After the two days, he left there for Galilee. 44 For Jesus himself testified that a prophet has no honor in his native place. 45 When he came into Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him, since they had seen all he had done in Jerusalem at the feast; for they themselves had gone to the feast. 46 Then he returned to Cana in Galilee, where he had made the water wine. Now there was a royal official whose son was ill in Capernaum. 47 When he heard that Jesus had arrived in Galilee from Judea, he went to him and asked him to come down and heal his son, who was near death. 48 Jesus said to him, “Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will not believe.” 49 The royal official said to him, “Sir, come down before my child dies.” 50 Jesus said to him, “You may go; your son will live.” The man believed what Jesus said to him and left. 51 While he was on his way back, his slaves met him and told him that his boy would live. 52 He asked them when he began to recover. They told him, “The fever left him yesterday, about one in the afternoon.” 53 The father realized that just at that time Jesus had said to him, “Your son will live,” and he and his whole household came to believe. 54 [Now] this was the second sign Jesus did when he came to Galilee from Judea.
After two days, Jesus left Samaria for Galilee where he was welcomed this time because Galilean pilgrims who went to Jerusalem for the feast had seen the signs and wonders he was doing (Jn. 2:23). A few months earlier, Jesus had been rejected in Nazareth, his birthplace, hence his comment “A prophet has no honor in his native place” (v. 44; Lk. 4:24; Mk. 6:4). Jesus returned to Cana of Galilee where he had turned water into wine at the wedding he attended with his mother and his disciples (Jn. 2:1-12).
The healing of the royal official’s son was similar to the healing of the Centurion’s servant (Mt. 8:5-13), and the Centurion’s slave (Lk. 7:1-10). The royal official could have been either a Jew or Gentile who served in the court of Herod Antipas in Capernaum which was approximately 20 miles from where he met Jesus. The royal official’s son was dying so the official must have had some faith in Jesus to have traveled so far to ask him to go to Capernaum and heal his son. The Centurion believed that Jesus had to be present to heal his son unlike the Centurion in Matthew's Gospel (Mt. 8:5-13). When the official asked Jesus to come and heal his son, Jesus made a general statement challenging those present not to use signs and wonders as the sole basis for belief (v. 48; Jn. 2:23; Jn. 6:26). The official persisted and Jesus told him his son would live. The man believed what Jesus told him, trusted his word without hesitation, and left.
The official most likely spent the night in Cana because his servants met him on his way back and told him that his son’s fever broke yesterday (v. 51), the day Jesus told him his son would live. As a result of the official’s faith, belief, and trust in the Word, he and his whole household were converted.
Almighty God, grant us the grace to believe in the power of faith and trust in your word. Help us not to seek signs and wonders to believe but to cultivate a deep and genuine faith in Your son. This we pray through Christ our Lord. Amen!
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References
Chiu, José Enrique Aguilar, et al. The Paulist Biblical Commentary. Paulist Press, 2018.
Brown, Raymond Edward, et al. The New Jerome Biblical Commentary. Upper Saddle River, NJ, United States, Prentice Hall, 1990.
Chiu, José Enrique Aguilar, et al. The Paulist Biblical Commentary. Paulist Press, 2018.
Brown, Raymond Edward, et al. The New Jerome Biblical Commentary. Upper Saddle River, NJ, United States, Prentice Hall, 1990.
Orchard, Bernard, et al. A Catholic Commentary on Holy Scripture. Feb. 1953.
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