This is one of those miserable little, throw-away transition sections we find sprinkled throughout Scripture. Somehow we’ve got to get from one major event to the next and authors seem to feel obligated to hold our hand along the way. But there isn’t much in these sort of paragraphs, not soul-wetting stuff like living water and city-wide salvations. Who pays attention to the seams?

Or, I’m speaking with my tongue so far in my cheek it hurts. There are some sparkly nuggets of gold in these here paragraphs, gold that we would miss without slowing down. In fact, I’ve never paid attention to the problems or the point of these paragraphs until this past week. Let’s get digging. [Also, this will be the last message from John’s Gospel for a while, due to Christmas, New Year’s Day, and then a series on worship starting in January.]

At the end of chapter four we finish the first major section in John’s gospel. In particular, this section closes the first ministry cycle of Jesus that started in Cana when He turned water into wine (2:1-11). He comes to Cana in Galilee again (4:46) and John records “the second sign” that Jesus did, capping off a round trip before the next major feast in Jerusalem (5:1).

Jesus cleansed the Temple (2:13-22) and did many signs in Jerusalem (2:23-25). Nicodemus was a great example of one who saw the signs of Jesus but didn’t truly believe. Jesus told him that he needed to be born of the Spirit before he would truly believe (3:1-15, 16-21). Jesus urged Nicodemus to a new level of faith. Jesus did a similar thing with the Samaritan woman (4:1-26). He pursues her, and moves her from self-protectedness to worship and into personal faith in Himself as the Christ. Many Samaritans from Sychar came to believe that He was the Savior of the world (4:39-42).

In verse 43, Jesus resumes His trip to Galilee (4:3).

An Ironic Welcome (43-45)

This is a short, confusing section. It starts simply enough.

After the two days he departed for Galilee. (John 4:43)

The Sycharians asked Jesus to stay with them (4:40) and He did for two precious days. Though He intended to meet the woman and therefore chose route through Samaria, He was traveling from Judea to Galilee all along. He simply picks up His journey.

That’s all good, but how does verse 44 relate?

(For Jesus himself had testified that a prophet has no honor in his own hometown.) (John 4:44)

Galilee is considered Jesus’ “homeland”, his “own country” (NAS) (better than hometown ) because He spent most of His childhood in Nazareth of Galilee.

Verse 44 starts with for (γὰρ) or “because,” a word that usually indicates an explanation is coming. The proverb is plain enough. When you watch someone grow up, it’s hard to believe that they’ve changed, or it’s hard to take seriously someone whose diapers you’ve changed. Fine. Experts always come from out of town. But how does that fit here? He goes back home because a prophet has no honor in his homeland? Why would He go where He knew that the people would not receive Him? Wouldn’t this proverb provide a reason not to go back?

It’s a good question, one that is only eclipsed by the next verse.

So when he came to Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him, having seen all that he had done in Jerusalem at the feast. For they too had gone to the feast. (John 4:45)

Wait. Jesus knew that people in His homeland wouldn’t welcome Him, but So (οὖν) or “therefore” they welcomed Him? Without verse 44 it would make sense. Maybe word spread from Sychar about the successful ministry and now the Galileans were interested too. But there’s mention of another event, the signs Jesus did in Jerusalem at the feast . The Jews in Galilee were required to go to the temple during Passover and many of them had seen the various miracles He performed.

So again, Jesus purposefully went to Galilee because He knew that they wouldn’t receive (or honor) Him. Therefore, when He arrived, they received (honored) Him. What gives? [By the way, the NIV totally drops the grammatical ball here, with “Now” in verse 44 and “When” in verse 45.]

The first thing is that their welcoming of Him was based on His reputation of amazement. Just as the Jews in 2:23-25 believed in Him when they saw the signs, so did these Galilean Jews. They didn’t honor Him as a prophet, they welcomed Him as a wizard, a magician, a wonder-worker. The welcome is ironic; their reception is actually a rejection. They didn’t know Him for who He was, the Messiah, the Savior of the world.

If He knew that, though, like He knew it in 2:23-25, why did He go? Why not stay in Samaria and reap more ripe fruit? Because Jesus loves to sow on hard ground. He loves to save the stony hearted. He goes to Galilee to overhaul their shallow faith. His interaction and healing in the next paragraph illustrates His work (just as Nicodemus illustrated the half-believers).

An Ironic Wonder (46-54)

Even though Jesus criticizes those who believe because of signs and wonders, He performs a miracle anyway. He heals the son of an official from Capernaum with a word and upgraded the official’s faith from miracles to the Messiah.

Specifically, Jesus went to the city of Cana in Galilee.

So he came again to Cana in Galilee, where he had made the water wine. And at Capernaum there was an official whose son was ill. (John 4:46)

So or “therefore” keeps this section connected with the transition in verses 43-45.

While Jesus was in Cana, in Capernaum, some 15-20 miles away, there was an official whose son was ill . This official (βασιλικὸς) was probably in the service of the king (βασιλεύς), at that time, King Herod. That suggests that he had resources.

An important note, this is not the same event as recorded in the Synoptics (Matthew 8:5-13; Luke 7:2-10), though there are similar details. Here, it is an official, not a Centurion. It also concerns the official’s son, not his servant. The official was probably a Jew, unlike the Gentile. We learn in the next verse how ill his son was.

When this man heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee, he went to him and asked him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death. (John 4:47)

Word was out about Jesus, especially from those who had been in Jerusalem for the feast and saw His signs. Among the miracles He did, no doubt Jesus healed many who were sick. This official is at the end of his options. There are no more treatments, no hope of a cure. His son was at the point of death ; death was inevitable. So, because this man heard , he traveled from Capernaum to Cana (15-20 miles) to find Jesus and asked Him (imperfect tense, lingering iterations) to come and perform a miracle for their family.

Jesus was not impressed.

So Jesus said to him, “Unless you see signs and wonders you will not believe.” (John 4:48)

The Greek text makes it unmistakably clear that this official functions as a representative of the many who welcomed Jesus in Galilee due to His impressive powers. Jesus said to him (singular), you (all, plural) see signs and wonders you will not believe . That’s a significant reason I think this official was a Jew.

The official cared about his son. He came in person rather than sending his servants, whom we know he had because we meet them in verse 51. But he cared more about his son than God’s Son. He cared more about his son’s health than the fulness of who Jesus is.

Jesus knew it and called him on it. The official was seeking a healer, a wonder worker, not a prophetic savior. So Jesus resists the request, not because He’s cold-hearted, but because He’s testing and transforming the official’s faith.

The official persists.

The official said to him, “Sir, come down before my child dies.” (John 4:49)

He has no one else to turn to, so he pleads with Jesus to change His mind.

Based on John 2:23-25, based on the ironic welcome in 4:45, and based on Jesus’ resistance in verse 48, isn’t this the time for Jesus to really let this official have it? Really expose his inadequate faith? But that’s not not what happens at all.

Jesus said to him, “Go; your son will live.” The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and went on his way. (John 4:50)

What caused Jesus to do the very thing that He seemed unwilling to do? First, we should observe that it wasn’t exactly what the man requested. The official figured that it was necessary for Jesus to come with him. He figured healing depended on Jesus’ presence. Jesus doesn’t go, He tells the official, Go .

Again, why? Why the irony? Because Jesus was upgrading the man’s faith from wonders to words, from His power alone to His person. The word Jesus gives the official was the hinge point. He didn’t do it for everyone, but for some, He overcame their weak, superficial faith with saving faith. That’s why He went to Galilee, even though they didn’t honor Him as a prophet and welcomed Him only as a healer. As the Savior of the world, Jesus not only grants faith to those without no faith, He also upgrades the faith of those with shallow faith.

He gives the official His word, Go, your son will live . He speaks as a prophet and calls the man to trust Him. And the official did. He believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and went on his way .

John doesn’t say that this removed all suspense or that the father had total peace. He believed and acted. The official couldn’t make it home the same day, and on the next day he continued his journey.

As he was going down, his servants met him and told him that his son was recovering. (John 4:51 ESV)

He was going down because Capernaum sits approximately 700 feet below sea level. Everything was up from there. He meets his servants who tell him about his son.

It must have been a significant turn around. They probably wouldn’t have traveled to find their master without a radical and obvious change.

So he asked them the hour when he began to get better, and they said to him, “Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him.” The father knew that was the hour when Jesus had said to him, “Your son will live.” And he himself believed, and all his household. (John 4:52–53 ESV)

John leaves no room for coincidence because the father himself rules it out. He doesn’t miss the miracle worked by Jesus and repeats the Your son will live as the prophet’s word in order to give Him true honor.

John adds he himself believed and all his household . A couple things: first, stating that he believed doesn’t necessarily negate the previous belief. In fact, there may be three levels of belief: 1) that Jesus could heal, 2) that Jesus spoke truly, 3) that Jesus was a prophet deserving honor. I think he was on the salvation road when he left Jesus with only Jesus’ word to go on, and that belief was then further confirmed by the work.

Second, that all his household believed indicates that each individual believed, not that his belief covered for all of them. It also indicates that his belief powerfully influenced their belief. Why shouldn’t it?

I know us, we’re so fearful of becoming covenant theologians that we miss how important and effective a dad’s faith is in his family. After all, it needs to be their faith, not mine. True enough. But where are they supposed to get their faith? Does God drop it out of the sky into them? He could. But He normally uses us.

This official saw Jesus as the one to trust and told and demonstrated his trust so strongly that all his family believed. Interesting that the King this official was attached to, killed John the Baptist. What would this official’s testimony have been? How did he herald the King of the Jews in Herod’s household?

Conclusion

From this passage we are reminded that Jesus is God. Jesus has divine power and authority. Jesus is glorious, full of grace and truth.

The ironic welcome is important because Jesus is the Savior of the world and that includes saving many who have a fleshly understanding of who He is. He will overcome inadequate faith. It doesn’t threaten Him. He goes right for it’s throat.

The ironic wonder is also important because Jesus is who He is and, if I can say it this way, He can’t help but do amazing things. He’s not against doing the supernaturally wonderful, He’s against people only relating to Him as a wizard or genie in the sky.

Why did He do this healing for the official? Not because the official deserved it. Because He had given him His word. Doesn’t He do the same for us today? He gives us His word, we believe, and then He works in a way that’s obviously His doing that fulfills His word. That strengthens our faith, and we believe the next word even more. Followed by His further work, the cycle continues because He loves for us to trust Him and relate to Him as He is. He wants true honor, as we believe and behold and believe and behold. That’s relationship, that’s fellowship. We keep looking at Him, looking ahead at things He’s promised and back at promises He’s performed.

This is the gospel for life. Jesus came that we might believe for life. The official believed for life twice. We believe it all.