43 Now after the two days He departed from there and went to Galilee. 44 For Jesus Himself testified that a prophet has no honor in his own country. 45 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. 46 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. 47 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. 48 Then Jesus said to him, “Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will by no means believe.” 49 The nobleman said to Him, “Sir, come down before my child dies!” 50 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. 51 And as he was now going down, his servants met him and told him, saying, “Your son lives!” 52 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.” 53 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. 54 This again is the second sign Jesus did when He had come out of Judea into Galilee. John 4:43-54
The Lord Jesus once again travels to Galilee, where the once unbelieving Galileans welcomed Him, according to v.45. They now believe because of the miracles they had seen His miracles in Jerusalem. Then the Lord Jesus specifically returns to Cana where He had turned the water into wine.
Twenty miles away, over in Capernaum, there was a Nobleman, a father whose young son was sick with a fever and about to die. Hearing that the Lord Jesus was in Cana, this man rode the whole way on horseback to beg Jesus to come and heal his son.
The Lord Jesus' responds in v.48, by saying, "Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will by no means believe." It seems the Lord Jesus exhibits a cold shoulder to the man. But, He is not addressing these words to the father, He spoke in the plural, not in the singular. He actually said, "Unless ''y'all' see signs and wonders 'y'all' will not believe." He was not addressing this to the anguished father, it was clearly directed to the people who, for the most part, were in opposition to His ministry.
Now, in v.49, this desperate father pleads with the Lord Jesus, "Sir, come down before my child dies!." There is agony in the father's voice. This Nobleman believes Jesus is some type of a miracle worker, his faith is desperate. He has no other hope than in this Rabbi from Galilee.
In v.50, Jesus says, “Go your way; your son lives.” Literally, the Greek says, "Your son is living; he lives." The Lord Jesus is both answering and denying the father at the same time. The man was begging Him to come to Capernaum but the Lord Jesus doesn't go to the boy. Yet, He heals the little boy.
Then, at the end of v.50, we read, "So the man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him, and he went his way."
This man accepted the Lord Jesus' word and returned to his son. Though he was uncertain, he obeyed the word of Jesus. Such is the nature of faith. As Philip Yancey has said, “Faith means believing in advance what will only make sense in reverse.”
I can only imagine how fast the man returned home, hoping the Lord Jesus had healed his little boy. According to v.51, as he was going down, his servants met him and told him that his son was living. Then he asked his servants the hour his son improved, and they said to him, “Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him.”
In John 2, there were six imperfect water pots filled to the brim. In John 4, the woman had six men, and she discovered the One who would complete her, her Seventh man. In our text today, at the seventh hour the Lord Jesus healed this Nobleman's little boy. When it dawned on this Nobleman that his little boy was healed at the precise moment when Jesus had said to him, "Your son is living; he lives," he discovered that the Lord Jesus was not limited by distance or time. When the man understood that, "he himself believed, and his whole household. This is the same word for belief that was used of him before, but now it is used at a much higher level. This kind of human response is in response to divine persuasion.
Some have felt that this Nobleman, this official of the court, is referred to by name in Acts 13. Where there was great spiritual awakening in the city of Antioch. Seeing the tremendous possibilities of the hour, Barnabas went to Tarsus to find Saul and bring him back with him to minister there. That chapter declares there were a number of prophets in the church at Antioch, among them one named "Manaen, the foster-brother of Herod," (Acts 13:1). That would make him a "king's man," a member of the court. Though it is not certain that it is the same man, it is likely that this was the moment when Manaen came to Christ. He understood who He was, believed in the Lord Jesus, and together with all his household committed himself to the remarkable power and authority of Jesus.
The first miracle of the Lord Jesus was the changing of water into wine in John 2. That miracle shows the Lord Jesus had authority over the natural realm. This second sign tells us that Jesus had authority over illness.
The Lord Jesus came to impart to the willing, faith. The Lord Jesus puts us through circumstances we do not want to go through; He makes us face things we do not like to face, in order to achieve what we have wanted with all our hearts all along. To do so requires the strengthening of faith through a stretching that is humanly unbearable.
This is similar to bulking up one's muscles. Before a muscle can grow stronger, weight lifting causes several microscopic tears to form in the fiber and connective tissue of the muscles. With proper rest and nutrients, the muscles slowly rebuild over the following days, but full repair can take a week or more. This repair causes the muscles to be stronger. Such is the case with our faith.
