The Heart of the Matter
Even today, many selfishly seek Jesus only to ask for the miracles He performs such as the hard hearted Galileans did during His ministry on earth. Few seek Jesus as the lowly Samaritans did…humbly and contritely knowing their desperate need for the Savior. However, Jesus still proves full of grace and mercy towards the most stubborn, hardened, and faithless heart just as he did for the official back then. Christ’s grace and mercy continues to know no bounds and is of such a nature that we can never fully comprehend…infinite and available piercing the most hardened, stubborn, and faithless heart. This is truly the grace of Jesus at work…in that while we were yet sinners, He died for us.
Last week we studied the results of Jesus revealing Himself as Messiah to the Samaritan woman at the well and the great spiritual harvest that resulted. Now Jesus has left Samaria after teaching there for two days.
Digging Deeper
John 4:43–46:
43After the two days He went forth from there into Galilee.
44For Jesus Himself testified that a prophet has no honor in his own country.
45So 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.
46Therefore 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.
After His stay in Samaria, Jesus travels to Galilee. Remember at the beginning of chapter 4 (in verse 3) Jesus and His disciples left where they were baptizing and traveled to Galilee. However, His stop at Samaria (before arriving at Galilee) ended up being about 2 days in length. This is a testament that the brief detours we can take are under the sovereignty of our Lord and Savior. Temporary detours can be of eternal significance if only we look for where Jesus is working and join Him.
Now Jesus is arriving at His intended destination of Galilee. By the way, I wonder how they knew Jesus was arriving. Had He been there for a short while and they just noticed He was there or maybe they had heard news of the revival going on in the Samaritan city (something to ponder). However, this is where it gets a little weird. Jesus testified (in verse 44) that a prophet has no honor in his own country. Jesus was considered a Galilean since His home in Nazareth would have been within the province of Galilee, John 1:45:
45Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found Him of whom Moses in the Law and also the Prophets wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.”
So if Jesus was going to Galilee knowing that the people would not honor and revere Him, why go at all? The answer is rooted in who Jesus is. Jesus would not be the type to just go wherever the harvest was ripe, such as with the Samaritan city. Rather, Jesus went to all places that His Father directed Him to go. In the case of Galilee, it was most likely to cultivate the soil in order for seed to be planted and take root and grow into maturity at a later time.
Note the differences between this passage and the previous one about the Samaritan city. The Samaritan city was ripe and ready for the harvest, the sowing had already been accomplished. But here in Galilee the city was not ripe for the harvest and the harvest as we see in verse 53 was very small, almost inconsequential in relation to the massive haul in the Samaritan city.
It seems as though Jesus is tilling the land and sowing seeds that will be harvested later by His Apostles. As sowers of the Word, we don’t typically see a harvest (we may, but that is not the sower’s unique calling). Here in Galilee there was only a very small harvest.
Now here in verse 45 it gets super weird. Verse 45 begins with “So”, which you can think of as consequentially, accordingly, or then. So Jesus said something like, “I will not receive honor in Galilee.” in verse 44 followed immediately by verse 45 where John narrates that the Galileans did receive Him. Not only did they receive Him but a royal official from Galilee came out to great Him. What is going on here? I thought Jesus said that He would not be honored in Galilee, but it looks like the Galilean’s sent out a royal welcoming party for Him. Isn’t this honoring Jesus? Isn’t this the respect and reverence due to the One who graciously gives living waters to all that might believe resulting in everlasting life?
Nope!
This was all pomp and circumstance. Nothing of real worth was at this “welcoming” of Jesus into Galilee. The key to unlocking the question of the odd phrasing between verses 44 and 45 is buried in the second half of verse 45. These people “received” Jesus because they saw His miracles at the Passover feast in Jerusalem. We know this because John tells us that these “receivers” were also at that feast. Another clue is in the Greek. The verb tense for “having seen” in verse 45 is in the perfect tense. This means that these people had observed Jesus’ miracles in the past during the feast, but this observation resulted in a particular state for these people. That is, they were in awe of the miracles themselves and not Jesus Himself!
Here we see the irony (or maybe it’s sarcasm) from John between verses 44 and 45. It’s almost as if he’s saying, “No one will honor Jesus in Galilee.” And in the very next breath, “Oh look at the fake honorers coming out to greet Jesus.”
Do you remember Jesus performing miracles for the Samaritans? No, yet they came to Jesus in droves and believed. Here we get the sense that the Galileans were more interested in getting something from Jesus. And indeed the next verse (v47) confirms this.
John 4:47–48:
47When 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.
48So Jesus said to him, “Unless you people see signs and wonders, you simply will not believe.”
In verse 47 we see that the royal official came to see Jesus not as the Samaritans did asking questions and wanting to know who He was. Rather, this official came and begged Jesus to heal his sick son. In fact, this verb “imploring” is in the imperfect tense indicating that he persisted in his begging for Jesus to heal his son.
So let’s go back to John 4:44:
44For Jesus Himself testified that a prophet has no honor in his own country.
Was this official truly honoring Jesus or did he just want something from this person who seemed to be a prophet sent from God? Jesus knew what was truly in this official’s heart and, like the Samaritan woman and Nicodemus, Jesus spoke objective truth to his heart. But note that both “you” words here in this verse are plural, signifying Jesus is not only talking to the official but also to all the Galileans. Jesus stated in no uncertain terms that none of them (neither Galileans nor the official) would believe unless they “see” (i.e., that they perceive with their eyes in a physical manner) signs and wonders. Therefore, the Galileans could not truly honor Jesus until they saw His miracles. Remember a couple of weeks ago when we studied the miracles at the Passover feast where people came to a type of belief in Jesus that did not result (at that time) in the saving faith of belief in Jesus? They believed in Jesus, but Jesus was not believing (trusting) in them because He knew their hearts. Likewise, Jesus is exposing the sin in these people’s hearts just like He did with the Samaritan woman at the well.
But the exposing of the people’s sinful hearts did not result in salvation as it did for the Samaritans just two days ago. However, there is a glimmer of hope in the official’s heart. We see in verse 47 that he continuously begged Jesus for help. This continuous action of begging means that there is something going on in this official’s heart. Let’s read on to see what happens to his heart.
John 4:49–50:
49The royal official said to Him, “Sir, come down before my child dies.”
50Jesus said to him, “Go; your son lives.” The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and started off.
The official asks Jesus to come to his home and save his sick child. Jesus does not comply; rather, he tells the official to “Go now to your son” because he “presently lives and will continue to live”. Both “Go” and “lives” in verse 50 in Jesus’ statement are in the present tense. This gives us the sense of importance with “Go”…in a sense, “Go now and see your son.” The present tense of the word “lives” lets the official know that his son will continue to live. For we know and the official knew that his son still lived as he told Jesus earlier that his son was not dead but close to death. Here Jesus is telling the official to go and see the miracle that has happened. Indeed this miracle occurred just as Jesus was speaking these very words to the official.
Notice something important in the response of the official to these words Jesus spoke. John says that the man believed the word that Jesus spoke, not that this man believed in Jesus. This is important; essentially, this was not a saving faith (not yet at least). The man did not believe in Jesus. He merely believed (maybe trusted is a better word here) that the words Jesus spoke were true. In fact, the NIV says it more precisely as, “the man took Jesus at His word”.
How many people are there in churches today that only take Jesus for His word, looking for miracles and signs? How many have not put their full faith in Jesus and have said that they will believe (or have some type of belief, which is no true belief at all) once they see a miracle? Belief involves trust, not just a short lived trust of things other than Jesus but a total commitment to trust and obey Jesus.
John 4:51–53:
51As he was now going down, his slaves met him, saying that his son was living.
52So 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.”
53So 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.
As the official was going back to his home as Jesus had commanded him, he ran into his servants who told him of the miraculous recovery of his son. The official asked when this happened, and the servants informed him of the exact timing of the miracle. It was when Jesus told him that his son lives.
Look at the final result of this miracle in verse 53. Not only did the official come to a saving faith (“he himself believed”), but his whole household believed (including his servants that he met when going home). Why do I say that this word “believed” in verse 53 indicates a saving faith while in verse 50 it did not? First, I’ve already explained that the object of the verb “believed” in verse 50 is the word that Jesus spoke to him. This official took Jesus at His word.
Secondly, what Jesus speaks in verse 48 is also pertinent. Jesus says, “Unless you people see signs and wonders, you simply will not believe.” The Galilean’s hearts were all very hardened. They needed to see signs and wonders. Note that signs and wonders are plural so it’s possible that just one or even a few signs and wonders won’t do. This is a testament to the hardness of their hearts.
John 4:54:
54This is again a second sign that Jesus performed when He had come out of Judea into Galilee.
So Jesus, nevertheless, miraculously healed the sick son (from afar). This brought about a small harvest of a single household. We are not told if others believed due to this miracle. Maybe we don’t need to be told. Most likely due to the hardness of their hearts, the people of Galilee wouldn’t have believed in that miracle since they didn’t see it with their own eyes (maybe they thought the official was lying about his sick son to get some sympathy). Whatever the reason, there was no massive harvest as there was just two days ago in Samaria.
Yet, Jesus proved full of grace and mercy acquiesced and performed the miracle for this official…a stubborn, hard hearted, and faithless man. Christ’s grace and mercy knows no bounds and is of such a nature that we can never fully comprehend…infinite and available piercing the most hardened, stubborn, and faithless heart. This is truly the grace of Jesus at work…in that while we were yet sinners, He died for us.