True faith, or prosperity gospel? (4:43-54)

Jesus returns to Galilee - but why? (4:43-46)

Jesus was by birth Judaean, so some see His comment about a prophet not being honoured in his hometown  as referring to the hostility He had experienced in Jerusalem, and expecting a warmer reception in Galilee.  Jesus did receive a welcome on His arrival there, which seems to fit with this interpretation.  However, in Judaea people thought that Jesus was a Galilean, or perhaps a Samaritan (7:27, 50-52; 8:48). which would seem to undercut this interpretation.

Prior to going to Jerusalem for Passover, Jesus had been in Galilee at the wedding in Cana.  Following that, He had toured Galilee announcing the Kingdom of God, and then had come to his home in Nazareth (Lk 4:14-30).  There He had quoted Isaiah’s description of Messiah’s manifesto, as being fulfilled in Himself.  The Nazarenes couldn’t accept that someone whose father was a local carpenter, could possibly be the Messiah.  Jesus quoted the same proverb about a prophet receiving no honour in his own country, illustrating it with episodes from Elijah and Elishah’s experience: but ultimately his own neighbours tried to kill Him, and He had to move His mother and siblings to Capernaum for their own safety.

So if Jesus knew that He would receive no honour in His birthplace, and that His message had put His whole family at risk not long before, why - when He had just experienced such a welcome in Samaria - did He move on? Humanly, it made no sense.

Jesus knew that His Father had said that the light of the gospel was to come to ‘Galilee of the Gentiles’ first (Isa 9:1,2).  And many Galileans had been amongst those who believed when they saw the miracles He did in Jerusalem, during Passover (2:23,4:45).  Rather than going back to Nazareth, Jesus goes to Nathanael’s home in Cana  - where the excellent wine of the wedding feast was still vivid in everyone’s memory.

The Courtier’s son healed (4:46-54)

John now recounts the second of his seven ‘signs’ (4:54).  We know therefore that this episode has been carefully selected to reveal something more about Jesus the Messiah.

There are various echoes of the first ‘sign’: it occurs in Cana, three days after leaving Judaea; it starts with an initial rebuke, is validated by servants, and leads to belief.  But there is one major contrast: the first sign is at a joyful wedding, the second has to do with the grief of a child’s impending death.

The word translated ‘nobleman’ implies this man was close to the King: he was a courtier.  [He may have been Herod’s steward, Chuza, whose wife later became one of Jesus’s most devoted followers (Lk 8:3).]   So a courtier requests a carpenter to come from Cana to Capernaum (25 miles) to cure his child!  That must have taken some humility on the courtier’s part.

Jesus demurs, on the grounds that ‘seeing is believing’ is the opposite of ‘walking by faith not by sight’.  The Jews routinely demanded signs to validate a man’s ministry, before they would believe: but the resulting kind of belief was not ‘saving faith’ ((2:23-25).  The courtier must believe first, before seeing:  he must trust Jesus enough to allow Him to operate however He chooses.

Why did John select this as a particularly significant ‘sign’?

1. It teaches about the true nature of faith.

The Jerusalem Jews had faith in Jesus’s name when they saw the signs that He did, but it wasn’t the sort of faith that Jesus could put much weight on (2:23-25).  Nicodemus saw beyond the miracles, to God’s endorsement of Jesus: but he too wasn't yet ‘born again’.

The nobleman’s faith shows a progressive development: He first asks for a miracle, then takes Jesus at His word, then believes, along with His whole household.

Faith is what sees beyond the sign, to grasp the spiritual reality it is pointing to.

“Faith based on signs and miracles must not be mistaken for true faith, which is why Jesus does not encourage it.  It fails to honour God, since by it, He serves us rather than the other way round.  We are left with a mistaken notion that we are in a position to dictate terms to him.  Miraculous signs and miraculous answers to prayer, may have a certain value as a starting point, making us aware of God's reality, but they remain sterile, unless they lead on to a concern for the Christ to whom they point, and whose glory they signify.   Beyond the miracles, we seek the Lord who works them.  It is in obeying his commands and trusting his promises that true faith is expressed.  Now we have ceased to dictate the terms of our relationship – we exist for him, not here for us. Now, we ‘believe’.“   (Bruce Milne, ‘The Message of John’)

2. The passage also teaches about prayer.

The courtier’s prayer is passionate, persistent, practical and powerful.  He is not put off by Jesus’s initial apparent rebuff.  He moves from a position of entitlement (because of his social standing) to humility, calling Jesus ‘Master’ or ‘Lord’ (v49).  He accepts Jesus’s word by faith, only discovering the following day that the healing occurred exactly when Jesus had spoken.

3. Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, the passage reveals Jesus’s authority.

The gospel records show that when Jesus healed, He sometimes touched people or used other methods. But when He cast out demons, it was always by verbal command alone.
His words had incredible authority, quite different from other rabbis (Matt 7:29)

Some while later, a Gentile Centurion (also from Capernaum) whose valued servant was ill, also approached Jesus to seek his healing (Matt 8:8-10).   However, he seems to have grasped from his military experience, how spiritual authority works - unlike this courtier. Or maybe he had the advantage of having heard about the courtier’s case previously?

Authority is always something vested in a person, by a superior.  The Centurion knew that his authority to command his troops came from the fact that he himself was under authority.  Had he mutinied against Caesar, his soldiers would have been under no obligation to obey him.  Likewise Pilate would have had no authority over Jesus, unless God had allowed it (19:11).  Jesus’s authority came from His obedience to the Father: it was given to Him.  His Father gave Him all authority in heaven and on earth, that at the Name of Jesus every knee would do obeisance.

In the boxing ring, a heavyweight champion will be far more physically powerful than the referee.  And yet the referee’s authority enables him to stop the fight at any point, and separate the sparring contestants.  Power and authority are two different things, and two different Greek words (δθναμις and εχουσια), and yet our translations tend to treat them as interchangeable.
John often refers to Jesus’s authority (εχουσια), but it’s often wrongly translated as ‘power’: for example,
The Father has … given the Son authority to execute judgement also (5:26,27)
The Son has authority to lay down His life, and authority to take it again (10:18)
You (Father) gave (Me) the Son authority over all flesh, …(to) give (them) eternal life (17:2)
To as many as received Him, He gave authority to become children of God (1:12)

Just as the Centurion’s authority came from his obedience to Caesar, Jesus’s authority came from His obedience to the Father.  And our authority is directly proportional to our obedience to Christ.  As the song says, “Kingdom authority flows from His throne, unto His own”.  Only those who are fully submitted to Jesus, can operate in His Kingdom authority.  Those who try to use Jesus’s Name with authority, but are not themselves under His authority, risk being badly mauled by the Devil - just as the High Priest’s seven sons were, at Ephesus (Acts 19:13-16).

Jesus gave His disciples authority to heal, to cleanse lepers, raise the dead, and cast out demons.  He could do this because ‘All authority’ was ‘given unto’ Him ‘in heaven and on earth’ (Matt 28:20).  We should expect to see this Kingdom authority operating in our own lives: our prayer ‘in the Name of Jesus’, our witnessing, our teaching.  He has the Name above every name!

Jesus’s authority was often questioned by the Judaeans.  When He threw the money changers out of the Temple, they demanded a sign to prove His authority (2:18).  And when He re-cleansed it just after His triumphal entry to Jerusalem, again they questioned (Matt 21:23-27).  To them, a rabbi’s authority came from the rabbi he had trained under: and since Jesus had never had rabbinical training, they couldn’t accept that He had authority: but it was self-evident in His ministry, that He did (Matt 7:20).

In the next chapter of John, we will see just how extensive Jesus’s authority is. It’s not just about being able to command healing, or to expel demons.  He has authority to give eternal life to whomever He chooses, but also to judge all mankind at the Day of Judgement!  And this authority has been attested by multiple sources: John the Baptist, the miracles, the Torah, & Moses himself.