John 4:46-54 | Jesus Heals an Official's Son
Let’s open the Bible now to John 4:46-54.
The last time I spoke, we were in Cana in Galilee, and here we are again in the same place.
At this point in John’s gospel, Jesus has returned home from his trips to Capernaum, Jerusalem, and Samaria, where he’s done a number of miraculous things and talked to a wide variety of people.
The last time he was in Cana was for a wedding. This time, he meets a much more somber event. That’s how life goes, doesn’t it? We have joy, and we have sorrow. We have weddings, and we have funerals. Jesus’s presence makes a difference in both. He’s the one you want at the party and the one you need in your desperation.
So, let’s read our passage now. John 4:46-54
JESUS HEALS AN OFFICIAL’S SON
46 So he came again to Cana in Galilee, where he had made the water wine. And at Capernaum there was an official whose son was ill. 47 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. 48 So Jesus said to him, “Unless you see signs and wonders you will not believe.” 49 The official said to him, “Sir, come down before my child dies.” 50 Jesus said to him, “Go; your son will live.” The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and went on his way. 51 As he was going down, his servants met him and told him that his son was recovering. 52 So he asked them the hour when he began to get better, and they said to him, “Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him.” 53 The father knew that was the hour when Jesus had said to him, “Your son will live.” And he himself believed, and all his household. 54 This was now the second sign that Jesus did when he had come from Judea to Galilee.
This is God’s word.
I think it’s helpful to remember what John tells us at the end of his gospel about why he wrote the book. “Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name” (John 20:30-31).
John’s whole purpose is that we would have faith in Jesus, and our passage today is all about faith. How does faith grow? That’s the question we have before us today. Through the story of this official, God shows us that there is a progression of faith, a journey of faith, in three stages.
True faith in Jesus brings us to him (it is reasonable)
True faith in Jesus takes him at his word (it is trusting)
True faith in Jesus settles our heart in him (it is transforming)
TRUE FAITH IN JESUS BRINGS US TO HIM (IT IS REASONABLE)
This first point is my longest point by far because if we don’t get this right, we miss so much of what’s going on here. We have to start unbelieving some things about him before we can start believing the truth about him.
We pick up the story in Cana in Galilee, where Jesus made the water wine. There’s a man whom John calls “an official” from Capernaum whose son was ill. Some translations call him a “royal official” or a “nobleman.” During this time, Herod Antipas was the king of Galilee, so this man was likely one of Herod’s officials. He was likely a man of significant status. But as this man has learned, significant statuses don’t exempt people from sorrow.
We don’t know a lot about this official. He doesn’t appear in any other story. Though the stories are similar, he is not the centurion that appears in Matthew’s and Luke’s gospels. This is a different man.
From what we can gather, he seems to be a good father. Capernaum was about 20 miles from Cana. That’s no small distance in those days to travel, but there is no indication he deemed it too far to go to help his son. He seemed also to be a decent man. Later in the story, when he goes home, his servants come to meet to share about his son’s health. They seem to care about him, presumably because he cares about them. But just as a good socio-economic status doesn’t prevent sorrow, neither does a good moral status. This man was in dire straights. His son was dying, and he had no more answers. In the midst of his sorrow and anxiety over his son, he heard about Jesus and came to him for help.
Why did he come to Jesus? Verse 46 refers to Jesus’s miracle of turning water into wine. We also know from verse 45 that people had been talking about the miracles he was doing in Jerusalem. He was a well-known miracle worker by this point. So John tells us in verse 47, “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.”
We see here the first stage of faith. The official heard and came. This is how faith starts. We hear something about Jesus, and we sense he has what we need. So we come. It’s a reasonable act. It’s a considered step. It’s thinking things through. It’s not a strong thing yet, but it’s something.
This official heard Jesus was able to do things no one else could do, and he started thinking about it. “Maybe,” he thought, “Jesus could do something for my son.” It was desperation that brought him to Jesus. How many of us came in a similar way? At the end of our rope. With tears in our eyes. With no other answers.
This official had no other answers. The doctors couldn’t do anything. Nothing was working. So he went to someone whom he knew had already worked a miracle. He heard what Jesus had done, so he came to see what he could do for him. That’s how faith starts. It starts with hearing truth and letting it inside you.
John tells us he heard and went to Jesus, and then what? He asked him to come down and heal his son. Jesus’s response in verse 48 is interesting. Look at it. Jesus said to him, “Unless you see signs and wonders you will not believe.” Huh. Why did he say that?
It’s a strange response, isn’t it? But, you know, Jesus had a lot of strange responses to people. Think of how he responded to his mother at the wedding in Cana. She said, “They’re out of wine.” And Jesus said, “What does that have to do with me? It’s not my time to die.” Then when Nicodemus came to Jesus, he said, “You have to be born again. The Spirit is like the wind. It goes where it wills.” Then at the well in Samaria, he said to the woman, “I’m thirsty.” When she offered him water, he said, “I have water you don’t know about…living water. You should ask me for that.”
In each of these conversations, we have to think to understand what Jesus is saying. Christianity is a thinking faith. Jesus engages our minds to enflame our hearts. When we think through these conversations, we start to see what Jesus is doing. He’s telling a bigger story. He’s revealing who he really is. He’s manifesting the glory of God.
Why did he respond like that? To get them—and us—thinking. What was his mother doing at the wedding? She was forcing him out before he was ready to reveal himself. What was Nicodemus doing? He was misunderstanding Jesus’s teaching, looking for salvation through works instead of from the Spirit. What was the woman at the well doing? She was there in the middle of the day to avoid her shame. What was this official doing? He was there to ask Jesus for a miracle because he had heard Jesus could do that sort of thing.
In each case, Jesus is confronting something much deeper than outward appearances. He’s cutting to the heart. He’s getting to the core issue. When you come to Jesus, you will get much more than surface-level help. You will get the deepest possible help.
Now, to get that help, we need to understand Jesus’s response to him. There’s an interesting grammatical thing going on in the Greek that we can’t see in our English translations. The “you” in verse 48…”Unless you see signs and wonders…” that’s a plural “you.” He’s speaking to this official, yes, but also to everyone in his hometown of Galilee. Why? Because as we see in verse 44, a prophet has no honor in his hometown. But then in verse 44, we see they welcomed him home. What’s going on? Yes, they welcomed Jesus home for what he could do, but they didn’t welcome him for who he was, for what he would say. He was a prophet, and the hometown crowd doesn’t like to hear from the hometown prophet. Jesus’s signs weren’t just neat things to discuss and marvel at. They were revelations of God’s glory, and they didn’t accept those words.
Jesus is not singling this guy out. He’s lumping him in with everyone else in town. “You people,” he’s saying. “You people don’t care about me for me. You only care about what I can do. You’re missing the whole point.”
It’s not an unfounded rebuke. Look at how the official approached him. He was an important person, and he approached Jesus like an important person. He came with a demand that sounded like a question. “Come down before my child dies.” There wasn’t really much humility in him yet. He doesn’t even think about what Jesus might have going on. At this point, he sees Jesus only for what Jesus can do for him. He doesn’t yet see Jesus for who Jesus is. He expected Jesus to drop whatever he was doing and come with him. He didn’t even consider that Jesus would do something else.
So Jesus rebukes his thinking. Do you see how deep he’s getting here? This official, who had a real, desperate need, came to him because he heard about the miracles Jesus could do. In that way, he was like everyone else. But was he really? That’s what Jesus wants him to think about. Was he there just for a miracle? Or was he there for something else? As his life is falling apart, can Jesus do more than ease his pain?
Jesus is redefining some things for this man. He’s getting him thinking deeper than he is. He’s distracted by his situation, which makes sense. There’s nothing really wrong with that. But his situation, as dire as it is, is not his greatest need. Was he there for signs and wonders, or was he there for something else? Is there something else? Is there something more to Jesus than miracles? Maybe he hadn’t even thought in that category before. Faith brought him to Jesus, and now Jesus is about to bring him all the way in. He’s about to heal much more than his son’s fever.
This is amazing to me. Jesus is not caught up in our circumstances. He stands above them, and he can use them to give us living water we don’t even know about. In every situation we find ourselves in, Jesus works in ways we might not expect to give us the life we want most but don’t even know is possible. Aren’t you glad we have a God who doesn’t wait for us to realize what we need but gives it graciously even when we’re too hard-headed or anxious or distracted to even see it?
Maybe you’re coming to Jesus for a better life in some way. Jesus wants you to think that through. We all want relief, but do we even know what relief is possible in him? Are we, as C.S. Lewis once said, playing with mud pies in a slum when Jesus offers us a holiday at sea? What if there is a greater miracle Jesus can do in us?
Maybe we don’t have a sick son that needs healing, but we all have some need only Jesus can meet. And I hope you’re asking him to help. But how are you asking? Are you even asking? Or are you demanding? What limits are you putting on Jesus? This man wanted Jesus to come to his house, but Jesus had another way to heal. He wasn’t even aware of that category. Are you like that? Will you allow Jesus to deal with you on his own terms? Will you trust him to handle things his way?
This official doesn’t yet get it, but he will. He has the reasonableness of faith to come to Jesus, and that’s the first step, but he hasn’t yet learned to trust him. He still thinks he needs to see to believe. But Jesus will teach him how to believe without sight next. He will teach him to take him at his word, to trust him, which is the next stage of faith’s progression.
TRUE FAITH IN JESUS TAKES HIM AT HIS WORD (IT IS TRUSTING)
Look at verse 50. “Jesus said to him, ‘Go; your son will live.’ The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and went on his way.”
Jesus spoke, and the man went. Jesus did not do what the man requested. He asked him to come down to his house. But Jesus said to him, “No, I don’t need to go. I said your son will live, so you can go, but I will stay.” And the man did the most amazing thing. He trusted him! He turned and went on his way. This is the end of the conversation. He didn’t press Jesus to come with him again. Why? Because at that moment, he trusted Jesus’s word. He had confidence that his son would live because Jesus said he would. Faith was blossoming.
How do we know the man thought this? I mean, maybe he just thought to himself, “Gosh, you know, Jesus seemed a little upset that I was there. I asked what I wanted to ask. I guess I’ll just leave it at that, and I’ll see what happens next.” Maybe this man was just a bit shy. Maybe he wasn’t a type A personality. Is that it?
I’m not so sure. After all, this man walked 20 miles for help. He was at his wit’s end. Nothing else had worked. This was his last resort. If your son was dying, would you leave just because someone seemed a bit put off that you asked them for help? Wouldn’t you press? Wouldn’t you keep pressing? So why didn’t this man? Because he trusted Jesus’s word. He believed him. We don’t have to assume that. John tells us he did. Look again at verse 50. “The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him.” He had everything he needed. He could go now.
Jesus gave this man a bigger gift than he expected. If Jesus had come down to his house with that man, the man would have believed because he saw. But as Jesus later told Thomas after his resurrection, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” This official was one of those blessed ones. He didn’t see, yet he believed. He knew the miracle was done, even though his eyes had not yet beheld it. He had in his heart the kind of trust faith gives. He took Jesus at his word. It was enough for him.
True faith in Jesus takes him at his word. It trusts him. Do you trust him like this official did? Do you take Jesus at his word? Think about it. Your faith starts with reasonableness. You come to Jesus because you see the logic of it. You heard what he could do. You heard who he is. And so you came. But coming alone isn’t enough. Being in the room isn’t enough. Your faith has to move from reason to trust. You have to come. That’s the first step. But do you trust? Do you place your faith in the person of Christ? Not even in the work of Christ but in his person. Do you trust him?
By the way, that’s the key to faith. Trusting him. It’s not about the strength of your faith. John tells us nothing about the strength of this official’s faith. It’s all about where his faith is, who he puts his faith in. That’s the key.
Jesus can do amazing things. He can perform miracles. But it is Jesus himself who matters most. The greatest miracle is not what Jesus can do for you but who Jesus is for you. Do you see that? Jesus is a miracle.
When you realize that, when faith grows from reasonableness to trust, something else starts to happen in your heart, which is our final point.
TRUE FAITH IN JESUS SETTLES OUR HEART IN HIM (IT IS TRANSFORMING)
What happened to this official? Verse 50 says he went home. Verses 51 and following tell us more. As he went, his servants met him and told him his son was recovering. He asked when he started getting better, and they said, “Yesterday at the seventh hour, the fever left him.”
Now, there’s a little debate about what the 7th hour is, but I think the best arguments place this at around 1 PM. At 1 PM the day before, Jesus said, “Your son will live.” Why is that important? I mean, who cares? The point is he’s healed, right?
Well, this shows us two things. First, it confirms the man’s faith in Jesus’s word. As soon as Jesus said his son would live, he started to live again. That’s just flat-out amazing, isn’t it? Jesus didn’t have to go to his house. He didn’t have to perform a little song and dance. He didn’t even have to pray to God. He is God. His word is authoritative, and John’s little detail here is not only historically accurate but is theologically important. Jesus’s word is effective. What he says is true and does happen. That has massive implications for us today. If Jesus said it, it’s as good as done.
Second, this little detail tells us something else about this man’s faith. Think about it this way. If it was 1 PM, the man likely departed his house early that morning to go find Jesus. At 1 PM, there was still time to turn and head home. But he goes the next day. This is a little detail that I think makes a big difference. Why didn’t he rush home? He came in such anxiety to get help. Then he met Jesus and believed Jesus’s word, and he didn’t rush back home! All that he needed was already done. Jesus had spoken. What was there left to do? His son shall live. He can see him tomorrow. He doesn’t have to rush home today. His anxiety was gone. His heart was calmed. He was utterly transformed. He changed from an anxious father into a calm father. Isn’t that amazing?
You know, you’re in the same position as this man, right? Maybe you don’t have a dying son, but you have anxieties. You feel the weight of worry. You have fears of tomorrow. You have the burden of responsibility. But Jesus has spoken. His gospel rings out. You are ok. You can rest. You can rejoice. You can be still and know that he is Lord.
When faith goes from reasonableness to trust, it leads to peace. When you trust Jesus—really trust him—you are transformed from someone always worried to someone who knows the outcome already. That doesn’t mean we never worry; it just means we don’t have to anymore. Underneath the entirety of your life are the everlasting arms of Jesus. You can rest there.
It’s interesting to me that we never actually hear what happened when the father saw his healed son. We know he saw him, but we don’t get the details. Why? Because that meeting isn’t important. The important meeting was the one he had with Jesus. It was the faith of the father John wants us to see, not the healing of the son. The faith of the father then leads to the faith of the household. You see that in verse 53. “And he himself believed, and all his household.” His faith took root inward, and it grew outward, and the healing healed more than a fever.
We don’t know the rest of the story, but you know, one day, the father may have faced his son’s impending death again, and he certainly faced his own. But Jesus’s sign that day in Cana foretold what was to come for this official and his family. Death was no longer the problem it once was because when he got home and shared the good news of Jesus, his son believed in Jesus, too, along with all his household. When someone got sick again, and healing didn’t come, they didn’t blame Jesus for letting them die. They rejoiced that they would forever live. They didn’t need to see another miracle. They had the miracle within them. They had faith. They had Jesus. They had all they needed. Do you have Jesus like this? Do you trust him like this? Do you know his peace?
If you don’t, you can. He’s available right now to give it to you. If you do, you know the joy it gives. Praise him for it, and share that good news with others.
CONCLUSION
In closing, I want us to see one final thing. Look at verse 54. “This was now the second sign that Jesus did when he had come from Judea to Galilee.”
C.S. Lewis said miracles are more than powerful acts. They are demonstrations of who Jesus is. They are signs.
What did we see in the sign at the wedding in Cana when he turned water into wine? We saw that Jesus is the fulfillment of the Old Testament law and ritual. He took ceremonial water jars and filled them with the new wine of the gospel. He was saying something about who he is. Maybe his most amazing miracle, in John 11, when he raised Lazarus from the dead, Jesus said something about who he is. He is the resurrection and the life. Miracles don’t just impress us, they teach us. They not only show us God’s power; they show us God’s character. They help us learn to trust him because miracles are never just cool tricks. They are revelations of God’s glory, his goodness, his salvation, of his deepest heart.
Remember what we said Jesus was thinking about at the wedding in Cana back in chapter 2? He was thinking about his own wedding to come. The wedding supper of the Lamb, where his bride, the church, would be wed to him for eternity. What is he thinking about now with this official? What does he say to him? “Your son will live.”
You know, he could have said so many things. He could have said, “Your son will be healed of his fever.” He could have said, “Your son is better now.” He could have said all kinds of things, but he says, “Your son will live.” And since we know the son came to faith in Jesus when the father got home, Jesus meant more than recovery from the fever. The son will live.
Think about it. Why was Jesus there anyway? Why did he come? Think back to John 1:12. “But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.” Jesus came to give a right to all who believe—the right to become a child of God. This world is full of dying sons. But then Jesus came. Why? So that the children would live. This royal official coming to Jesus is but a shadow of the true Royal Official who left his home to go get salvation for God’s sons. Jesus understands this man deeper than the man even knows. Jesus is on the same mission. There is a sickness unto death in the children of God, but Jesus has come to destroy it by letting himself be destroyed. He’s come to kill sin by being killed. He’s come to rise again so that the children may live.
Are you one of the children of God? Then you, too, will live.
If you’re not one of the children of God yet, why not? Why don’t you come to Jesus and see what he has for you, who he is for you?
Jesus has spoken. Take him at his word. Trust him. Let him transform you. Let him give you life.
Let’s pray.
