed what? He had before believed the word that Jesus had spoken to him as regarded his son; but now, in view of all these circumstances, and of what he had heard from and of Christ while in attendance at Cana, he is deeply impressed, he yields the adherence of faith, he enters into the number of his disciples, and gives himself to him as to the Messiah that was to come. That his house also believed under the impression of the like circumstances, is natural—especially was it natural that the mother should believe; and if that mother were the good Joanna, “the wife of Chuza, Herod’s steward,” her subsequent history affords interesting evidence of the depth of her gratitude and the earnestness of her faith.