048. Chapter 27 - The Healing of the Nobleman's Son

Chapter 27 - The Healing of the Nobleman’s Son

John 4:46-54 A Notable Miracle

Both the rich and the poor came to Jesus for succor and no cry for mercy and help was denied. Nameless and uncounted are the multitude of those who were healed, but occasionally an individual case is described as typical or because of exceptional interest. John describes none of the miracles Jesus worked in Jerusalem and records nothing concerning the early period of the Galilean ministry except the miracle of healing the nobleman’s son. Thus he supplies alternate glimpses of teaching and miracles which have not been recorded by the three other Gospel narratives. This healing in John 4:46-54 is notable because it was the second miracle in Cana of Galilee; it was a cure performed at a distance from the sufferer; and it was performed for a distinguished officer of the king. This nobleman was doubtless a member of the government of Herod Antipas (either the army or the court) and this miracle may have been the beginning of the strong influence which Jesus exerted among some who were high in court life. As Paul from his prison in Rome sent a stream of Christianity into Caesar’s palace, so Christ, while apparently avoiding wicked Tiberias, won surprising support in the king’s court (Luke 8:3; Acts 13:1). The campaign of Jesus, however, was concentrated on the masses rather than the classes.

Desperate Need

Sickness and death come to the high as well as the lowly. The mansion of this nobleman at Capernaum is full of despair at the critical illness of his son, But the miracle at the wedding feast at Cana and the miracles worked by Jesus in Judaea have been reported throughout Galilee. The nobleman is determined to go in person to seek the aid of the great Teacher. Who can fail to sympathize with this nobleman? Surely not one who has lived in times and places when communication and transportation were slow and tedious, and medical aid hard to obtain. As we read this narrative, we are reminded of familiar scenes: times of desperate need when a mother walks the floor in anguish and watches the clock and a father drives with mad haste through the night over lonely, country roads. We hear again the swish and suction of buggy wheels tearing through impassable mud roads or the wild clamor of galloping hoofs as death rides on the wind. Will the doctor be in time? Will he be able to save the child when he comes? It was a long, difficult journey under such circumstances from Capernaum to Cana. What a wild beating this man’s heart made at the gates of his soul as he climbed mountain trails or grimly plodded on up the highway. Was it through the long hours of the night that he toiled up from the Sea of Galilee to the crest of the mountain range? This seems to be true for lie arrived in the daytime, in a time when Jesus was surrounded by a listening multitude. Jesus had just returned from His campaign in Judaea. Galilee was filled with the reports of amazing miracles He had performed at Jerusalem during the Passover;. Jesus seems to have gone immediately to Cana, the scene of His first miracle. The return to Nazareth and the first rejection there, which is described in Luke 4:16-30, followed a period of evangelization in Galilee (Luke 4:15), or at least was a part of such a campaign and as such followed this miracle of healing the nobleman’s son. The presence of the multitude at the time of the nobleman’s arrival is indicated by the reply of Jesus, “Except ye see signs….” The plural form of this verb is important as we reflect upon the meaning of Jesus. Certainly Jesus was not accustomed to exhibit impatience at such interruptions as the urgent appeal of this father for his son. What was there about the attitude or conduct of the father which could have caused Jesus to issue what sounds like a stern and hard rebuke? “Except ye see signs and wonders, ye will in no wise believe.” Did not the coming of the man and his request that Jesus come to his home and save his dying son reveal great faith? Perhaps Jesus was but testing and prodding him on to greater heights of faith and preparing him by this stern, buffeting reply for the astounding trial of his faith which was about to follow. The plural form of the verbs seems to show that the multitude, with their rustle of excitement and curiosity at the breathless arrival of this nobleman and his appeal, stirred Jesus to this rebuke. Many commentators speak of the weakness of the nobleman’s faith, but there is not the slightest evidence of weakness of faith on his part, if this remark was directed toward the crowd. He was rebuking people who would not believe His spiritual message and claims unless they saw signs and wonders. This plainly does not fit the man who came to seek the recovery of his child, hut the crowds who were welcoming Him to Galilee because of the miracles that had been witnessed in Jerusalem and which they were desiring to see in Galilee. If Jesus looked at the nobleman as He spoke, He was probably rebuking the gaping multitude, full of worldly ideas and designs for the Messiah, over the head of the man. His reply indicates that the people of Galilee were tense with eager excitement over the prospect that He would work miracles in their midst as they had seen or heard reported at Jerusalem. The implication of His reply is that they should have been prepared by the Old Testament and the ministry of John the Baptist to see the spiritual nature of the Messiah’s presence and message without the need of miracles to confirm His word. How often Jesus has been compelled to lament the hardened unbelief of man who, even though he has seen signs and wonders, still will not believe! The miracles were God’s crowning evidence of the truth and finality of Christ’s message. But not even His miracles were able to convince those who had eyes and ears but who refused to see or hear. Like an echo of this first outcry of Jesus against the unbelief of the nation is the pathetic comment of John upon the closing phases of Jesus’ ministry: “But though he had done so many signs before them, yet they believed not on him” (John 12:37).

Strong Faith The answer of the nobleman shows he was perplexed by the declaration of Jesus: “Sir, come down ere my child die.” He arose above the rebuke of Jesus and made another appeal to come, and to come immediately, before it was too late. The pathos of the nobleman’s appeal was matched by the authority and brevity of Jesus’ reply: “Go thy way; thy child liveth.” This was a mighty test of the man’s faith for Jesus’ ministry was just beginning. He had come with the conviction that if he could reach Jesus in time and could persuade Him to come to his home, his child could be healed. But Jesus demanded that he believe that it was not necessary for Him to come to his home and that He could heal the child at a distance by the same sort of authority and power with which God had said in the beginning: “Let there be light.” “The man believed the word that Jesus spake unto him, and he went his way.” The Time Element

Cana is 2,849 feet above sea level. Capernaum is on the north-west shore of the Sea of Galilee which is 682 feet below sea level. The distance is some twenty miles. When the nobleman met his servants coming to report the good news of his son’s recovery, he questioned them concerning the time of the boy’s recovery and found it to be exactly the time when Jesus had declared, “Thy son liveth.” It is not easy to determine what is meant by the “seventh hour.” John’s Gospel, which was for universal use, evidently employs the Roman method of counting time; but this statement is a quotation. Jewish servants would use Jewish time (sunrise to sunset) in reporting the hour of recovery. If the “seventh hour” means 1:00 p.m., then the nobleman probably started some time during the night on his urgent journey. The servants would not leave immediately after the recovery of the boy, for fear that the sudden recovery might be quickly followed by a relapse and their interference in the plan to bring the great Prophet might prove fatal. When they did start, they proceeded only under the pressure which moves the bearer of good news. The father had exerted himself to the utmost on the journey from Capernaum to Cana and fatigue would now take its toll in a slower return journey or in an enforced rest. Not many are able to endure forty miles of mountain climbing without some rest. If he was compelled to stop during the night for rest, the time element furnishes no problem. Even if he kept traveling until he met the servants, he would not have met them until after sunset and the statement of time, “Yesterday at the seventh hour,” would still refer to 1:00 p.m. of the day which had now passed.

Modernistic Attack on the Miracle

Bernard attempts to deny that this account records a miracle or even was so intended by John (Commentary on John, Introduction, cl.). He bases his contention upon the statement of Jesus, “Thy son liveth.” He claims that Jesus did not speak “an effective word of healing” but merely assured the father that his son would live even as any physician, diagnosing a case, would predict recovery or death and that such “prescience” is “not beyond human powers.” This is a curious absurdity. John flatly declares that it was a miracle, placing it alongside of the turning of the water into wine, also worked here at Cana: “This is again the second sign that Jesus did, having come out of Judaea into Galilee” (John 4:54). Bernard deliberately evades the central point of evidence which John introduces so emphatically, i.e., that the healing of the son was reported by the servants (who were ignorant of what had transpired at Cana) to have occurred at an hour which coincided exactly with the hour of Jesus’ solemn declaration of recovery. John does not attempt to argue that it was a miracle. He simply states the facts; these constitute indubitable evidence that it was a miracle. Bernard does not attempt to explain how it happened that the son recovered at the very time when Jesus tittered the words. What Jesus had said was as yet unknown in the home. There was no room for psychological influence of personality. All that Bernard can do is suggest, by his silence, another feeble effort to write “accident” instead of “miracle.” According to the modernist, the New Testament contains the most extraordinary collection of accidents ever assembled. And these are they who belabor others for being “child-like” in their faith! The miraculous knowledge of Jesus shines forth in this passage as does His divine power. He did not ask the man a single question as to the symptoms, condition, or physical makeup of his son. He did not need to do so. He pronounced his cure in language which matched the desperate appeal of the father: “Ere my child die”; “Thy son liveth.” Only minds darkened by unbelief would seek to twist such sublime language into an argument against this being in reality “the second sign which Jesus did” at Cana.

Jesus’ Reward

Why did not the rich nobleman present Jesus with noble gifts to express his gratitude? One is reminded of Naaman coming from afar with “ten talents of silver, and six thousand pieces of gold, and ten changes of raiment” which Elisha refused to accept, although he was afterward betrayed in this stand by his faithless servant, Gehazi (2 Kings 5:1-27). The doctors of the day were not slow to accept money for their services. Let the woman with the issue of blood “who had spent all her living upon physicians, and could not be healed of any,” bear witness (Luke 8:43). There is a startling revelation of the character of Jesus to be found in this phase of His miraculous ministry. What untold wealth might He have collected! It is not the mere fact that He did not accept rewards for His healing, but that it is never even recorded that anyone ever offered Him such rewards. What held them back from such a natural expression of their overflowing gratitude? His utter simplicity of life would immediately make such possessions incongruous. His spiritual teaching showed such insight into the futility and peril of riches and such complete scorn for them, that any discerning person would see that to offer such rewards would be an unpardonable offense to His inimitable purity and heavenly devotion. There was that mysterious something about the person of the Son of God which held men back from making such offers to Him. But there was a reward for Jesus when the nobleman “believed, and all his house.” This implies an acceptance of Jesus at whatever He claimed to be and obedience to Jesus in whatever He commanded. The Messianic claims and the nature of the kingdom He proclaimed were not as yet fully known. But here were hearts open to receive the proclamation. It is no wonder that so many have speculated that this nobleman may have been Chuzas, Herod’s steward, or even Manaen, his foster brother (Luke 8:3; Acts 13:1). The love of lost men had brought Jesus from heaven to earth and amid the sorrow of rejection by many, there was always the joy of winning some like the nobleman and his family into the fellowship of faith.