Read John 4:43 – 4:54
After the two days he left for Galilee. (Now Jesus himself had pointed out that a prophet has no honor in his own country.) 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.
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 signs and wonders,”Jesus told him, “you will never believe.”
The royal official said, “Sir, come down before my child dies.”
“Go,”Jesus replied, “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, “Yesterday, at one in the afternoon, the fever left him.”
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.
This was the second sign Jesus performed after coming from Judea to Galilee.
Jesus has returned to the place of his first sign; Cana in Galilee, where he turned water into wine at a wedding celebration. The first sign gave us glimpses of who Jesus is, what he came to do, and the paradigms he came to change. This second sign reveals even more about who Jesus is and is a display of God’s power.
I resonate with the father in the account. There have been many times when I have wanted a miracle for one of my children. I feel and understand his need, his fear, his urgency. The official, desperate to do something to save his son, goes directly to the source he believes can offer hope – Jesus. He traveled the 15 miles to plead with Jesus to travel with him in order to heal his son. As a man of influence and authority he could have sent a messenger, but as a desperate father he made the ask for a miracle himself.
Word had spread and everywhere Jesus went amazing things happened – so why wouldn’t the official want Jesus to travel with him to his home…where Jesus was there seemed to be this power they hadn’t seen before. But in true Jesus fashion, he turns things upside down! Jesus only speaks the words that the man’s son will live and 15 miles away – a miracle occurs!
Jesus displays the power of God in a way no one had seen. He proved that God is not constrained by physical location but that His power is present and accessible everywhere at His command.
Upon the realization of what had taken place, the official and his family placed their belief in Jesus, and because of John’s eyewitness testimony we too can be impacted by this miraculous sign. Because that power that spanned 15 miles that day is the same power alive and working in our world today. Jesus may not physically be walking the earth but His power is still present and accessible everywhere at His command.
That means there is power for the things that make us desperate too. For our children. For our families. For our health. For our friends. For our country. For our world. God isn’t a magic genie who gives us all the things we want. But we too can seek God’s power for ourselves as the official did, and then take Him at His word and expect Him to move in a way that brings Him glory and reveals Himself to the world around us.
