Distance? No problem.

After the two days he departed for Galilee. (For Jesus himself had testified that a prophet has no honor in his own hometown.) So when he came to Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him, having seen all that he had done in Jerusalem at the feast. For they too had gone to the feast. (John’s first century eyewitness biography of Jesus Chapter 4: 43-54)

The “two days” mentioned above were spent in Sychar, a town in Samaria where Jesus met a woman at Jacob’s well and where she and many Samaritans believed into him because of his word. Jesus had come there from Judah (to the South) and was going to Samaria (to the North). He had been brought up in Nazareth (in Galilee). Why go to Samaria when “a prophet has no honour in his hometown”? There has to be a good reason. Surprisingly, “the Galileans welcomed him”. Why? Their ‘local boy’ had caused controversy in Jerusalem. He had done many wonderful signs and many people believed in him. But maybe the greatest frisson came from his actions in the magnificent temple there – throwing out those selling animal offerings as well as financial services providers with their tills. What now? So he came again to Cana in Galilee, where he had made the water wine. Cana? Would he again do something wonderful to persuade them?
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.	.
Capernaum, in Galilee, is roughly 23 miles from Cana. This “official” was probably close to Herod Antipas, then king in Galilee. For him, coming to Jesus was a life-and-death matter. Not a spectacle to amuse. So Jesus said to him, “Unless you see signs and wonders you will not believe.” Did you notice that Jesus addresses this statement to the official personally, “Jesus said to him”? The statement would have been true for the people around – and that’s why, in the actual statement itself, “you” is plural. But was it true for the official who had travelled 23 miles to ask Jesus to return home with him so that his son would be saved from death? The official said to him, “Lord, come down before my child dies.” The overarching focus of the official is on the imminent death of his son. Faced with death, he has no one else to turn to. But does he indeed believe in Jesus – or merely that Jesus might help? Jesus said to him, “Go; your son lives.” The most welcome words the official could have hoped to hear. But were they true? Had Jesus given life to his son from 23 miles away? He had no means of checking. What now? The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and went on his way. During his journey back home, was the official really believing “the word Jesus spoke”? Or just hoping?
As he was going down, his servants met him and told him that his son was recovering. 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.” The father knew that was the hour when Jesus had said to him, “Your son lives.” And he himself believed, and all his household.	.
If the official had earlier “believed the word that Jesus spoke to him”, did he now believe in Jesus in a new way? Did this come about through leaving Jesus and walking away from his physical presence in faith? And “all his household believed” without ever seeing Jesus. Why? This was now the second sign that Jesus did when he had come from Judea to Galilee. First sign: the Samaritans; second sign: the king’s official’s household

Sinner Syvret

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