BELIEVING, SIGNS AND WONDERS
John chapter 4, v. 43 to Ch. 5 v. 9
The Lord continued His journey into Galilee, after the interruption at Sychar.
The saying that a prophet has no honour in his own country (a Greek proverb) is similar to what the Lord said in reference to Nazareth (Mark 6:4; Matthew 13:57; Luke 4:24). It is quoted here probably to explain why, having left Judea because He was too popular there (vv. 1-3), He went into Galilee where he had not yet laboured and where he apparently had no such fame as in Judea and now in Samaria.
He was welcomed by the Galileans, because they had seen all the things He had done in Jerusalem during the Passover (chapter 2:13-25). The Galileans, as orthodox Jews, had seen Him at Jerusalem and so were predisposed in his favour.
His outstanding first miracle would still be remembered in Cana and would indicate that He had some friends there. The nobleman would be someone connected with the king, by birth or by office. He probably was one of the courtiers of Herod the tetrarch of Galilee, Chuza (Luke 8:3), Manaen (Acts 13:1), or someone else. He had come up 20 miles from Capernaum, where the Jordan enters the Sea of Galilee, to implore the Lord to go back with him and heal his son: he even humbled himself to the point of addressing Him as, "Sir."
The statement then made by the Lord "unless you people see signs and wonders, you will by no means believe" may be a rebuke, but is also the reason for his "signs and wonders": it pictures the stubborn refusal of people to believe in Christ without miracles. Later He would say: blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed (chapter 20:29). A miracle was more than a favour to one official: it was a sign to all the people.
The nobleman urged the Lord to go with him to heal his son, for he was at the point of death. Like Martha and Mary felt at first (chapter 11:21, 32), he thought it would be too late if he died. The Lord's reply was "Your son is living," and will not now die, He meant. His son was healed without the Lord even going to Capernaum, "absent treatment" so to speak, with effective and immediate cure.
With true faith, the nobleman believed what He said, and went his way, acting on his faith and obeying the Lord. It isn't enough for us to say we believe in the Lord: we need to live in obedience to Him. Confirmation that his son had recovered his health came as he was on his way down to Capernaum.
To make sure it was not just a coincidence, he enquired as to the hour when his son got better, and found that it was the same in which the Lord had said, "Your son lives." He then believed, not just in the word of the Lord (verse 50), but put his complete faith in Jesus himself as the Messiah. Then all his family did the same, the first example of a whole family believing in Jesus Christ, like the Philippian jailer (Acts 16.34) and Crispus (Acts 18:8).
This was the second sign the Lord did in Galilee: the first one was also in Cana (chapter 2: 1), but many were wrought in Jerusalem also (chapter 2:23).
The vague phrase after these things (also 3:22; 6:1) does not mean that this incident follows immediately. This gospel is not a full report on the work of the Lord (chapter 21:25).
There is no way of telling what feast it was which Jesus here attended. It may have been the second Passover; the three others are named (chapters 2:13, 23; 6:4; 12:1). It was up towards Jerusalem from every direction save from Hebron.
Because of the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem in AD 70, it is not certain where the Bethesda (House of Mercy) pool was located. It was, it seems, a diving or swimming pool with a covered colonnade where people could gather. Recent excavations in Jerusalem have come across a site which could probably be this one.
As recently discovered old manuscripts omit the words waiting for the moving of the water, and all of verse 4, some scholars think it may be a Western and Syrian addition to throw light on the word "tarachthêi" (is stirred up) in verse 7, for the Jews explained the healing virtues of the intermittent spring by the ministry of angels.
There was a man lying there who had suffered his infirmity for thirty-eight years - not necessarily all of them in that place. After 38 years, this man's problem had become a way of life. No one had ever helped him. He had no hope of ever being healed and no desire to help himself. The man's situation looked hopeless.
The Lord, of course, knew all about him and asked him whether he wanted to be made well. That was a peculiar question to ask a sick man, seeming rather absurd. Of course, he wanted to be made whole, but the Lord asked him the question for two reasons:
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to build up hope in the man. His case was hopeless, and he was in despair.
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to get the man's eyes off the pool. He probably had never noticed anybody else who came down there, but just kept his eyes on the pool. Now he would normally and naturally look up. Who would ask a question like that? There are people today who are just waiting for something to happen in their lives. But they are doomed to bitter disappointment, for they are all waiting with their eyes fixed on the wrong thing, or the wrong individual, or the wrong happening.
The popular belief was that, at each outflow of this intermittent spring, there was healing power in the water for the first one getting in. The sick man's handicap prevented him from getting in ahead of others, and perhaps he now hoped this sympathetic enquirer might throw him in quickly at the next opportunity.
Instead, he was commanded: "get up, pick up the pallet, and go on walking". Instead of arguing that he couldn't do it, he made the effort and succeeded, for he was immediately made well.
This was the first of the violations of the Sabbath rules of the Jews by the Lord in Jerusalem, that led to so much bitterness (chapter 9:14, 16). This controversy spread to Galilee on Christ's return there (Mark 2:23-3:6; Matthew 12:1-14; Luke 6: 1 -11).
R David Jones
Chapter 4
43 Now after the two days He departed from there and went to Galilee.
44 For Jesus Himself testified that a prophet has no honour in his own country.
45 So when He came to Galilee, the Galileans received Him, having seen all the things He did in Jerusalem at the feast; for they also had gone to the feast.
46 So Jesus came again to Cana of Galilee where He had made the water wine. And there was a certain nobleman whose son was sick at Capernaum.
47 When he heard that Jesus had come out of Judea into Galilee, he went to Him and implored Him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death.
48 Then Jesus said to him, "Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will by no means believe."
49 The nobleman said to Him, "Sir, come down before my child dies!"
50 Jesus said to him, "Go your way; your son lives." So the man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him, and he went his way.
51 And as he was now going down, his servants met him and told him, saying, "Your son lives!"
52 Then he inquired of them the hour when he got better. And they said to him, "Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him."
53 So the father knew that it was at the same hour in which Jesus said to him, "Your son lives." And he himself believed, and his whole household.
54 This again is the second sign Jesus did when He had come out of Judea into Galilee.
Chapter 5
1 After this there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
2 Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, which is called in Hebrew, Bethesda, having five porches.
3 In these lay a great multitude of sick people, blind, lame, paralysed, waiting for the moving of the water.
4 For an angel went down at a certain time into the pool and stirred up the water; then whoever stepped in first, after the stirring of the water, was made well of whatever disease he had.
5 Now a certain man was there who had an infirmity thirty-eight years.
6 When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he already had been in that condition a long time, He said to him, "Do you want to be made well?"
7 The sick man answered Him, "Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; but while I am coming, another steps down before me."
8 Jesus said to him, "Rise, take up your bed and walk."
9 And immediately the man was made well, took up his bed, and walked. And that day was the Sabbath.