Continuing our journey through the gospel of john
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 Feast, 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 miraculous signs and wonders,” Jesus told him, “you will never believe.”
49 The royal official said, “Sir, come down before my child dies.”
50 Jesus replied, “You may go. 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, “The fever left him yesterday at the seventh hour.”
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 all his household believed.
54 This was the second miraculous sign that Jesus performed, having come from Judea to Galilee.
Key verse here is in v48 “Unless you people see miraculous signs and wonders,” Jesus told him, “you will never believe.”
This is completely fascinating to me, because there are also places in scripture that record Jesus refusing to give signs. It’s a bit of a mystery.
One take could be that they ‘royal official’ may not have been acquainted of the prophecies of Jesus, and so when Jesus referred to ‘you people’ he meant gentiles.
Another take could be that there are times for miraculous signs, and at other times there are better ways for Christ to express himself.
The trust of this passage though is clearly to reveal Christ’s divine nature and capacity to perform miracles. And maybe sometime’s that’s just what we need.
The problem is when we’ve insulated ourselves from the need for miracles, and wonder why they don’t happen any more.
