Walking in Faith (John 4:43–54)

Faith can be a tricky thing — both Christian and non-Christian people practice it everyday. Sometimes it comes from information; for instance, you have faith that you can get back in your vehicles and leave this afternoon for lunch because you were able to drive here this morning. That faith comes in because you haven’t watched your vehicle every moment you’ve been here, but you still have confidence that your engine will engage when you turn the key. Now, for some people, faith is more of an empty hope, like pulling out into traffic while texting, believing nothing bad will happen.

Unfortunately, there are Christians who think that biblical faith is more like the latter than the former. It was a Christian philosopher, Soren Kierkegaard, who invented the idea of “blind faith” in response to the academy growing more hostile to the realities of the Christian faith. As he saw it, Christians needed to leap out of the realm of science to the realm of faith, which is where we get the expression, “leap of faith.” Those who think that faith is not to have information use this expression, misusing Hebrews 11:1 to do it (“Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”). So, faith for many is not supposed to be based on any information at all.

Is our Christian faith supposed to be blind? Of course not! Still, faith isn’t built on first filling in all the blanks, either. The Lord gives us a clear word, but we must then apply it to circumstances that are often unclear. As the early-church theologian Augustine said, “I believe in order that I may understand.” It’s through the decision to believe that we get to a better place of understanding some of the tougher issues of our lives.

What we see in Scripture are folks who settle for a more superficial, uninformed faith. In the case of the Galileans, they have a passing knowledge of who Jesus is, having witnessed His works. However, they are not like the Samaritans, who are placing their faith in Jesus. Theirs is still a blind faith, and it’s insufficient. However, we will encounter someone who we might say has to walk without seeing the full content of his faith, and he comes to know the true Lord.

If this isn’t clear yet, don’t worry. Many Bible commentators throughout the years have also struggled with this passage. Did John just do a really bad job of editing this account, giving us almost contradictory information? No, but the test of the text is before us.

This passage challenges us in part because it challenges what it actually means to believe. We shouldn’t have a blind faith, but faith also doesn’t allow us to see everything we want. In this passage, Jesus shows us that true faith is based in tangible reality while requiring us to trust regardless of what we see. Today, Jesus identifies the problem with some faith, and then reorient faith, and finally, establish Himself as the source of faith. Let’s consider the first of these.

First, Jesus Identifies the Problem with Some Faith (vv. 43–45)

After the two days He went forth from there into Galilee. For Jesus Himself testified that a prophet has no honor in his own country. So when He came to Galilee, the Galileans received Him, having seen all the things that He did in Jerusalem at the feast; for they themselves also went to the feast.

You’ll remember that, back in v. 3, Jesus was on His way to Galilee. However, that was a while ago. We’ve been reading about His time in Samaria for most of the chapter, and in v. 40, we see that they wanted Him to stay with them. He did for two days before hitting the road again to Galilee, and we read in vv. 41–42, “Many more believed because of His word; and they were saying to the woman, ‘It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves and know that this One is indeed the Savior of the world.’ ” It was a stay that resulted in the salvation of souls.

However, we come to a confusing word in v. 44, “for.” This often means because of, giving a reason why He would go into Galilee. He says that “a prophet has no honor in his own country.” Since Samaria is not His country, this means that something here is important to why He continues into Galilee.

What does this expression mean? Obviously, in part, it means something similar to our expression, “Familiarity breeds contempt.” Christians experience this; people who know you, those who know your past, may be less willing to accept you. That is not a Christian opinion, but it occasionally happens in the church, creating division within the body of Christ (and if you are holding something against someone because of his or her past, you should repent of that attitude). More often, it’s a problem with unbelievers not accepting the message of the changed life, though even the Samaritans came around concerning the woman at the well.

So, this is a proverb, a statement which is mostly true with few exceptions. With non-religious teachers as well as the biblical prophets, many suffered and died for their beliefs. Of Jesus Himself, we read in John 1:11 that “He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him.” Jesus, leaving Samaria and now entering His country or fatherland again, does not expect to be well received.

Now, the homeland here might refer to just the Judean countryside, which means that v. 44 is explaining why Jesus went north at the beginning of this chapter. However, Nazareth and Galilee are more His land if we consider where He grew up and how this Gospel identifies Him with the northern area. More likely, this refers to all of Israel, north and south. With that view, again, Jesus is not expecting to be well received, and He’s preparing His disciples for a bumpy road ahead.

If that’s the case, though, it might be surprising to read v. 45, which says, “So when He came to Galilee, the Galileans received Him, having seen all the things that He did in Jerusalem at the feast; for they themselves also went to the feast.” The text literally says they received Him, so everything is okay, right?

Unfortunately, an initial excitement about Jesus Christ is not genuine faith. This is a reality with which we must all contend. It may be that you come to church because of good memories or expectation or genuine interest in spirituality. It may also be that you are a true Christian, exercising true faith in Him, but you are wondering about your child or someone else who prayed for salvation but now is no longer walking with the Lord. It is a hard reality to say that an experience, an excitement, may not be evidence of true conversion.

That is what we see with this very group. Sure, they may have been impressed with what they saw when they were also down south for the Passover feast (John 2:23). However, many of the excited Galilean disciples will withdraw from Him in just a couple of chapters and walk no more with Him (John 6:66).

There is more to faith than crowds interested in Jesus. That means that Jesus is telling His disciples in v. 44 that, despite appearances to the contrary, they should not expect that He is receiving honor; theirs is a superficial faith. So, when someone comes up to Jesus with a request, Jesus challenges his expectations, which is where we now turn:

Jesus Reorients the Faith of Others (vv. 46–50)

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. 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. So Jesus said to him, “Unless you people see signs and wonders, you simply will not believe.” The royal official said to Him, “Sir, come down before my child dies.” Jesus said to him, “Go; your son lives.” The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and started off.

We would expect, from a human perspective, that just the miracle of turning water into wine would have won Jesus support. From a human perspective, we might expect that a crowd of people excited about Jesus was exactly what He would have wanted. That’s one of the reasons folks have so much trouble with this passage and think John just needed a better editor.

However, we’ve already seen that this isn’t the case. They are no different than what Jesus faces shortly with His fellow Nazarenes; Jesus says, “No doubt you will quote this proverb to Me, ‘Physician, heal yourself! Whatever we heard was done at Capernaum, do here in your hometown as well’ ” (Luke 4:23). They want a spectacle, a show.

In the midst of this, we read that Jesus is approached by a certain “royal official whose son was sick at Capernaum.” Who might this be? During this period of time, the only royalty in region was the Roman-appointed Galilean tetrarch, King Antipas. He ruled the area from 4 b.c. to a.d. 39, and this official must be a representative of him. Two courtiers of Herod appear by name, Chuza (Luke 8:3) and Manaen (Acts 13:1), and this one may have been one of them or another.

Whoever this was, he had a son who lay dying in Capernaum. This is somewhere between roughly twenty miles northeast of where Jesus is now, at a lower elevation than Cana. This means that this royal official walked the miles to meet Jesus in Cana, as v. 47 notes, when “he heard that Jesus had come out of Judea into Galilee.” So, among the crowd, this man is also understandably there for a miracle.

So, we read that “he was imploring Him to come down and heal his son; for he was at the point of death.” The word is that he continued asking, begging, or imploring. And we can sympathize with this father’s plight.

Some have thought that John is borrowing the story of the Centurion’s son (Matt. 8:5–13; Luke 7:2–10). However, this is a different occasion. As the MacArthur Study Bible notes here, there is

sufficient differences exist to demonstrate that it is different from the synoptic account; e.g., 1) no evidence exists that the official’s son was a Gentile; 2) the official’s son, not his servant, was healed; and 3) Jesus was far more negative regarding the official’s faith (v. 48) than the centurion’s (Matt. 8:9). One may divide this section into 3 parts: 1) Jesus contemplating unbelief (vv. 43–45); 2) Jesus confronting unbelief (vv. 46–49); and 3) Jesus conquering unbelief (vv. 50–54).”

Another key difference is that the centurion said, “Lord, I am not worthy for You to come under my roof, but just say the word, and my servant will be healed” (Matt. 8:8). That doesn’t seem to be the attitude of this official. He doesn’t even seem to imagine that Jesus could heal from a distance.

Truth be told, it would be nearly impossible for any of us to see where this man is spiritually based on these circumstances. Immediately, our hearts would ache for a father who is afraid for his son’s life. We wouldn’t necessarily be evaluating where his heart is because we would assume it to be a wreck like ours would be, and we also would never be able to see into his heart, anyway. We would tend to just help.

Yet, Jesus says something surprising: “Unless you people see signs and wonders, you simply will not believe.” Why would Jesus so rebuff a father in need? Some might wonder here if Jesus actually practices the love that He preaches.

Still, this is the Jesus who “knew what was in man” (John 2:25). Jesus indeed sympathizes with us (Heb. 4:15), but that doesn’t mean He will give into all our feelings of urgency. Because of His constancy, He can see that infirmity wasn’t just within the flesh of one son, but it also resided in the souls of all people. He knows that, in the long term, the plight of the soul is greater than the plight of the body. Moreover, Jesus knew this man was seeing Jesus just as a wonderworker, not as the Messiah who alone saves the soul from hell and damnation.

He challenges this father to reexamine why he’s there. Does this father want to see a sign and wonder, even if for a deeply personal reason? He needs to remember that signs and wonders are acts of God Almighty, as Daniel attested (Daniel 4:2–3; 6:27). It would take a true work of God to save this son — so, what does this official think about this Jesus with whom he’s pleading?

The official, however, either caught up in grief, spiritual blindness, or both, is not picking up what Jesus is saying. Perhaps he sees Jesus as flatly denying him, so he continues to beg for Jesus to come. It was probably an interesting moment for those watching, as this royal official probably never begged anyone before, but we can understand why he’s lost his composure.

The man asks Jesus to come, but then Jesus says a word which may have made the man’s heart stop if the Lord wished it. He says, “Go.” Thankfully, He didn’t stop there, as He simply says, “your son lives.” This wasn’t a promise that the boy would pull through, but rather, that he has recovered.

Now, if you can imagine yourself in the shoes (or sandals) of this poor father, you can imagine that this was a moment of choice. If Jesus was the only one who had a chance of saving his son, we might think that the official could have wanted to seize the Lord by force and attempt to drag Him down to Capernaum! However, what we read in v. 50 is, “The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and started off.” This moment is a marvelous picture of faith, but it grows all the more vibrant with the remaining verses.

The Object of Faith (vv. 51–54)

As he was now going down, his slaves met him, saying that his son was living. 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.” 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. This is again a second sign that Jesus performed when He had come out of Judea into Galilee.

We might imagine that the official might have walked slowly, remaining near Jesus in case he heard some news. However, considering the math of this passage, it seems that the official was roughly halfway home. It was possible to travel twenty miles in a day, which excluded the nighttime hours, meaning that it was possible to travel from Capernaum to Cana in one day, depending on the road. And we read in the previous verse that the official began his journey north.

Now, the conversation with Jesus took place in the seventh hour or about 1:00pm, the same time that the boy’s recovery began. That means that, leaving Cana, the official would have had to stop somewhere for the night before continuing, not quite making it half-way into his journey before seeking shelter. Likewise, the slaves of the official would have done the same thing, heading south from Capernaum. The timing, then, means they met somewhere in the middle of each respective journey.

So, the good news is that the father didn’t have to make it all the way home to Capernaum before hearing the good news. What a grace this must have been, not having to wonder throughout the following day whether his faith was misplaced. Now, he knows it wasn’t in error, and we read for the second time in v. 53 that he believed.

Now, there is faith, and there is faith. Let’s consider this another way. The first time we read he believed, in v. 50, it was belief for the healing of his son. Now, this is another kind of belief, then.

What kind of belief did those Samaritans have that Jesus isn’t seeing in His countrymen? Again, in v. 42, they said that they knew “this One is indeed the Savior of the world.” The whole book of John is emphasizing this, and in John 20:31, we read that these things “have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name.” This doesn’t quite describe the first kind of faith that the official demonstrated, but now we read that he believed!

In fact, he not only came to faith, but also his son, his slaves, and everyone else in his whole household. Now, that might make sense if you think that the whole family hears the story of Jesus and, having the evidence so clearly before them, they all decide to believe in their own hearts. It’s possible that this nearly describes their experience, but we also have a very individualistic lens we’re considering that through. In those days, when the father of a household came to faith, the whole house became Christian. They had tighter bonds as family units, which wasn’t entirely a bad fact, considering results like this.

Still, each had to consider faith for himself; the son who had his body supernaturally healed would have the same happen to his soul in Jesus Christ. The object of faith isn’t a circumstance (I believe I’ll be healed, or I’ll get that job, or I’ll find my soulmate, or anything else.) The object of faith is Jesus Christ.

Before closing, some wonder about v. 54 identifying this healing as only Jesus’s second sign. After all, v. 45 said that they were receiving Him because they saw “all the things that He did in Jerusalem.” Back in John 2:23, it says they were “observing His signs,” and “signs” is the plural form of “sign” in v. 54 (in both English and Greek). So, some skeptical people would see this as an example of bad writing or editing on John’s part.

However, the verse is clear enough if you are not an ardent skeptic — it’s His second sign in Galilee, not Judea. In context, v. 46 also answers the question resetting us back to the first Galilean sign; “He came again to Cana of Galilee where He had made the water wine.” So, this healing is the second sign He performs in this region, not the second sign He performs, period.

Conclusion

This is in contrast to the Samaritans, who believed in Jesus without seeing any signs other than the display of supernatural insight. This courtier must also now believe without seeing — Jesus isn’t going to come with him, and he must walk the twenty miles home with simply a word of promise. That’s where we are today; we read Scripture and find that it has insight into our lives unlike anything else. We don’t have signs and wonders on display, and yet, we must believe without seeing. The question is, how do you view Jesus Christ?

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