One of the first things that I like to do when I through a particular passage of scripture is to take note of things that stand out to me in some way. It may turn out that they don’t really mean anything at all, or they might shed light on what’s going on in this passage in ways that I would not have otherwise guessed.
So one of the very first things that I put down on my little ‘list,’ is that this, the second of Jesus’ signs, occurred in Cana, just like the first one. Jesus performed his first sign in Cana - the same place where he changed the water into wine at the wedding feast - where he teaches us that the Kingdom of Heaven will be like a party; we’ll all be celebrating our eternal life with the Lord. Perhaps because of this, he already had a reputation building up for him there.
“And his disciples believed in him,” it says at the end of our story about the wedding feast.
But now, it’s not until Jesus returns to Cana that the Gospel of John recognizes Jesus’ 2nd sign. After he left Cana, which is in Galilee, Jesus traveled south to Jerusalem, which is more than 80 miles away. That would have taken him about 4 or 5 days. While he is there, Jesus preaches to people and he witnesses to them, and although there is a reference to him doing signs which caused many to believe in him, there is no mention of what those signs were. They are sort of ‘played down.’ I believe there is a reason for this.
Jesus then sets out north once again, towards Galilee, and returns to Cana, which is another 4 or 5 days. While he is there, a man from Capernaum, which is 20 miles away, hears about him, and goes to see him about his son, who is ill and close to death.
While Cana itself may not be much of a big deal, there is a story to be told simply in the fact that Jesus traveled all the way down to Jerusalem, met with mostly opposition, but then traveled all the way back to Cana where people were going a day’s journey out of their way just to see him.
That must have been some party!
So here we haven’t even gotten into the story itself yet, and look at what it’s already saying about Jesus Christ. This is a sign in and of itself. Christ drew people to him. People sought him out.
The next thing to really stand out to me in this story is that Jesus never had any actual contact with the official’s son. He didn’t touch him, he didn’t approach him, he didn’t throw anything at him, or spit at him or anything, because Jesus wasn’t there. Now, on the one hand, there appears to be a movement from Jesus performing small miracles to spectacular ones; from Jesus being distant to Jesus being close and personal.
But on the other hand, there’s this: when Jesus assured the official that his son would live, the man believed him, and left Jesus to go home again. He originally asked Jesus to go with him to his home, did he not? And “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 the fever left him.” (!!)
We don’t really know the exact time frame when all this happens, but it is certainly implied that the fever has left the boy before the man leaves Jesus, and possibly before the man has asked Jesus to heal him.
I would imagine that this man is not one to linger very long, since his son is so sick. His intent was probably to hurry down to Cana, catch Jesus real quickly, then hurry back home. But it would have still been about a day’s journey, maybe slightly less, since he was rushing things. So he could have gone down there one day and been back by the next night. So his boy might have been healed even before the official arrived in Cana to speak with Jesus.
You see, just as with the wedding feast, where the whole water into wine trick was just a handy metaphor (I mean, he’s God, right? He can turn stones into bread, he can turn water into wine. He can cast out demons and raise the dead. No big deal for him), the sign is not the healing of the official’s son. The miracle points to the sign, but the miracle is not the sign.
There’s a thing behind the thing here. A truth behind the truth. A story behind the story. Cana was not close by to Capernaum. But the people there believed in him. That’s why the official tore himself away from the bedside of his dying son to go see him. Not out of some hope that he may be able to heal him, but because he believed in Jesus.
He was convicted in his faith, or else it is doubtful that he would have gone at all. That’s why, even though Jesus did signs in Jerusalem while he was there, there is no mention of what those signs were. That’s what makes this the second sign, and not one of those he did in Jerusalem. The official believed in Jesus, which caused him to engage in a course of action which lead to the healing of his son, just as Jesus’ mother believed in him, which caused a chain of events which led to the turning of the water into wine. These are the signs that manifest his glory, they reveal him to be the Messiah, the Christ, apart from the miracles, not because of them! But if no one can see that, then its no revelation at all. That’s why we don’t have traffic signals for deer.
We need to see the signs that Jesus is showing to us every day of our lives. The things behind the things. I had an ambulance call in the middle of the night the other day to the upper end of Frostburg. I was annoyed. I was tired, and it took a long time to get there. But that lady just happened to be someone that I knew once upon a time, and she really blessed me. I think that I’m going out to help people, but the experience so often ends up giving me more than I can ever give to them.
That’s the thing behind the thing. It’s not what we expect, it’s not what we look for, or even want; it’s what we need that Jesus gives to us. That official believed in Jesus, and had the conviction to act on his faith, and so his son was healed. Would that have happened if the man had not gone to Jesus? He took an awful risk. What if Jesus wasn’t who he believed him to be? His son might have died while he was away.
So was Jesus right about the official, when he said to him, “unless you see signs and wonders, you will not believe?” Or was he challenging him - daring him - to believe. The man got his signs and wonders, which is what he wanted, but he believed in Jesus before the miracle took place, because Jesus assured him of what was to take place. That’s what he needed. That was the sign that revealed his glory. Maybe this is a story about healing, but not about the healing of the son, it is about the healing of the official, who believed.
I invite you to take a chance at radical faith, faith that moves you to do things that may seem a bit crazy, but that you know Jesus is calling you to do, so that you might find healing. So that you might find wholeness in Christ. Amen.
