John 4:51

4:43-54 The father was a nobleman, yet the son was sick. Honours and titles are no security from sickness and death. The greatest men must go themselves to God, must become beggars. The nobleman did not stop from his request till he prevailed. But at first he discovered the weakness of his faith in the power of Christ. It is hard to persuade ourselves that distance of time and place, are no hinderance to the knowledge, mercy, and power of our Lord Jesus. Christ gave an answer of peace. Christ's saying that the soul lives, makes it alive. The father went his way, which showed the sincerity of his faith. Being satisfied, he did not hurry home that night, but returned as one easy in his own mind. His servants met him with the news of the child's recovery. Good news will meet those that hope in God's word. Diligent comparing the works of Jesus with his word, will confirm our faith. And the bringing the cure to the family brought salvation to it. Thus an experience of the power of one word of Christ, may settle the authority of Christ in the soul. The whole family believed likewise. The miracle made Jesus dear to them. The knowledge of Christ still spreads through families, and men find health and salvation to their souls.

John 4:51 . And while already on his way down [ ἤδη showing that he did not remain with Christ until from some other source he heard that his son was healed], his servants met him and gave him the reward of his faith.— ὁ παῖς σου ζῇ , an echo, as Weiss remarks, of the words of Jesus, John 4:50 . The servants seeing the improvement in the boy and not ascribing it to miracle, set out to save their master from bringing Jesus to Capernaum.

Servants (δοῦλοι) Properly, bond-servants. See on Matthew 20:26; see on Mark 9:35. Thy son liveth (ὁ υἰός σοῦ ἔσχεν) The best texts, however, read αὐτοῦ, his. So Rev., that his son lived. Christ uses υἱός, son, instead of παιδίον, little one, expressing the worth of the child as representing the family. See on John 1:12.

50. Go thy way; thy son liveth—Both effects instantaneously followed:—"The man believed the word," and the cure, shooting quicker than lightning from Cana to Capernaum, was felt by the dying youth. In token of faith, the father takes his leave of Christ—in the circumstances this evidenced full faith. The servants hasten to convey the joyful tidings to the anxious parents, whose faith now only wants one confirmation. "When began he to amend? … Yesterday, at the seventh hour, the fever left him"—the very hour in which was uttered that great word, "Thy son liveth!" So "himself believed and his whole house." He had believed before this, first very imperfectly; then with assured confidence of Christ's word; but now with a faith crowned by "sight." And the wave rolled from the head to the members of his household. "To-day is salvation come to this house" (Lu 19:9); and no mean house this! second miracle Jesus did—that is, in Cana; done "after He came out of Judea," as the former before.

John 4:51 . Ἤδη , now ) He was therefore hastening, in order that he might see those things which he believed: yet the trial of his faith lasted till the following day. He believes even his servants before that he sees.— οἱ δοῦλοι , servants ) who themselves also subsequently believed.— ἀπήνησαν , met ) Because the patient had so quickly become convalescent, they were desirous of knowing what had happened, and of gladdening their master by the tidings of his son’s recovery. Their joy was mutual. Without doubt the servants said, At this very seventh hour our master spake with Jesus [and so inferred, the cure was due to His miraculous power].— ζῇ , liveth ) They announce the fact in the same words which Jesus had spoken [ John 4:50 ].

(51) And as he was now going. —Many a long mile lay between him and his child, and many an anxious thought must have come to his mind as he journeyed homeward. Now faith would be strong, and now almost give way; but he travels on with the words, “Thy son liveth,” which had come to him as a voice from heaven, sustaining and cheering him. Again he hears the same words, “Thy son liveth!” but they are spoken by the servants, who have come to meet him, and bring from Capernaum the glad news that he had himself heard at Cana.

Go thy way - This was a kind and tender address. It was designed to convince him that he could word a miracle though not personally present. Thy son liveth - Thy son shall recover; or he shall be restored to health, according to thy request. The man believed - The manner in which Jesus spoke it, and the assurance which he gave, convinced the man that he could heal him there as well as to go to Capernaum to do it. This is an instance of the power of Jesus to convince the mind, to soothe doubts, to confirm faith, and to meet our desires. He blesses not always in the manner in which we ask, but he grants us our main wish. The father wished his son healed by Jesus "going down" to Capernaum. Jesus healed him, but not in the way in which he asked it to be done. God will hear our prayers and grant our requests, but often not in the precise manner in which we ask it. It is his to judge of the best way of doing us good.

John 4:51-54 . Αὐτοῦ καταβ .… αὐτῷ ] see Buttmann, N. T. Gr. p. 270 [E. T. p. 315]. ἤδη ] belongs to καταβ ., not to ὑπήντ . (B. Crusius): when he was already going down , and now was no longer in Cana, but upon his journey back. οἱ δοῦλοι , κ . τ . λ .] to reassure the father, and to prevent the now unnecessary coming of Jesus. ζῇ ] he is not dead, but the sickness has the opposite issue: he lives! κομψότερον ] finer, prettier , as in common life we are wont to say, “he is pretty well.” Exactly so in Arrian. Epict . iii. 10 of the sick: κομψῶς ἔχεις , and its opposite κακῶς ἔχεις . Comp. the Latin belle habere . Here it is an “amoenum verbum” (Bengel) of the father’s heart, which apprehends its good fortune still with feelings of tenderness and anxiety. ἐχθές ] see Lobeck, ad Phryn . p. 323. ὥραν ἑβδόμην ] He had therefore been on the way since one o’clock the day before, because we must suppose from John 4:50 that he set out immediately after the assurance of Jesus. This also seems strange to us, considering the distance from Cana to Capernaum, not exactly known to us indeed, but hardly three geographical miles. That in his firm faith he travelled “ non festinans ” (Lampe) is unnatural; the impulse of parental love would hurry him home; and so is also the idea that he stayed the night somewhere on the way, or at Cana (Ewald assumes the latter, making the seventh hour seven in the evening, according to the Roman reckoning).

We may suppose some delay not named, on the journey back, or (with Hengstenberg, Brückner, and others) take the to-day in the mind of the Jewish servants as denoting the day which began at six P.M. (sunset). According to Baur and Hilgenfeld, this noting of the time is to be attributed, not to the genuineness and originality of the account, but to the subjective aim of the writer, which was to make the miracle as great and pointed as possible (comp. John 4:54 , note). ἐν ἐκ . τ . ὥρᾳ ] sc . ἀφῆκεν αὐτὸν ὁ πυρετός . Observe, with reference to ἐκεῖνος , that it does not mean idem , but is the simple relative ille . κ . ἐπίστευσεν , κ . τ . λ .] upon Jesus as the Messiah. Καλῶς οὖν καθήψατο αὐτοῦ ὁ τὴν καρδίαν αὐτοῦ γινώσκων Χριστὸς , εἰπών · ὅτι ἐὰν μὴ σημεῖα , κ . τ . λ ., Euthymius Zigabenus. Observe how faith here attains its realization as to its object, and further, the importance of this καὶ ἡ οἰκία αὐτοῦ (the first household ), which now occurs for the first time. Comp. Acts 16:14-15 ; Acts 16:34 ; Acts 18:8 . τοῦτο πάλιν δεύτερον , κ . τ . λ .] Referring back to John 2:11 . Literally inaccurate, yet true as to its import, is the rendering of Luther: “ This is the second miracle that Jesus did; ” τοῦτο stands by itself, and the following δεύτ . σημ . supplies the place of the predicate ( this Jesus did as the second miracle ), hence no article follows τοῦτο . See on John 2:11 , and Bremi, ad Lys. Exc . II. p. 436 f.; Ast, Lex. Plat . II. 406; Stallbaum, ad Plat.