A Distressed Father Seeks Jesus

A study of John 4:46b-48

“And at Capernaum there was an official whose son was ill. 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. So Jesus said to him, “Unless you see signs and wonders you will not believe.””
‭‭John‬ ‭4‬:‭46‬b-‭48‬ ‭ESV‬‬

Definitions of the original language in the context of this passage:

-Capernaum: “Καφαρναούμ”, “Kapharnaoum”; proper locative noun — Capernaum = ‘village of comfort’; a flourishing city of Galilee situated on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee or Lake of Gennesaret, near the place where the Jordan flows into the lake.

-An Official: “βασιλικός”, “basilikos”; adjective — of or belonging to a king, kingly, royal, regal; of a man, the officer or minister of a prince, a courtier.

-Ill: “ἠσθένει”; “ἀσθενέω”, “astheneō”; verb — to be feeble, sick.

-Jesus: “Ἰησοῦς”, “Iēsous”; proper masculine noun — Jesus = “Jehovah is salvation”; Jesus, the Son of God, the Savior of mankind, God incarnate.

-Had Come: “ἥκει”; “ἥκω”, “ēkō”; verb — to have come, have arrived, be present.

-Judea: “Ἰουδαίας”; “Ἰουδαία”, “Ioudaia”; proper locative noun — Judea = ‘he shall be praised’; in a narrower sense, to the southern portion of Palestine lying on this side of the Jordan and the Dead Sea, to distinguish it from Samaria, Galilee, Peraea, and Idumaea.

-He Went: “ἀπῆλθεν”; “ἀπέρχομαι”, “aperchomai”; verb — to go away, depart.

-Asked Him (Implored Him): “ἠρώτα”; “ἐρωτάω”, “erōtaō”; verb — to request, entreat, beg, beseech.

-Come Down: “καταβῇ”; “καταβαίνω”, “katabainō”; verb — to come down, as from the temple at Jerusalem, from the city of Jerusalem; also of celestial beings coming down to earth.

-Heal: “ἰάσηται”; “ἰάομαι”, “iaomai”; verb — to cure, heal.

-He Was at the Point: “ἤμελλεν”; “μέλλω”, “mellō”; verb — to be on the point of doing or suffering something.

-Of Death: “ἀποθνῄσκειν”; “ἀποθνῄσκω”, “apothnēskō”; verb — of the natural death of humans.

-Signs: “σημεῖα”; “σημεῖον”, “sēmeion”; neuter noun — of miracles and wonders by which God authenticates the men sent by him, or by which men prove that the cause they are pleading is God’s.

-Wonders: “τέρατα”; “τέρας”, “teras”; neuter noun — miracle; performed by anyone.

Observation/Summary (short explanation of what the passage says in your own words):

As Jesus left Sychar, in Samaria, He continued on to Cana in Galilee (v.46a). As it happens, there was a government official from nearby Capernaum whose son was very sick. This man came to Jesus and begged Him to heal his son who was about to die. Jesus responded by telling the man he and the rest of the people would not believe unless they saw Jesus perform miracles.

Implication (what does this mean to us):

After His two day stay with the Samaritans in Sychar, Jesus and His disciples continued on to Cana in Galilee. Galilee is located in present day Palestine, and it is the region where Jesus grew up. Jesus was raised in the small Galilean town of Nazareth, and Cana is where the wedding from John 2 took place when Jesus transformed water into wine. We just read of another kind of transformation of the woman at the well, and the believing Samaritans in Sychar, and now we read of Jesus’ return to His homeland where people are beginning to see Him as more than the man they grew up with. They have not yet had the same reaction as the Samaritans and other disciples who believed Jesus is the Messiah. But they heard about the many signs and wonders He performed recently in Jerusalem and they are beginning to at least see Him as someone sent by God and who can therefore perform miracles. However, it is because of His miracles that they are interested in Him, not because they believe He is the Son of God. For the most part, the people of Jesus’ homeland want the gifts, not the Giver Himself.

Because of this slowly shifting change in perspective though, a government official from Capernaum, which is about 20 miles (30 km) from Cana, came seeking the help of Jesus for his dying son. Interestingly, the word used to describe this man in the original Greek literally means “royal person” or something like “king’s person”. So, we can think of this man as a royal official or courtier of sorts who likely served as an official of King Herod Antipas. Whatever his exact position was, he was definitely an important government official.

This man came to Jesus greatly distressed because his son was sick and dying. The ESV translation says He “asked” Jesus to come down and heal His son. And the Greek word used for asked, given the context, implies that he implored or begged Jesus to come to Capernaum and heal his son. This man is one of many examples of people who are recorded in the gospels as coming to Jesus to ask for help for a sick child or loved one. While not all of these people had a full picture of who Jesus is, they all certainly came to the right person to ask for help. And there is a wide range of people recorded as doing this. Here, we have a Jewish, government official. In Matthew 8:5–13 and Luke 7:1–10, we read of a centurion coming to Jesus on behalf of his sick servant. In Matthew, Mark, and Luke we read of another ruler coming on behalf of his daughter. And in Matthew 15 and Mark 7, a Canaanite woman came and begged Jesus to heal her daughter.

Whatever our station or social class, the difficulties of life lower us to the same depths of unmet needs. In this list of people seeking Jesus’ help, we see Romans, Jews, Canaanites, rich people and poor people represented. No one’s status, money or lack of status and money elevated them above their need for someone greater to intervene and help them and their loved ones. No matter where we might be from or what we may have or lack, we all have the same great need for salvation from the punishment we deserve for our sin. And only Jesus can supply our needs.

This man’s son was “at the point of death”, and he wanted Jesus to “come down” to Capernaum and heal him. We will read later that Jesus does heal him, but first Jesus says, “Unless you see signs and wonders you will not believe.” One wonderful thought that springs to mind in reading this man’s request, is that we have already read in John 3:13 and 4:31, that Jesus is He who has “come down” from heaven to rescue and heal us. This provides at least one small insight to the reason for Jesus’ words. He has already come down from heaven and communicated to many people that He brings with Him the offer of eternal life, or, living water for the soul, as He told the Samaritan woman. The Samaritan’s recognized this, and therefore many believed in Him as the Savior of the world. But the people of His homeland were, by and large, only interested in the miracles He performed. The miracles were great, but they were used to help people see that Jesus really is the Son of God, and to give credibility to His far loftier claims to have the ability to forgive sin and grant eternal life. The people of Galilee were still missing the point. They wanted the temporary, material gifts, and were not so interested in the Giver Himself.

In this passage Jesus is rebuking people who will only believe in Him if they see or experience miracles for themselves. This might seem like Jesus was being overly harsh to a man who was rightly distressed over his dying son, but Jesus is simply questioning the man to see if his desires fall in line with the majority of Galileans who only wanted Jesus for His miracles. This is a criticism God has often levied at people. In John 20:29, in speaking to Thomas who would only believe Jesus had been resurrected if he saw and touched Him himself, Jesus said “…Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

God may use signs and wonders to draw people to Himself, and that is a good thing. But Jesus is also making the point that many will believe who have not seen signs and wonders. We just read in John 4:39–42 that the Samaritans believed simply because of the words of Jesus. But now He is back in His homeland where many still do not believe even though He has been performing many signs and wonders among them. None of them denied the fact that He performed miracles, but many still did not believe in Him. We are meant to notice the contrast between the belief of the Samaritans in response to Jesus’ words, and the disbelief of the Galileans in response to Jesus’ words and miracles. Remember the words of John 1:11–12 and 3:32–33 while reading this passage: “His own did not receive him…no one receives his testimony”.

And we can see this has always been an issue for people, because in Numbers 14:11, in speaking of Israel’s rebellion, God said to Moses, “How long will this people despise me? And how long will they not believe in me, in spite of all the signs that I have done among them?” This rebellious disbelief in God carried on throughout Israel’s and all mankind’s history, and still continues today. In his sermon on the day of Pentecost, in Acts 2:22–23, Peter even brought up this very thing to his mostly Jewish audience in Jerusalem when he said, “Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through Him in your midst, as you yourselves know…you crucified and killed…”.

Signs, wonders, or miraculous healings are all wonderful gifts from God, but they cannot change a person’s heart. Material blessing should never be the foundation of our faith in God. And we must never require God to prove Himself to us by any material means, miraculous or otherwise. The man in this passage came to Jesus and asked for a very good thing: the healing of his son. But Jesus questions this man to draw out his true motives in order for this man and others to see and learn from them. He even does heal the man’s son, as we will read later, but Jesus wants him and us to consider our motives when we ask for things, and what the foundation of our belief is. Is He the foundation of our faith, or is it what He gives us that forms our faith? Do we want the Giver or just His gifts? Jesus loves us truly, and He wants us to love Him truly; not for what He can give us, but for who He is.

How would any of us feel if someone was only interested in us for what we could do for them or give them? Imagine you are a very wealthy person who is engaged to be married. But a few weeks before the wedding you experience some sort of catastrophic financial loss and are made poor. Now, what if the person you were going to marry broke off the engagement because you were no longer rich? How would you feel? Terrible of course, because you would have found out this person never loved you. They only loved your wealth and what you could do for them. While Jesus will never become destitute, except by choice when He came to earth to save us, He wants us to love Him for Him. Just like we want to have relationships where people love us for us, and not what we can do for them; Jesus wants us to love Him for Him. He wants to have a loving relationship with us, and we need to see love and relationship with Him as the greatest gift possible. And with that relationship comes the confident knowledge that whatever hardships we must endure in this world, Jesus will sustain us, and He will take us to be with Him one day where we will live in fullness of joy and pleasure forever more (Ps. 16:11).

Application (How does this change how I think, act and pray?):

From this passage we learn that Jesus wants us to love Him for Him, not for what He can do for us. No one wants to have a relationship with someone who only loves them for what they can do for them. That is not love. Love receives gratefully and gives selflessly. It does not hoard greedily and take selfishly.

This passage shows us we need to examine our hearts and our desires. We need to pray for the Holy Spirit to convict us of impure motives and lead us in repentance. It is good and right for us to make requests of God in every category of life, especially for the health of sick loved ones. But our love for and faith in Jesus must never be dependent on getting the response we want from Him. Our love for and faith in Him must be founded on who He is as the God of all creation, our loving Heavenly Father, and our glorious risen Savior.

Jesus is worthy of our love and devotion simply because of who He is. We must see this. And we must fall down at His feet in worship and adoration at all times, in all seasons of life, no matter how difficult or painful. He is with us in victory and defeat. And whatever suffering we go through in this world, He will shepherd us into a glorious eternity of loving relationship with Him.

Self Reflection:

Is my faith in Jesus in any way dependent on Him blessing me materially, answering my requests for healing, or on anything else that is not guaranteed in this world?

Why do I love Jesus and trust in Him? (1 John 4:19)

How can I grow each day in loving Jesus more and more for who He is and not for what He gives me? (Gratefulness is good, but what He gives us should cause us to lift our eyes to Him and love Him more as we express our gratitude).