John 4:46-53
The Timing of Faith

Then he came again to Cana in Galilee where he had changed the water into wine. Now there was a royal official whose son lay ill in Capernaum. When he heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee, he went and begged him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death.

Then Jesus said to him, "Unless you see signs and wonders you will not believe."

The official said to him, "Sir, come down before my little boy dies."

Jesus said to him, "Go; your son will live."

The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and started on his way. As he was going down, his slaves met him and told him that his child was alive. So he asked them the hour when he began to recover, and they said to him, "Yesterday at one in the afternoon the fever left him." The father realized that this was the hour when Jesus had said to him, "Your son will live." So he himself believed, along with his whole household.

New Revised Standard Version

To set the context of this story, the whole region of Galilee was excited and amazed because of the stories of the miracles Jesus had worked a short time before in Jerusalem. Jesus certainly received attention, but that attention was based on curiosity and entertainment more than faith. Jesus was eagerly urging people to see beyond the external evidence of his miracles to the miracles he wanted to work in their souls.

In this story, Jesus takes the opportunity to teach in the request of an outsider, described here as a royal official. Our best guess is that this man was of Jewish lineage, but he had betrayed his culture and nation to accept a job working for the Roman puppet government. He wasn't all that different from the apostle Matthew in that respect. He was probably not welcome in the synagogues, where they considered him a traitor, but he probably had no use for the empty religion they practiced. His cynicism would have been growing for years, until the day his paidion, his "little boy", became deathly ill. It wasn't curiosity that drew him to the Master, but desperation.

I imagine this scene took place something like this: the official pushed his way through the crowd, which wouldn't have been difficult since "good" Jews wouldn't have wanted to touch him. When he, dressed in expensive attire befitting his position of authority, reached Jesus, he threw himself to the ground and begged for Jesus' help to heal his son.

Some scholars feel Jesus' first comment was a common saying of the time. In our modern vernacular, Jesus might have worded it as a question, "But sir, don't they say about us Jews that we need to see signs and wonders before we believe?" It was intended as a challenge, both to this man and to the surrounding audience. Jesus had no intention this time of giving the crowd a miracle to observe. Instead, Jesus wanted to see the stirrings of faith.

What brought this man from Capernaum to Cana was hope, or probably what he felt was his last hope. At Jesus' comment, he had to stop and consider what he felt about this Nazarene. I think he took a moment, and confirmed that he could believe in the power of this man.

His answer started with a word recorded in Greek as kurios, translated here as "sir," but also translated as "lord" or "master." It was a polite address, conveying honor and respect to the stranger he had sought out. "Sir, please come, before my little boy dies!"

It wasn't the words, the facial expression, or the posture that encouraged Jesus to act, but the soul of this man that began reaching toward the Truth. Jesus smiled, reached down to help him stand up, and assured him, "Go, your son will live!"

This wasn't the answer the official had sought, but his soul told him this answer was more than sufficient. He believed in the promise Jesus made, and he eagerly set out for home to see his son. On the way, his heart probably sank when he saw his servants coming toward him, for they wouldn't have left the house unless something had changed. Oh, the servants said something big changed, and suddenly, the boy was well, just at the time the man had spoken with Jesus. What started as a last hope and became belief in a promise grew into an all-consuming belief in the Son of God.

Back to Jesus' challenge to the official and the crowd: Which came first, the miracle or the belief? Most of those around Jesus in this story were there because of the miracles; it is likely that the official would never have heard of Jesus had it not been for stories about his miraculous healings. But Jesus taught that a faith based solely on observing miracles was inadequate and incomplete. For most in the crowd, a paltry observational faith was all they would ever have.

When it came to healing the official's son, however, the official's faith in what Jesus said came before he heard that the healing had taken place. He had to believe the words of Jesus and act on them, only later finding out that his faith in Jesus' healing power had been well placed. But then we have the last verse of this section, telling us that because his son had been healed by the words of Jesus, the official and all his family believed in Jesus as the Messiah.

It seems that the question of whether miracles or belief comes first misses the developmental nature of belief. Belief must start small; it cannot spring up full grown from nothing. When we hold fast to and nourish our small faith, God builds and blesses it so it will grow. With a little faith, we are willing to accept miracles, and not reject them or explain them away like the Pharisees of Jesus' time. With more faith, we are able to observe God at work in what otherwise appears to be "normal" activities, for a "miracle" must be defined not only in terms of the action but also of the observers. With even more faith, we become more aware of the magnitude of the miracle of God's living presence in our lives, and the forgiveness that breaks down the barriers our sins have erected between us and God. With enough faith, we would be constantly rejoicing in a continual, vibrant, personal walk with the One who made us, but for most of us, our faith isn't quite that strong... just yet. Always remember, God's not done with us yet!