17: The Official’s Son

So he came again to Cana in Galilee, where he had made the water wine.
John 4:46

John points out that Jesus is returning to Cana, where he started his journey to wilderness temptation, his time with John the Baptist, and finally, through Samaria. The first trip of his new ministry has been completed; he returns to where he performed his first sign.

The map below reveals the distance between Capernaum and Cana was only about fifteen miles—perhaps eighteen miles by road. The map also reveals, however, that Capernaum is around 700 feet below sea level, and Cana is about 1500 feet above. Traveling these fifteen miles is a serious uphill climb—and also why the official says: “Come down.”

Jerusalem and the wilderness are to the south, and the Sea to the west. Many Jews would take the road east of Jordan rather than pass through Samaria.

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.
John 4:46–47

Here in Cana, where he turned water to wine, an “official” meets him. This story might seem to be a retelling of the narratives in Luke 7:2 or Matthew 8:5, but the characters are different, and each narrative makes a different point—so we should read these as different events.

So Jesus said to him, “Unless you see signs and wonders you will not believe.”
John 4:48

John intentionally contrasts the people of Cana with the Samaritans:

• “You” is plural—”y’all.” Jesus includes the official and all the people of Cana who can hear him speaking.
• The Samaritans received precisely one “sign”—Jesus’ knowledge of the woman’s life and situation. There were no healings, no making wine from water, etc., and yet many Samaritans believed.

Jesus has—just a few months before this visit—performed just such a sign. Undoubtedly, the memory of him turning water into wine would not have been forgotten in this short time. Yet they demand a new sign.

This “demand for a sign” is essentially pagan—“Show me a miracle, and I will believe.” As Jesus points out many times in his ministry, those who see signs and wonders will still not believe. Paganism is defined by its desire to make our relationship with God into a transaction, saying things like: “Show me a miracle, and I will believe,” or even: “If you give me this, I’ll live a holier life.”

The official said to him, “Sir, come down before my child dies.” Jesus said to him, “Go; your son will live.”
John 4:49–50

The man says: “Come, he will die.” Jesus responds: “Go, he will live.” These two statements set one another off—one command and one reason.

The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and went on his way.
John 4:50

The official’s faith was greater than the people of Cana; he believed without seeing the sign.

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 will live.”
John 4:51–53

The official’s obedience was particularly striking in the Second Temple period because actions were direct. For the miracle to take place, the miracle worker must be present. There are instances of healing of this kind in the Talmud, particularly:

There was the case in which the son of Rabban Gamaliel fell ill. He sent two disciples of sages to R. Hanina b. Dosa to pray for mercy for him. When he saw them, he went up to his upper room and prayed for mercy for him. When he came down, he said to them, “Go, for his fever has left him.”

They sat down and wrote down the hour, and when they came back to Rabban Gamaliel, he said to them “By the Temple service! You were neither early nor late, but that is just how it happened. At that very moment, his fever left him and he asked us for water to drink.”
B. Barakoth 34b

It would be easy to read the point of this passage as something like: “Faith accepts God at his word regardless of prior belief or (apparent) physical reality.” Jesus, however, does not say anything like this. Instead, he says, “You know I have performed signs in the past, even here. You know what kind of person I am. You know I have claimed to be the Son of God. You should trust who I am based on those things rather than constantly asking for signs and wonders.”

In other words, faith rests in the character and the person rather than in a constant flow of miracles–and faith is certainly not a transaction.