43-46 After the two days he departed for Galilee. (For Jesus himself had testified that a prophet has no honour in his own home town.) So when he came to Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him, having seen all that he had done in Jerusalem at the feast. For they too had gone to the feast. So he came again to Cana in Galilee, where he had made the water wine.

47 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. 48 So Jesus said to him, “Unless you see signs and wonders you will not believe.” 49-50 The official said to him, “Sir, come down before my child dies.” Jesus said to him, “Go; your son will live.” The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and went on his way. 51-53 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 (1 pm) the fever left him.” The father knew that was the hour when Jesus had said to him, “Your son will live.” And he himself believed, and all his household. 54 This was now the second sign that Jesus did when he had come from Judea to Galilee. John 4:43-54 English Standard Version

John's gospel focuses on a small selection from the many miraculous things Jesus did. He refers to them as 'signs', and says that he wrote about them so that his readers “may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.” (John 20:31) There's an important truth here in view of what Jesus said in vs 48 to the official whose son was desperately ill. What do you think Jesus' words imply there?

To me it sounds much like a rebuke. Was Jesus suggesting that the man ought to have trusted God enough to heal his son? Why I raise that possibility is because Jesus had on an earlier occasion done many miracles in Capernaum, the town this official came from. We read in Matthew's gospel that, after healing the mother-in-law of His disciple Peter, that same evening “many who were demon-possessed were brought to Him, and He drove out the spirits with a word, and healed all the sick”. On another occasion Jesus definitely did rebuke the people of Capernaum and said “if the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Sodom, it would have remained to this day.” (Matthew 11:23)

So this section is very much about how we respond to the signs Jesus gave which showed He was truly the Messiah, the Son of God. In the case of this man, he had travelled some 20 miles (which was more than a day's journey) to beg Jesus to come and heal his son who was close to death. But to his credit, despite being rebuked, when Jesus said: “Go; your son will live”, the man believed the word Jesus spoke to him and went on his way. The account also has a happy ending in that, when the servants told the man the exact hour his son recovered, he knew it was the same hour when Jesus had said to him, “Your son will live.” And he himself believed, and all his household. What a wonderful joy that home must have been filled with. Not only had the son's physical life been spared, but the whole family received the eternal life that God promised to all who believe on His beloved Son.

John finishes this incident by telling us that ‘this was the second sign Jesus did when he had come from Judea to Galilee'. Earlier in his gospel, John described how Jesus had turned water into wine at a wedding in Cana, and said: “What Jesus did in Cana of Galilee was the first of the signs through which he revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him.” (John 2:11)

While men and women today haven't physically seen the signs Jesus gave of His glory, we do have the eye witness testimony of John about those miracles. So the question is, have we believed? And if someone who happens to read this post is a man or woman who is hesitant to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the next question is 'what will it take?' Jesus once said to a man who’d overcome his doubts “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen, and yet have believed.” (John 20:29)