Jesus Heals a Government Official’s Son
43At the end of the two days, Jesus went on to Galilee.44He himself had said that a prophet is not honored in his own hometown.45Yet the Galileans welcomed him, for they had been in Jerusalem at the Passover celebration and had seen everything he did there.
46As he traveled through Galilee, he came to Cana, where he had turned the water into wine. There was a government official in nearby Capernaum whose son was very sick.47When he heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee, he went and begged Jesus to come to Capernaum to heal his son, who was about to die.
48Jesus asked, “Will you never believe in me unless you see miraculous signs and wonders?”
49The official pleaded, “Lord, please come now before my little boy dies.”
50Then Jesus told him, “Go back home. Your son will live!” And the man believed what Jesus said and started home.
51While the man was on his way, some of his servants met him with the news that his son was alive and well.52He asked them when the boy had begun to get better, and they replied, “Yesterday afternoon at one o’clock his fever suddenly disappeared!”53Then the father realized that that was the very time Jesus had told him, “Your son will live.” And he and his entire household believed in Jesus.54This was the second miraculous sign Jesus did in Galilee after coming from Judea.
We don’t really know much about this government official. If he was a Jewish government official, he would have been breaking ranks with the Pharisees and Sadducees to look to Jesus for help. If he was a Roman official, he was certainly putting aside everything he was taught and lived by to go to this Jew for help. Either way, he was throwing aside protocol and tradition and just coming to Jesus. He came to Jesus without pretense or any sign of pride or self-righteousness. He just came to the Lord begging for help and Jesus helped him. As a result he, and his entire household, believed in the Lord.
Does God sometimes put us in that same situation? Does he create for us points in our life where we have nowhere else to turn so we turn to him? Should he have to do that? Should it really be that hard to get our attention? Or does he put us in those situations sometimes to others can see us turn to him and they then come to believe?
Maybe we can’t really answer all these questions for sure, but we can come to the Lord like this government official did. Without pride, or pretense, or anything but an open heart and mind.
Lord, help me to accept the situations you put me in as a invitation to come back to you with nothing but an open heart and mind. Change me Lord and save me, and my entire household. *obbs*
