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Galilee. Third SIGN. Nobleman's Son - (John 4:43-54)
 fter the two days' sojourn in Samaria, the Lord completed His journey to Galilee. John tells us that "After the two days He went forth from thence into Galilee. For Jesus Himself testified, that a prophet hath no honour in his own country." That links the story with what we have at the beginning of chapter four. "When therefore the Lord knew how that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John, He departed again into Galilee." Then came the Samaritan interlude. Now, taking the story up again, "After the two days, He went forth from thence into Galilee." In other words, He completed His journey, and arrived at the destination for which He started when He left Judæa.
 he parenthesis of John here is arresting; "Jesus Himself testified, that a prophet hath no honour in his own country." Admittedly that statement is a little difficult. What does John mean there by "His own country"? There are differing opinions. There are those who say that it meant Galilee. In Galilee He had been brought up. In Galilee was the town which He made the basis of His operations, Capernaum. But I think that is hardly tenable when we notice what immediately follows. "Jesus Himself testified that a prophet hath no honour in his own country. So when He came into Galilee, the Galileans received Him." I do not think it is possible to understand the reference to be to Galilee. I think Origen was right that the reference is to Judæa. Judæa was the country of His birth and registration (Luk_2:4). He was of the tribe of Judah after the flesh. Judæa was peopled largely by the people of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin. In the returns from captivity, remnants of all the tribes went back, a great admixture. Still Benjamin and Judah were the predominant tribes; and our Lord, in that sense, belonged to Judah. " His own country " was surely Judæa.
he sequence in the ministry of Jesus is patent. He had been in the capital city, the city of the great king, Jerusalem; and there we are told, "Many believed on His name, beholding the signs which He did." But He did not believe in them. He knew that their attitude of supposed acceptance of Him was superficial, the result of that which was spectacular only. He could not trust them. He could not commit Himself to them. Then He had left Jerusalem, and gone into Judæa itself, and carried on a ministry there. Now, in the fourth chapter and the third verse we read, "He left Judæa, and departed again into Galilee. The word employed there for "departed" as we saw, is a singularly strong one, meaning that He broke with Judæa. That does not mean that He never went back. He did. But He had not been received either in the city or the country in any way other than the superficial. By this time He had a group of disciples. He had not yet elected apostles. He did so eventually; among them He elected those who were in this first group. It is surely significant that not one of the apostles came from Judæa. They were all from the district despised by Judæans. When presently Saul was found, and called to the apostolate, he was not from Judæa. He was born in Tarsus. Judæa had refused Him, and now, after the two days' sojourn in Samaria, He continued His journey; and He arrived in Galilee, because the Prophet was not in honour in His own country.
 ohn emphasized the contrast between the attitude in Judæa, and that in Galilee. "When He came into Galilee, the Galileans received Him." Why? "Having seen all the things that He did in Jerusalem at the feast." Mark the force of the next statement, "For they also went unto the feast." John meant to show that if the Galileans were not Judæans, they were not alienated from the religion of Israel; "they also went to the feast." These Galileans in Jerusalem had seen what He had done there, and they travelled back. Before the Lord arrived, they had spread the news of the things they had seen, and so they welcomed Him. Later He broke with Galilee also. It was Judæa which first practically refused Him. So He withdrew from the superficiality of her crowds, and the crass ignorance and hostility of her rulers; and turned to Galilee. At the beginning they welcomed Him.
 t was in Galilee that He wrought the third sign. John says, "this is again the second sign that Jesus did, having come out of Judæa into Galilee." In the sequence of his selection this is the third sign, but the second in Galilee.
he story in some senses, is not so spectacular or pictorial as the turning of water into wine, or the cleansing of the Temple. In other senses it is one of the most remarkable.
he occasion of the working of this sign was the appeal of a father, who is called in our translations a "nobleman." The Greek word Basilikos means a king's man. The term simply means an officer in the court of a king. This man was an officer in the service of Herod the tetrarch. We really do not know who he was. There have been very interesting suggestions made. Some have suggested this was Chusa, Herod's steward. Others have suggested that he was Manaen, Herod's foster brother.
his man, when he heard that Jesus had come out of Judæa into Galilee, "went unto Him, and besought Him that He would come down, and heal his son, for he was at the point of death." It was the appeal of agony, made by a father. His boy was at the point of death, and he came to Jesus, and asked Him to go down and heal him.
t that point in this story we arrive at an amazing thing. "Jesus said unto him, Except ye see signs and wonders, ye will in no wise believe." We are inevitably startled that Jesus should answer in that way to such a cry as came from that man's heart. It is a very revealing matter. The man came to Jesus in his agony and besought Him-mark the force of it,-"besought Him that He would come down, and heal his son, for he was at the point of death." Jesus said, "Except ye see signs and wonders, ye will in no wise believe."
 otice first that our Lord addressed him in the plural number. He did not say, Thou, except thou shalt see; He said "Ye." He addressed him as one of a crowd. He classified him as among the ordinary and common crowd which our Lord was facing in His ministry, whether in Judæa, or in Galilee. What was true in Judæa, that there was a confidence in Him, to which He could not commit Himself, was equally true in Galilee. Let me here run ahead of my story, and say that our Lord meant to answer the cry of that agony. He could not refuse, being Who He was. But He had purposes deeper than the comfort of sorrow, even of such sorrow as that. He was dealing with a man in the actuality of the deep necessity of his individuality. And so as a surgeon plunges a knife, He said in effect, You have come to Me in your agony; but you are only one of a crowd. "Except ye see signs and wonders, ye will in no wise believe." That is the truth about you in common with others. That is what you are all looking for; and though you have come to Me about your boy, why have you come to Me? Because you have heard that I am performing signs and wonders, and you hope to get something out of it. It was severe, but He was dealing with the whole man. He lay bare the underlying truth about him as He classified him with the crowd. Agony had driven him to Jesus. He will deal with that presently; He will heal the boy; but He will first deal with the man.
 hat next? "The nobleman saith unto Him, Sir, come down ere my child die." We cannot tell how far that rebuke of Jesus had really reached him and found him at this point; but his reply is very remarkable in that he did not deny the charge Jesus had made against him that he was looking for signs and wonders. Indeed, he admitted it, for he said, "Come down ere my child die." There was no consciousness in his soul that it was possible for Christ to deal with that boy unless He was there. He was looking for the material, and the touch. He had believed that if only Jesus were there, He could do something, because he had heard of what He had done. So out of the anguish of his heart, he said, "Sir, come down, ere my child die." It was as though he had said, Whether I want to see signs or wonders does not count; I want my boy healed, and that can only be if Thou art there. Thus he was tacitly admitting the truth of what Jesus had said. But he asked for help, and flung himself out on the power of Jesus, not understanding.
hen Jesus spoke again; "Go thy way; thy son liveth." That was all. Observe what that meant. He gave him no sign; and He did not do what he asked Him to do, which would have satisfied his feeling that there was a necessity for something spectacular. The man said, "Come down." Jesus replied practically: I am not coming. I am not going to act in the way you think necessary. But I will give you the help you seek. "Go, . . . thy son liveth." He gave him no sign, but He created an opportunity for the exercise of a faith which lacked a sign. Christ said in effect: I will not give you a sign; I will give you a word. You will get your sign after your faith operates.
hen we read: "The man believed the word that Jesus spake unto him, and he went his way." What made him believe? Perchance I cannot tell you dogmatically; and yet I think I know quite well. There was something in the tone of that voice, something in the glance of that eye, something in the majesty and beauty of that face, that made that man say. Well, I do not know how it is going to be done, but I believe Him, He says my boy lives. He believed, and went his way.
 ere let us pause and take a backward glance. They believed in Jerusalem because they saw the signs, and He could not commit Himself to them. In Samaria they said at last to the woman, Now we believe, not because of your testimony ; we have heard Him, we have heard His word, and believe. Now we have the same thing again, "He believed the word Jesus spake."
he sign itself was the healing of the boy. At the hour in which Jesus spoke the boy was healed, at a distance. There were at least between twenty and thirty miles separating Capernaum from Cana. At the moment of the word of Jesus distance was annihilated; the boy was healed.
hen the father arrived, his servants met him. They told him "that his son lived." That is exactly what Jesus had said; " Thy son liveth." He went without any evidence other than the word of Jesus; and as he arrived, the servants of his household met him, and practically repeated what Jesus had said. He had said it with authority, and the man had believed His word, not understanding. Now the servants stated it as an actual accomplishment, Thy son liveth.
he man is perfectly honest. He is going to enquire, to investigate. This is the time to investigate, when the thing has happened. "He enquired of them the hour when he began to amend." In his question the weakness of his understanding is revealed. He could not imagine that the boy he had left at the point of death could have become well immediately. He enquired when he began to amend. They told him that he did not begin to amend at all. He was well straightway, "Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him." Suddenly the boy was well. At what hour? The seventh. The man at once saw the synchronizing of the word of Jesus twenty miles away with a fact in his home. Thy son liveth, at the seventh hour Jesus said that; and twenty miles away, the fever left him, the burning heat passed, and the boy was well.
"The father knew that it was at that hour in which Jesus said unto him, Thy son liveth; and himself believed, and his whole house." Thus this man won to the highest realm of belief. First of all there was the feeling, which amounted to belief, that this wonderful Prophet Who had now come out of Judæa into Galilee, could do something for his boy, when nobody else could. Christ searched him with amazing severity, unmasking the deepest fact in his life. Then He created for htm the opportunity for the exercise of faith without a sign. The man saw something in that face, and heard something in that tone, which made him say, I believe that. Then he started, and yet he halted, when he arrived; What were the signs? When did he begin to amend? The reply was that there was no process but immediateness; the fever left him ; and it was at the seventh hour. Then the full significance broke upon him, and he went over, the whole of his personality, to Jesus; and not he alone, but all his household.
he first sign recorded by John was wrought in the realm of creation and joy, at the wedding feast, when He turned the water into wine. The second was wrought in the realm of worship, when He went into the Temple and cleansed it. Now in the third, power is seen operating in the realm of disease and sorrow.
n this sign then we have first of all a revelation of absolute power. We use the word supernatural. I am not objecting to it, if it be rightly apprehended. As a matter of fact, however, what we call supernatural, is only super-understandable. All this was perfectly natural to One Who like Jesus, lived in unbroken fellowship with God, so that God could operate through Him, as He could not through others. All the signs which we call miracles, are demonstrations, not of Christ's Deity. The demonstration of that is found rather in His words. As Peter put it on the day of Pentecost, He was "a Man, approved of God unto you by powers and wonders and signs which God wrought through Him in the midst of you." God was operating through Him. Once we recognize that "power belongeth unto God," there is no difficulty at all. In this sign there was a revelation of God's absolute power, healing in a moment at a distance, without contact. Should it seem an incredible thing with you, with any man, with any woman, that there can be healing at a distance, when God is at work, without contact; if we can listen to someone talking from the other side of the world to-day without any visible contact at all? It is too late in the day to attempt to laugh the supernatural out of court.
nd yet, in the working of this sign, there was a revelation of difficulty, the difficulty of God. "Except ye see signs and wonders ye will not believe." Something spectacular is a wrong basis for faith. In the last hours, Jesus looked into the eyes of His disciples and said, "Believe Me that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me; or else believe Me for the very works' sake." The works are secondary line of proof; Himself is the supreme line of proof.
nd what a revelation is here of His infinite compassion, and His infinite patience. If a man wants a sign, and is seeking for it, well, Christ will give it to him; but He will make it possible by a word, for him to exercise faith before he gets the sign.
ere also is a revelation of method. "Go thy way, thy son liveth," a word of command, no evidence; but when that command is obeyed, the evidence comes in the healing of the boy.
nd so as one stands back, and looks at this third sign. the things that impress one are these: the severity of our Lord in the presence of some weakness of the human soul; the authority of our Lord by which He appeals even to that weak soul, and gives him an opportunity; the victory of our Lord in which He so spoke that the man obeyed; and at last the man was won, with all his household.
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