"43 After the two days he departed for Galilee. 44 (For Jesus himself had testified that a prophet has no honour in his own home town.) 45 So when he came to Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him, having seen all that he had done in Jerusalem at the feast. For they too had gone to the feast.
46 So he came again to Cana in Galilee, where he had made the water wine. And at Capernaum there was an official whose son was ill. 47 When this man heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee, he went to him and asked him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death. 48 So Jesus said to him, “Unless you see signs and wonders you will not believe.”49 The official said to him, “Sir, come down before my child dies.” 50 Jesus said to him, “Go; your son will live.” The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and went on his way. 51 As he was going down, his servantsmet him and told him that his son was recovering. 52 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.” 53 The father knew that was the hour when Jesus had said to him, “Your son will live.” And he himself believed, and all his household. 54 This was now the second sign that Jesus did when he had come from Judea to Galilee."
John 4:43-54
John emphasises the fact that this was a second miracle performed at Cana, and there is a lesson intended in the contrast presented between the two. The one was per- formed in the context of joy and gladness at a marriage feast, the second in the context of fear, anxiety and distress - a complete contrast, yet the link is in the idea of the family. In the first, Christ blessed the marriage in its happiness and joy, while in the second He blessed the home in its cares and anxieties about the family. As Maclaren finely puts it, He who began by breathing blessing over wedded joys goes on to answer the piteous pleading of parental anxiety. He has the same kind of interest in both. And the lesson surely is plain: If Christ blessed the marriage, will He not undertake for the children?
That being said, it is all the more startling that Christ, confronted with a distracted father weeping over his dying boy, should utter the words of 48, almost as if He were rebuffing him. And, we may think, what a time for a rebuff. But when we consider a little more deeply, we begin to realise that there is much more involved. Maclaren suggests three points in the account of the incident, which we may well consider: First of all, Christ lamenting over an imperfect faith; then, Christ testing, and so strengthening, a growing faith; and finally, the absent Christ rewarding and crowning a tested faith. We shall look more closely at these points in tomorrow's Note.