John 4:43-54- Your Son Will Live

Explanation- Christ again enters His hometown of Galilee. Upon His entrance, He is met with some official who is seeking His help. This in itself displays how well know the miracles of Christ had become. This man, having heard of Christ’s arrival comes to our Lord beckoning Him to heal His poor, sick son. It can be inferred by Christ’s response that this had become a common ordeal. He was known as a mighty healer more than He was viewed as a personal Savior. This clearly was a grievance to our Lord, and it should not be undermined. Christ is seeking true worshippers who come to Him not because of what He is capable of doing, but because of who He is.

This official, clearly out of love for his son, is persistent in seeking Christ’s help. All that he requires is a word and he will go contently on his way. Christ, in His grace and compassion, provides the word and the man goes. Let us not miss the sheer power contained in the word of Christ. He merely speaks a word to this man, and it is so. This is the same word that spoke all of creation into existence. It displays His sheer power, as God, to do all that He pleases according to His will.

Application- Christ’s power is not limited in scope. He was able to heal those who physically came to Him, as well as those who could not. We must notice that it was not the nearness in proximity that healed a person, but the display of faith in that Christ could do as He said. Hebrews tells us that we must believe that God is and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him (Heb 11:6). We must come to God with the fundamental belief that He is who He says He is and that He can do what He says He can do. We also must realize that Christ’s scope stretched beyond physical ailments. He is primarily a Physician of the soul. He came to set men free from the bondage of sin and death, not necessarily pain and sickness. In the rich words of Ryle, ‘Health is a good thing; but sickness is far better, if it leads us to God.’[1] In this case, a man’s whole house is led to true faith because of one boy’s sickness. It is true that good health is a blessing but let us not put it in the place of saving faith and forgiveness.

 

[1] Ryle, J.C. (2015). “Bible commentary – The gospel of Matthew”, p.156, Editora Dracaena