Jesus Heals Herod's Official's Son (J17)

Back in Galilee, Jesus’ fame had spread;
In Jerusalem, many had seen Him
Clearing the temple, and heard what He said;
Throngs gathered; He could barely move for them!
An official from Capernaum then came,
Asking healing for his lone dying son;
People pushed in, hoping to see His fame,
Another wonder by Messiah done!
“You people won’t believe without a sign,”
Jesus remarked; then He said to the one
Whose love and faith kept him fast in the line,
“You may go. Your son will live,” said the Son!
Many came only to see signs He’d done,
Not really to believe He was God’s Son!

“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. 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. ‘Unless you people see miraculous signs and wonders,’ Jesus told him, ‘you will never believe.’ The royal official said, ‘Sir, come down before my child dies.’ Jesus replied, ‘You may go. Your son will live.’ The man took Jesus at his word and departed. While he was still on the way, his servants met him with the news that his boy was living. When he inquired as to the time when his son got better, they said to him, ‘The fever left him yesterday at the seventh hour.’ Then the father realized that this was the exact time at which Jesus had said to him, ‘Your son will live.’ So he and all his house had believed.” (John 4:46-53) (The complete text for this poem/commentary is John 4:43:54.)

This is the second miraculous sign that John described in his gospel, but, of course, there were many more left undescribed. John chose to include only seven of the miracles done by Jesus, selecting carefully those which pointed to the deity of Jesus. The first, that of changing the water into wine, pointed to Jesus’ ability to control elements of the world by turning one kind into another—that is, water into wine; therefore, the sign pointed to His creation of the world. In this sign, it proved that Jesus can control events in the world from a distance—He healed the boy in Capernaum, though he was some sixty miles away.

There are several other lessons we can learn from this incident. It is obvious by His remark that Jesus would prefer people to believe in Him as God without having to see Him performing such wonders. Not that He objected to persons becoming convinced that He was God after seeing a miracle, because He said Himself in John 10:2 that the Jews should believe because of the signs and wonders, if not from His words, which were from the Father. He considered it possible that a person who believes only after seeing a miracle has a weaker faith than one who believes based only on words and testimonies. What about Christians of today, 2000 years after His ascension into heaven? We’re not likely to see an explicit miracle from God; our belief must be based on our faith in the Bible, testimonies by other Christians, or inner urgings of the Holy Spirit.

Another lesson for us is that the royal official was probably a Gentile. Herod was not a Jew; most of his associates were not Jewish either. In our last three blogs we learned that Jesus was concerned for Samaritans, not just Jews. Here, too, we see Him healing a Gentile boy, and that at a distance. He was making a point of showing his disciples that the gospel is for all nations and races. One of the Jews’ biggest misinterpretations of the Old Testament was that God (Yahweh) belonged only to the Jewish race. All others were considered inferior; they called them “Gentiles”, with “tiles” being a hiss.

“That if you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord’, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” (Romans 10:9)