2nd Miracle of Healing the Nobleman's Son - John 4:45-54

I’m confused on whether this next event takes place before Jesus is rejected in Nazareth or afterward, but I’m going to keep on trucking like I’m doing it right. As Jesus leaves either Samaria or Nazareth depending on the timing, he comes to Galilee where he is received well because they went to the feast in Jerusalem and saw all that Jesus had done there. While there, a “certain nobleman” came to Jesus from Cana “where he made the water wine,” and asked Jesus to “heal his son: for he was at the point of death.” It’s important to note that the man wasn’t in Galilee on business and happened to see the Savior and said “oh by the way can you do something for my boy.” No, this man was at his dying son’s bedside, and probably felt helpless because he couldn’t do anything, he couldn’t cure the boy, he couldn’t take him to the hospital, he wasn’t a doctor I think. He stood by his son’s bed and thought “the only thing that I can do is go to Galilee and beg Jesus to heal my son.” And that’s exactly what he did, he purposefully sought out the Savior, he left the bedside of his dying son to find Jesus. What if he was too late, what if Jesus declined, what if he himself was injured on the journey? And this wasn’t a “hey I’m going to drive 15 minutes to the other side of town and ask,” because we’ll see by his response at the end that this was at least a 2 day journey, possibly three days. There was a chance that he would never see his son alive again if he left to go do this.

I’m not exactly sure what Jesus meant when he told the man, “Except ye see signs and wonders, ye will not believe.” The man exhibited a lot of faith so I’m not exactly sure what that’s about, but the man says, “Sir, come down ere my child die.” And Jesus answers him saying, “Go thy way; thy son liveth.” At this point a doubting or unbelieving man might just leave and wonder what would happen when he got home, but this man, “believed the word that Jesus had spoken unto him, and he went his way.” The IM says, “The account of the nobleman who approached the Savior in Cana is recorded only in the Gospel of John. This nobleman manifested significant faith in the Savior in at least two ways. First, although his home, Capernaum, was about 20 miles away from Cana, he made the journey to implore the Savior for His help. Second, when the Savior assured him that his son would live, the nobleman ‘went his way,’ trusting the Savior’s word. Elder Bruce R. McConkie noted: ‘Though he was in Cana, Jesus gave the command and the nobleman’s son, some twenty miles away in Capernaum, was healed. By the power of faith the sick are healed regardless of their geographical location. God is God of the universe; his power is everywhere manifest.”

On his way back to his home, “his servants met him, and told him, saying Thy son liveth. Then inquired he of them the hour when he began to amend. And they said unto him, Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him. So the father knew that it was at the same hour, in the which Jesus said unto him, Thy son liveth: and himself believed, and his whole house. This is again the second miracle that Jesus did, when he was come out of Judaea into Galilee.” When the man meets his servants we can tell that this was not a short “let’s take a chance” journey, this man took this not as his ‘last chance’ but his ‘only chance,” and that’s why his son was saved.