João 4

Jesus heals at a distance

46 So Jesus went again to Cana of Galilee,*I suspect that He had a brother-in-law living there. where He made the water wine. Now there was a certain royal official whose son was sick in Capernaum. 47 When this man heard that Jesus had come out of Judea into Galilee, he went to Him and implored Him to come down and heal his son,*The man was asking Jesus to make an emergency hike of some 25 miles (unless he was mounted and had brought an extra horse for Jesus; but He probably wasn’t used to riding). Evidently he figured that the healer had to be physically present. for he was about to die. 48 So Jesus said to him, "Unless you people see signs and wonders you will not believe!"*Again, Jesus is not exactly ‘polite’. 49 The official says to Him, "Sir, come down before my child dies!" 50 Jesus says to him, "Go; your son lives." Well the man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and off he went. 51 Now while he was still going down his slaves met him and reported saying, "Your son lives!" 52 So he inquired of them the hour in which he got better. And they said to him, "Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him."*It is virtually certain that the official and his slaves used Roman time, in which case the cure took place at 7 p.m. It could not be 7 a.m. because the man would have met his slaves before noon and they would have said ‘today’, not ‘yesterday’ (verse 52). It could not be Jewish time for a similar reason—if Jesus healed at 1 p.m. the man would have met his slaves before sundown and they would have said ‘today’. The man probably walked (unless he was mounted, but at night the horse would be held to a walk) during at least part of the night; the slaves would have started out at dawn; they probably met at a point much closer to Capernaum than to Cana. 53 So the father knew that it was at the exact hour in which Jesus told him, "Your son lives." Both he himself and his whole household believed. 54 Again, coming out of Judea into Galilee, Jesus performed this second miraculous sign.*That is, He healed at a distance, just by His thought. Curiously, He was in Cana for both of them.