Jesus and the pagan court official 4:43-54
Posted on September 5th 2010 in St. John's Gospel
Jesus now departs from Samaria, and travels to Galilee. His denunciation of Galilee turns on His self-understanding of a prophet who is one who engages in good works and preaches the coming of God, but who does this because He was sent by God. The Galileans had heard about the miracles but had not drawn the essential conclusion as to the true identity of Jesus, and only knew of his family circumstances in Nazareth.
The meeting between Jesus and the pagan court official is the third of three encounters that take place after the Cleansing of the Temple and the Marriage Feast of Cana. The previous two, with Nicodemus, the leading Jew, and with the Samaritan woman symbolise the reception given by Jews and those on the fringes of Judaism.
The dialogue between Jesus and the official starts with a gentle rebuke as to the nature of his faith, but which ends with the official believing the words of Jesus, ‘Go home, your son will live’. The faith of the official led to ‘knowledge’ because he connects the words of Jesus to the healing of his son. The precise use of language in St John is the key to the spiritual dynamics of the text. The title used for Jesus’ interlocutor changes from court official, to man, and lastly to father while simultaneously the dynamics of belief change, from partial faith based on signs, to faith with knowledge, to passing the faith on to others, in this case his family. A similar structure of the new convert leading others to faith may be seen in Jesus’ meeting with the Samaritan woman, who encourages her townsfolk to listen to Jesus.
The final sentence of this section looks back to the first miracle performed in Cana in Galilee, the changing of the water into wine which initiated the public life of Jesus. Now the Gospel will relate a number of visits that Jesus will make to Jerusalem to celebrate various jewish festivals. At each He will replace that worship with that of Himself,.