Lovers of God

Jesus heals an official’s son at Capernaum

Jn 4:43-54 46 Therefore He came again to Cana of Galilee where He had made the water wine. And there was a royal official whose son was sick at Capernaum. 47 When he heard that Jesus had come out of Judea into Galilee, he went to Him and was imploring Him to come down and heal his son; for he was at the point of death. 48 So Jesus said to him, "Unless you people see signs and wonders, you simply will not believe." 49 The royal official said to Him, "Sir, come down before my child dies." 50 Jesus said to him, "Go; your son lives." The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and started off. 51 As he was now going down, his slaves met him, saying that his son was living. 52 So he inquired of them the hour when he began to get better. Then they said to him, "Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him." 53 So the father knew that it was at that hour in which Jesus said to him, "Your son lives"; and he himself believed and his whole household. 54 This is again a second sign that Jesus performed when He had come out of Judea into Galilee.

The distance from Cana to Capernaum is about 16 miles. The royal official was in Capernaum, and Jesus was in Galilee, and he came all the way to see Jesus rather than sending for Jesus to come to him. He wanted Jesus to accompany him to heal his son who was about to die.

Would you travel many miles to go to a spiritual church, or do you just want to go to a church that is close by even if it is a dead church? Would you suffer the inconvenience of jumping out of the church you were born in just to join another church that has a fuller version of God’s truth? If not, then this royal official has more motivation than you.

The man went by Jesus’ word. That is not a small thing. Today, we have many of Jesus’ words in the Bible, but how many of us believe His words and act upon them? For example, when Jesus says that it is harder for a camel to enter the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven, does that stop you from pursuing riches?

This healing caused the royal official and his household to believe. This implies that the royal official wasn’t a believer before that. So we see that Jesus healed people even if they weren’t Jews – He did this so that they would believe in Him. We too should be an example to, and do good to, people who don’t believe so that they can believe and can glorify God when they see our good works.