On Line Bible Study - For the Week February 20-26, 2012

Lesson 524

John 4: ⁴³ After the two days he left for Galilee. ⁴⁴ (Now Jesus himself had pointed out that a prophet has no honor in his own country.) ⁴⁵ When he arrived in Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him. They had seen all that he had done in Jerusalem at the Passover Festival, for they also had been there.

⁴⁶ Once more he visited Cana in Galilee, where he had turned the water into wine. And there was a certain royal official whose son lay sick at Capernaum. ⁴⁷ When this man heard that Jesus had arrived in Galilee from Judea, he went to him and begged him to come and heal his son, who was close to death.

⁴⁸ “Unless you people see signs and wonders,” Jesus told him, “you will never believe.” ⁴⁹ The royal official said, “Sir, come down before my child dies.”

⁵⁰ “Go,” Jesus replied, “your son will live.” The man took Jesus at his word and departed. ⁵¹ While he was still on the way, his servants met him with the news that his boy was living. ⁵² When he inquired as to the time when his son got better, they said to him, “Yesterday, at one in the afternoon, the fever left him.”

⁵³ Then the father realized that this was the exact time at which Jesus had said to him, “Your son will live.” So he and his whole household believed.

⁵⁴ This was the second sign Jesus performed after coming from Judea to Galilee.

Though I said we would be heading into Chapter Five this week, I misled you - we have to spend one more week in Chapter Four! We move beyond the conversation between Jesus and the Samaritan Woman to this "Second Sign", and we are going to focus on one word in just a moment.

First, let's acknowledge what seems to be a contradiction between verses 44 and 45. It is a textual anomaly that has frustrated scholars from as long ago as the Third Century. Origen wrote of verse 44: This saying seems completely to defy sequence. Father Raymond Brown suggests the line was an addition by a redactor (editor). It might be another example of 'telescoping' a text yet to come - in this case, verse 48. In that verse Jesus laments the people's need for signs and wonders ... Will Christ be welcome for who he is, or will his reputation always be grounded in the magic he performed (signs and wonders)? Now to the "word" ...

A father (a "royal official" at that) pleads for healing for his son. It is not unimportant that the gospel uses the word "live" rather than "heal" - Your son will live ... says Jesus. Raymond Brown points out there is no Semitic word for "recover". This is consistent with the broader message of the gospel. Later in our study we will encounter the "Good Shepherd" passages in John 10. The essential message of life will be strongly affirmed there - I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full ...

It is important for John that we understand Jesus did not come to relieve physical pain or disease. We can be physically healthy and spiritually dead at the same time. Jesus came that we might live. Your son will live is not only a pronouncement of healing; it is a profound invitation to the father, his son - and to all of us - to embrace life in its fullness.

This "second sign" (the first being the changing of water into wine at the wedding in Cana) is a signal to us that Life has entered our world - Life in the Spirit, true Life is now available to us. And as if to underscore his point, we read that the royal official's entire household believed. That, for John, is the indication that life has been received.

Are you healthy? Perhaps. But the more important question is: Are you alive?