Cana Part Deux

Then he came again to Cana in Galilee where he had changed the water into wine. Now there was a royal official whose son lay ill in Capernaum. When he heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee, he went and begged him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death. Then Jesus said to him, “Unless you see signs and wonders you will not believe.” The official said to him, “Sir, come down before my little boy dies.” Jesus said to him, “Go; your son will live.” The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and started on his way. As he was going down, his slaves met him and told him that his child was alive. So he asked them the hour when he began to recover, and they said to him, “Yesterday at one in the afternoon the fever left him.” The father realized that this was the hour when Jesus had said to him, “Your son will live.” So he himself believed, along with his whole household. Now this was the second sign that Jesus did after coming from Judea to Galilee.

John 4:46

Introduction

Cana Part Deaux. The second miracle in Cana. John is the only gospel writer to talk about Cana, possibly because Nathaniel was from there. If you notice he says Cana in Galilee. he does this to distinguish this Cana from the other two in Israel. I didn’t mention this last week, but Cana is Hebrew for reed. This sign is not as full of symbolism as the water into wine, however it poses some interesting questions. It is quite possible that this royal official may be a gentile. But that’s not known for sure. Luke and Matthew tell a similar story of healing at a distance, but that takes place in Capernaum and Jesus heals a Centurion’s slave. There is no doubt that this was a healing performed on and for gentiles. It is not as clear here. So since it is ambiguous we have to approach it thinking that John meant it to be ambiguous. So let’s jump right in and unpack this second sign.

Context

Let’s take a minute or two and set this in context. Jesus left Cana after the wedding and went to what will become his home base of Capernaum. From there he goes to Jerusalem for passover and causes quite a ruckus. He clears out the Temple of the money changers and merchants. Sometime during his stay there Nicodemus comes to him. The Jesus and the disciples go see John the Baptist in the Judean countryside. Jesus ministry is starting to overshadow John’s and John tells his followers he is not the Messiah and that Jesus will increase and he will decrease. Jesus then goes back home and takes a shortcut through Samaria where he encounters the woman at the well. He then arrives back in Galilee where he is welcomed warmly because of all he did in Jerusalem.

John then says he came again to Cana.

Exegesis

So a lot has happened since the wedding, Jesus is solidly in his ministry and now has attracted the attention of the religious authorities while in Jerusalem. He is beginning to draw crowds and is recognized as a great teacher or Rabbi. In fact he is so well known a Royal Official comes from Capernaum to Cana a distance of some 15 miles or so, a day’s journey, to have Jesus heal his son.

For a Royal official to do such a thing would lack honor in fact it would be scandalous. The official would have humbled himself to go to a Rabbi for help, especially a Rabbi from a back water town like Nazareth where he was a carpenter. You know there are a lot of people full of pride that will not admit that they need Jesus in their lives. I had a young lady in my youth group whose parents refused to accompany her to church because they told her only weak people needed Jesus. They said Jesus was a crutch and she need to be strong. I wonder if they ever realized that they were their own Gods? They were worshipping themselves. This Official certainly was not guilty of that. Faith made no sense to the parents of this young lady.

John says that the official begged or pleaded with Jesus for him to come down and heal his son. As a geographic note Cana was not located in the valley where the Sea of Galilee was. Capernaum is some 700 feet below sea level. So it was literally come down to Capernaum from Cana.

Jesus then says something really strange.

John 4:48 NRSV

Then Jesus said to him, “Unless you see signs and wonders you will not believe.”

The first thing that makes this odd is it is possibly not addressed to the Official. The reason I say that is that both “yous” are plural. But, it appears that he is addressing the official, and not nicely. Most likely Jesus is addressing the crowd that had gathered around. They gathered to see what this miracle worker was going to do. Jesus is basically saying don’t believe in the signs in wonders, believe in me! Once again the Official pleads

John 4:49 NRSV

The official said to him, “Sir, come down before my little boy dies.”

Jesus simply says Go, your son will live. And then John says he went believing the word that Jesus spoke to him. Once again we have a life giving act by Jesus and he does this just by speaking. If you remember God created the universe just by speaking.

Genesis 1:1–3 NRSV

In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters. Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light.

Genesis 1:1-

God just speaks and life begins, Jesus just speaks and a life is saved.

John 1:1–5 NRSV

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.

As the official is on the way back he is met by his slaves that tell him that his son is well and they attest that it was the same time Jesus spoke it so. Then John says again that he believed along with his whole household, that would be his family and slaves.

Application

Well we already know that these signs are here that we might believe that Jesus is the Son of God. If we look closely here we can see that faith is a process. Jesus warns him and the crowd around him make sure you believe in me for who I am not what I do. I think this is a warning for all of us. When we get upset with God for not answering prayer, or a loved one dying, or we get sick and we aren’t healed we run the danger of believing in God for what he does, not who he is.

Let’s go back to the first sign of water into wine. The disciples saw him do this, but what they truly saw was his glory as the Son of God. We talked about that being perception. They believed in Jesus not in the miracle. They moved from a preliminary faith of “come and see” to Jesus glory.

We have a similar process with the official. In verse 50 he believes in the word, by verse 53 his faith had grown! Jesus was more than just speaking a word, he must have seen Jesus glory. He saw that Jesus was a giver of life, just like God!

When we see something miraculous we tend to get caught up in the event. This is why I am avoiding any conversation about science here. The Bible is not a science book. Science is how, the Bible is why. If we think the Bible is a science book we will get hung up on the wrong things. These are called signs, that means they are pointing to something. You do not want to make the mistake of limiting Jesus just to an act. John draws us to look beyond the miracle, if we get caught up in the miracle Jesus is just another miracle worker. We have to move from “look what Jesus can do” to “look who Jesus is.”

These are stages of faith. As Wesleyans we understand that salvation is a process. I am saved, I am being saved, I shall always need to be saved. That is why every morning when you get up you need to remember your baptism, You have to respond to God’s saving grace on a daily basis.

The process of faith for the official looks something like this:

Seeking miracles or signs (48)

Taking Jesus at his word (50)

Believing in who Jesus is (53)

In this process not only is the child healed but the father too!

Do you know who John Newton is? John Newton is best known as the composer of the hymn Amazing Grace. But you might also know that Newton was the captain of slave ships and heavily involved in the slave trade. You might have even heard that he was converted to Christianity during a storm on one of his voyages. His boat was taking on water and he thought he was going to die. What you may not know is that after his initial conversion in 1748 he continued in the slave trade until 1755! What's with that you might ask? If you had only heard part of the story like I had you might think his conversion was not a gradual one, but a sudden one. It was not! It wasn't until some point around 1755 that he decided to become a disciple of Christ. Listen in 1748 he quit drinking, quit cussing, and quit playing cards. But he continued in the slave trade for 7 more years! But Jesus loses no one and he continued to work in his heart. It wasn't until 1779 that he wrote Amazing Grace.

He sought a miracle: give me life from the storm!

He took Jesus at his word, so he kept his, mostly no drinking, no cussing, no gambling, yet he still traded in slaves. He believed in Jesus for what he did! Not who he is at this point. But along the way he must have believed who Jesus is. In 1763 he wrote: "I was greatly deficient in many respects ... I cannot consider myself to have been a believer in the full sense of the word, until a considerable time afterwards."Because Jesus kept working and he gave it up finally, and entered the ministry and eventually wrote amazing grace.

Grace is amazing because it is unmerited and free.

We are all at different points in our faith journeys and I’ll end with this story

(Agent Orange Viet Veteran)

Grace is amazing isn’t it? He was on the first step of his journey and he was just as saved as Mother Teresa. it is not a matter of doctrine, or saying a sinner’s prayer, or reading the King James version of the Bible, it is all about who Jesus is.