Interpreting signs, unwinding wonders

 

For the Jews request a sign, and Greeks seek after wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God."  --1 Corinthians 1:22-24

 The story goes that a prisoner was transferred to a new prison.  On his first night there he was sitting in his cell and he hears another inmate down the hall shout out, "Number 23!"  He hears a few chuckles up and down the ward.  Someone else says, "Number 31!"  A bunch of the men on the ward laugh out loud.  Another shouts, "Number 17!" and the entire cell block erupts in laughter.  The newbie asks his cellmate what was going on.  He explains that the prisoners have all told the same jokes for so long, that whenever one of them wants to tell a joke, he just shouts out the number.

The new prisoner, wanting to fit in, takes his shot.  "Number 14!" he shouts.  This is met with dead silence.  Again, the new prisoner is puzzled.  He asks his cellmate why nobody laughed.  The old-timer shrugs his shoulders.  "It's all in the delivery," he says.

When we read our text today in John 4:43-54, it may seem to us that something might be missing.  Let's take a look together.

Context Clues

Now after the two days He departed from there and went to Galilee.  For Jesus Himself testified that a prophet has no honor in his own country.  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.  --John 4:43-45

Let's stop here for now. At first glance, it looks like John is glossing over some events without giving any context.  This is probably because John's Gospel was written last, and his readers would be familiar with the story of Jesus's first attempt at teaching in Nazareth (in the Southern region of Galilee) as told in the Synoptic Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke.  Here is what Matthew's Gospel records:

Jesus's first sermon in Nazareth

Now it came to pass, when Jesus had finished these parables, that He departed from there.  When He had come to His own country, He taught them in their synagogue, so that they were astonished and said, "Where did this Man get this wisdom and these mighty works? Is this not the carpenter's son?  Is not His mother called Mary? And His brothers James, Joses, Simon, and Judas?  And His sisters, are they not all with us? Where then did this Man get all these things?" So they were offended at Him.  But Jesus said to them, "A prophet is not without honor except in his own country and in his own house." Now He did not do many mighty works there because of their unbelief.  --Matthew 13:53-58

Mark 6:1-5 recounts the same scenario almost word-for-word, with the addition of, "And He marveled because of their unbelief."  Luke, however, goes into the most detail.  He reminds us that Jesus grew up in Nazareth.  When He spoke at the synagogue there, Jesus quoted from the book of Isaiah, reading a passage that indicated God had sent Him and anointed Him "to preach the gospel to the poor," and to "heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed; to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord."

The response was underwhelming.  The people asked one another, "Is this not the carpenter? Isn't this Joseph's son?  Don't we know His mother Mary, and all His brothers and sisters?"  Jesus answered them by saying, "You will surely say this proverb to Me: 'Physician, heal yourself!'  Whatever we have heard done in Capernaum, do also here in Your country." 

Then He said, "Assuredly I say to you, no prophet is accepted in his own country.  But I tell you truly, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, and there was a great famine throughout the land; but to none of them was Elijah sent except to Zarephath, in the region of Sidon, to a woman who was a widow.  And many lepers were in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet, and none of them was cleansed except Naaman the Syrian.'  So all those in the synagogue, when they hear these things, were filled with wrath, and rose up and thrust Him out of the city; and they led Him to the brow of the hill on which their city was built, that they might throw Him down over the cliff.  Then passing through the midst of them, He went His way.  --Luke 4:24-30

What a traumatic response to His message!  Not only would the people of Nazareth not listen to Him, but they tried to kill Him right then and there.  

Jesus goes back to Galilee, not expecting much

We looked at the background of Jesus having visited Galilee before.  We saw the context of the phrase, "Jesus Himself testified that a prophet has no honor in his own country."  Moving on in our text in John 4, we see in verse 45 that when He went back the second time into Galilee, He was well received--not because of who He was (the Son of God) or that they believed, but that they had seen him perform many signs and miracles down in Jerusalem.  To them He was a source of entertainment, a carnival side-show.

Now, remember last time we saw that He was accepted in Samaria for His words alone.  There was no miracle done there--no turning water into wine as He had done in Cana of Galilee, no signs and wonders as He had done in Jerusalem.  How He must have longed for His words to have the same effect in His hometown of Nazareth, and throughout all of the region.  How He longed for people to believe in Him without His having to perform signs and wonders.

Jesus had the blues

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.  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.  Then Jesus said to him, "Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will by no means believe." -- John 4:46-48

Was Jesus feeling used?  Did it seem that His sermons were like preaching to a brick wall?  We see from the passage in Isaiah that Jesus had quoted to them the first time He was there what His purpose was on earth. "The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me," He read, "because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed; to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord." (Luke 4:18-19, quoting Isaiah 49:8-9)

The people needed to hear good news, because they were poor in spirit.  They needed their broken hearts mended, not just their broken bodies.  They needed freedom from the oppression of sin, not political freedom from the oppression of Rome.  The year of Jubilee had come, and they couldn't see it.  All they could see was their physical situation--their hunger, their sicknesses, their political servitude.

One man's troubles

So there was this man, described in the text as "a nobleman" who lived in Capernaum, about 20-25 miles from Cana.  Some commentaries say this man may have had a Jewish upbringing, and that he may have served in Herod's court, since Herod was the Tetrarch (sometimes translated "king") of Galilee.  This man had a son who was on his deathbed.

When the man heard that Jesus was in Galilee, he made the seven-hour walk (uphill, I'm told) to Cana to ask Jesus for help.  We don't know what words he used to try to convince Jesus to "come down (to Capernaum) and heal his son."  He may have admitted, "Listen, Jesus, I don't know what magic incantations or potions You use; I don't understand the voodoo that You do.  I just know that if You come and lay Your hands on my son, he will be healed."  To this, Jesus responded "Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will by no means believe."

Painting with a broad brush

Jesus may have lumped this man in with everyone else, or He may have had a larger audience listening to Him there.  We do know that the Greek word He used for "you" is plural.  In certain regions of the U.S., He might have said "you guys."  In the South, He would be translated "all y'all."  He wasn't picking on this one man so much as issuing an indictment to all who saw Him there, expecting Him to do those signs and wonders they saw Him do in Jerusalem.

We see this happen in other times in Jesus's ministry.  Later, we read in John 6:30, "Therefore they said to Him, 'What sign will you perform then, that we may see it and believe You?  What work will You do?'"  Even after His resurrection, when Thomas witnessed His resurrected body and believed, Jesus told him, "Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed.  Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed."

CS Lewis once wrote, "We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased."  If we are distracted by signs, we miss the point entirely.  We read in 2 Thessalonians 2:9-10, "The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved."

Jesus would not always physically be around to be at their beck and call.  Did they believe in Him enough to pray to Him after He had ascended?  Is the Jesus that you believe in powerful enough to heal from heaven?

The man gets good news

Not understanding Jesus's words, the nobleman reiterates his purpose, and in his statement we see his heart.  "Sir," he says earnestly, "come down before my child dies!"  Jesus doesn't answer him the way he expected.  John Piper preached a sermon on this passage; you can read it here desiringgod.org/messages/go-your-son-will-live.  Here's what Piper had to say:

Verse 49, “Sir, come down before my child dies.” Neither Jesus nor John comments on the man’s sincerity. Jesus simply gives him a gift. Verse 50: Jesus said to him, “Go; your son will live.” John says (still in verse 50), “The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and went on his way.” What is remarkable about this is that the man had asked Jesus to come with him. But when Jesus simply spoke, “Go; your son will live,” the man obeyed without a question. He believed and went. He did not insist on seeing the miracle. He did not complain that Jesus would not come with him. And amazingly, he simply left, John says, believing. I’m inclined to think that in that moment of seeing Jesus speak so sovereignly in spite of his accusations, something awakened in the man. He saw something more than a miracle-worker.

The man believed Jesus, and went on his way.  He even spent the night in Cana: rather than rushing home, we see that the man met his servants on the road the next day.  "Your son lives!" they exclaimed when they saw him.  The man's response contained more than just joy that his son was healed.  It reveals a true belief in Jesus.  "What time did he recover?" he wanted to know.  The servants were undoubtedly confused by this question.  They probably looked at each other and shrugged.  "About the seventh hour," they answered.  

The nobleman knew that this was the time that Jesus had spoken.  Jesus spoke healing.  He did not have to come down, or lay His hands on the boy.  If He could do that with a word, He could certainly speak the world into existence. From that moment on, the man was changed.  He believed, and his whole household followed.  Why? Because the man bore witness of the power of Jesus.  Jesus speaks, sickness disappears.  Jesus speaks, the wind and waves obey Him.  Jesus speaks, and God has come down to man to forgive us and cleanse us and give us new life.

I found a fellow blogger named David McLemore.  He writes "Jesus, the gospel, and things of the sort."  He writes on this passage:

Maybe you’re coming to Jesus for a better life in some way. Jesus wants you to think that through. We all want relief, but do we even know what relief is possible in him? Are we, as C.S. Lewis once said, playing with mud pies in a slum when Jesus offers us a holiday at sea? What if there is a greater miracle Jesus can do in us? Maybe we don’t have a sick son that needs healing, but we all have some need only Jesus can meet. And I hope you’re asking him to help. But how are you asking? Are you even asking? Or are you demanding? What limits are you putting on Jesus? This man wanted Jesus to come to his house, but Jesus had another way to heal. He wasn’t even aware of that category. Are you like that? Will you allow Jesus to deal with you on his own terms? Will you trust him to handle things his way?

We read in Hebrews 2;3-4, "How shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation, which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed to us by those who heard Him. God also bearing witness both with signs and wonders, with various miracles, and gifts of the Holy Spirit, according to His own will?"  What will your response be to Him?