"Your son will live" (John 4:46-53)

ENCOUNTERS WITH JESUS IN JOHN'S GOSPEL:
Interaction with a Royal Official (John 4:46-53)

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Dr. Paul Manuel—2016

This sermon series: Encounters with Jesus in John’s Gospel.

• His interaction with a commercial enterprise ( John 2:13-16)
• His interaction with a royal official (John 4:46-53)
• His interaction with a sick friend (John 11:1-44)
• His interaction with a traitorous disciple (John 13:21-30)

 

When you pray, are you confident that God will answer or do you wonder if He even listens?

The minister's six-year-old daughter had been so naughty during the week that her mother decided to give her the worst kind of punishment. Her mother told her she couldn’t go to the church picnic that weekend. When the day arrived, however, her mother felt she had been too harsh and changed her mind. She told the little girl she could go to the picnic after all, but the child's reaction was one of gloom and unhappiness. “What's the matter?” her mother asked. “I thought you’d be glad to go to the picnic.” “It’s too late!” the little girl replied…. “I’ve already prayed for rain.”

Be careful what you pray lest God’s answer be what you asked but not really what you wanted. Most times, we would be happy if God’s response matched our request, as was the father who petitioned for his son’s healing.

All three synoptic gospels record that from the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry he engaged in helping the many who came to him:

• Matthew writes that “Jesus went throughout Galilee…healing every disease and sickness among the people” (Matt 4:23).
• Mark writes that “Jesus healed many who had various diseases” (Mark 1:34).
• Luke writes that “people brought to Jesus all who had various kinds of sickness, and…he healed them” (Luke 4:40).

Unlike the synoptics, John makes no such blanket statement in his gospel, although
he does mention several specific cases:

• The rabbi heals a lame man.

Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked. (John 5:8-9)

Without any surgery, drugs, or physical therapy, Jesus effects this cure solely with his word.

• The rabbi heals a blind man.

Jesus made some mud with…saliva and put it on the man’s eyes…. The man…washed and came home seeing. (John 9:6, 7b)

Saliva is not a sanitary substance. Apparently Jesus was not familiar with the danger of infection, or he certainly would have used a different treatment.

• The rabbi heals a dead man.

Jesus called in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” 44 The dead man came out…. (John 11:43)

The cause of this man’s death is unknown, but the cause is practically irrelevant once he has died. Knowing the cause may be helpful in treating future cases, but it makes no difference to Lazarus at this point. He is dead, and has been that way for three days. This is another cure Jesus effects solely with his word.

Toward the beginning of this fourth account of the savior’s life, the author records yet another one of the Encounters with Jesus in John’s Gospel,¹ the rabbi’s Interaction with a Royal Official, perhaps a member of king Herod’s court,² who petitions Jesus on behalf of his son.³

I. The father requests Jesus’ aid (John 4:46-49).

A. He knows the rabbi’s healing power.

John 4:46b 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. 47 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.

The last time Jesus was in Cana was to attend a wedding. There he performed his first recorded miracle. While one might assume that turning water to wine was not Jesus’ only special ability, it does not follow that other abilities would include the power to heal disease. Most likely, Jesus has already displayed curative skill by treating many of the sick and infirm who come to him, as the other gospel writers record, and it is those other cases that have encouraged this official to approach Jesus on behalf of his son. He knows about the rabbi’s healing power. More than that…

B. He needs the rabbi’s healing power.

As you might imagine, free health care is a large attraction for people. There might be a long line to see the doctor but well worth the wait given Jesus’ success rate. This was the big draw, evidently overshadowing other aspects of the ministry, such as his call: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.” (Matt 3:2; 4:17), leading him to complain.⁴

John 4:48 “Unless you people see miraculous signs and wonders,” Jesus told him, “you will never believe.”⁵ 49 The royal official said, “Sir, come down before my child dies.”

Jesus is saying that most people are coming to him for the spectacle, like a Wild West show. “Miraculous signs and wonders” are typical of the way God operates in three periods:

• During the days of Elijah and Elisha⁶
• During the days of Jesus and the apostles⁷
• During the days before the messiah’s return⁸

The purpose of these miracles was not to entertain the public but to validate the authority of God’s spokesmen.

Jesus’ complaint is that the folks who witness his “miraculous signs and wonders” are not there for the accompanying message, the call to align their lives with God’s program. In fact, they are more interested in what Jesus can do for them than in what he has to say to them. This father’s reason for seeing Jesus is different. Moreover, this father is ‘on the clock.’ His son’s health is declining, and time is running out. The boy needs Jesus’ help now, before it is too late. Notice that the father gives no description of his son’s condition other than to say he is near death. This is not nearly sufficient for any physician to offer a diagnosis let alone propose a course of treatment, but it is apparently enough for this man, and Jesus’ response provides sufficient hope for him to return home. It also evinces the one trait that Jesus has been hoping to find in his audience: faith.

God does not expect much from you. Of course He wants your obedience, and you may think that alone is a daunting task, but He does not require you to accomplish great things in His name to win His approval. He has actually set the bar fairly low. Like the reason for the father’s hopeful departure, all God requires is that you have faith in Him and that you show faith in Him by believing and behaving as if He will do what He has promised. The father took the first step, which was to voice his request. As James says: “You do not have, because you do not ask God” (Jms 4:2c). Having received assurance about the answer the father then took the next step by going home.

When you petition God for something, it is not enough simply to state your case and assume He will comply. That is the “name it and claim it” (a.k.a. prosperity gospel, word of faith) approach to prayer, in which man attempts to control God rather than submitting himself to God. It puts man’s selfishness before God’s sovereignty. It stresses (a false understanding of) faith over faithfulness and self gratification over self-denial. Whatever proponents of this view (e.g., Joel Osteen) accrue in the way of health, wealth, and happiness now, “they have received their reward in full” (Matt 6:2, 5, 16). It is a position that does not have the support of scripture.⁹

II. The father receives Jesus’ aid (John 4:50-53).

A. He has confidence in the boy’s healing.

John 4:50 Jesus replied, “You may go. Your son will live.” The man took Jesus at his word and departed.

Jesus’ reply is rather dismissive. The least he could have done is make a house call. How disappointed the father must have been that the rabbi would not even visit the patient. It recalls James’ warning: What good is it to say “Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed,” but then do nothing about the person’s physical needs?—what good is it? (Jms 2:16) …The difference, of course, is that what Jesus says will happen does happen. In any case, the father believes Jesus has answered his petition because he leaves and goes home.¹⁰

B. He has confirmation of the boy’s healing.

John 4:51 While he was still on the way, his servants met him with the news that his boy was living. 52 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.” 53 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 household believed.

Jesus pronounces the boy’s healing and the boy is healed by the sheer power of his word. This recalls what God did “in the beginning,” how he spoke things into existence: “God said, ‘Let there be light,’ and there was light” (Gen 1:3), not gradually but suddenly, simply because He said so.

• Like when Jesus rebuked the storm on the sea of Galilee and suddenly “it was completely calm” (Matt 8:26)
• Like when Jesus said to a Syro-Phoenician woman, “‘your request is granted.” And her daughter was healed from that very hour’ (Matt 15:28)
• Like when Jesus rebuked the fig tree, and “immediately the tree withered” (Matt 21:19b)

The healing of this official’s son was similarly abrupt. It happened “the exact time at which Jesus had said to him, “Your son will live.” (v. 53). Still, perhaps the greatest challenge in this case is not the disease but the distance. In the previous instances, Jesus was present for each cure. In this instance, he was not even within shouting distance: “Jesus spoke the healing word in Cana and the boy was cured in Capernaum”.¹¹

The effect of this healing extends beyond the boy and his father to “all his household” (v. 53). Those who remained behind probably knew the reason for his trip was to petition Jesus. When they witness the boy’s healing and realize later that it coincided with “the exact time” Jesus pronounced it, they respond in faith,¹² which is the proper reaction to Jesus’ miracles and message.¹³ Sometimes faith is the reason Jesus cites for a cure’s success.

• Before healing a paralytic, Jesus saw the faith of the men who brought him and said, “take your mat and go home” (Luke 5:25).
• After healing a woman with an issue of blood, he said, “your faith has healed you” (Luke 8:48).
• Before exorcizing a particularly reluctant and harmful demon from a boy, Jesus says, “everything is possible for him who believes” (Mark 2:23).
• Before healing several blind men, he said, “your faith has made you well” (Luke 17:19).
• After curing a single blind man, Jesus said, “your faith has healed you” (Luke 18:42).

In all these cases it was peoples’ belief that Jesus could cure them that made the difference for them. Here, it was the official’s faith that enabled him to go home with nothing more than Jesus’ assurance his son would be okay and, in the end, John highlights the strengthening of the household’s faith.

Faith is a factor in whether or not God will accede to your petition, not the power of your faith, as if more faith makes it more likely that He will grant your request, but the presence of your faith, that you indeed trust God for the outcome.¹⁴ Jesus stresses this in several of his pronouncements:

• “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you” (Matt 7:7)
• “If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there’ and it will move” (Matt 17:20).
• “If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for” (Matt 21:22).

What makes prayer effective is not the amount of your faith but the object of your faith, if you believe God will answer.¹⁵

In another of the Encounters with Jesus in John’s Gospel a man receives the precious gift of renewed health for his son. It required an unusual degree of faith that believed Jesus could effect a cure without ever meeting the patient or even hearing about the symptoms of his condition. Yet through this brief Interaction with a Royal Official the rabbi learns of the need, and it is enough for him to effect a cure, which he does to the great relief of the father and to the strengthening of faith in others. How is your faith?

For a pdf including Bibliography and Endnotes see here.