Go Thy Way: When Jesus Healed A Nobleman’s Son Series

Introduction

During our Lord’s ministry on this earth, He must have had people asking Him many times if He would heal someone. Gracious as He was, He never turned anyone away. Whether the person was very poor, like the woman who had spent everything she had but never was cured, or a foreigner like the Syro-phoenician woman or a Roman centurion, or even someone seemingly of high rank, He answered their prayers and requests.

In the context, John records how Jesus had come from Judea and had already passed through Samaria, and now was in Cana of Galilee. Cana was the place where He had performed His first miracle, changing water into wine, as recorded in John 2. Now He’s again in Cana and He will encounter someone there who has a need that only Jesus Himself can fulfill.

The text is from John chapter 4, beginning with verse 46:

[John 4:46-54 KJV] 46 So Jesus came again into Cana of Galilee, where he made the water wine. And there was a certain nobleman, whose son was sick at Capernaum. 47 When he heard that Jesus was come out of Judaea into Galilee, he went unto him, and besought him that he would come down, and heal his son: for he was at the point of death. 48 Then said Jesus unto him, Except ye see signs and wonders, ye will not believe. 49 The nobleman saith unto him, Sir, come down ere my child die. 50 Jesus saith unto him, Go thy way; thy son liveth. And the man believed the word that Jesus had spoken unto him, and he went his way. 51 And as he was now going down, his servants met him, and told [him], saying, Thy son liveth. 52 Then enquired he of them the hour when he began to amend. And they said unto him, Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him. 53 So the father knew that [it was] at the same hour, in the which Jesus said unto him, Thy son liveth: and himself believed, and his whole house. 54 This [is] again the second miracle [that] Jesus did, when he was come out of Judaea into Galilee.

I The father’s concern

Some of the miracles Jesus performed could easily be described like a pattern: someone made a request, then Jesus replied to the person/s making the request, and finally we read of the result. Several examples come to mind, such as the healing of the lepers. One of them came within touching distance of Jesus and stated, “Lord, if You are willing, You can (heal me)”, as in Matthew 8. That was the request, and Jesus replied by saying, “I am willing, (so) be healed”. He made the reply to the request, and the result was that the leper was indeed healed! Even though we do not read of a “follow-up” or a “Ah, Lord, it didn’t work”, we can be sure that if the priest found something wrong, the leper would have never been pronounced clean or healed.

Give credit to this father! He was concerned enough to find Jesus and ask Him directly to heal his son. There were and still are men who are not concerned about their children’s well-being and won’t even bother to ask God for healing. Too many people want to blame God for their problems, when they ought to be asking God for protection and healing.

Something that we may not catch at first is the distance the nobleman had traveled. In verse 46 we read that Jesus was at Cana of Galilee, where He had made the water into wine. John chapter 2 gives details of probably the most unusual wedding ever held, when the groom was told they didn’t have any more wine for the feast! Jesus came to the rescue, after Mary, His mother, asked Him to help out, apparently. Cana was only a few miles away from Nazareth, where Jesus and His other brothers and sisters were raised. Capernaum, though, was on the Sea of Galilee and was a good ways away, maybe 20-30 miles. If the nobleman walked that distance, he had probably gone a good day’s journey; if he had an animal (a horse or donkey, for example), he still would have been on the road for several hours. He did all this to make a request for his son to be healed, as the boy was at the point of death, according to the father.

II The Lord’s first answer

I for one am a little surprised at what Jesus said to this ruler, or nobleman, after being asked to come and heal the man’s son. The words recorded in verse 48 are, “Except ye see signs and wonders, ye will not believe”! So, what did Jesus mean?