Contemplative Bible Reading

John 4:46-53 (Common English Bible)

46 He returned to Cana in Galilee where he had turned the water into wine. In Capernaum there was a certain royal official whose son was sick. 47 When he heard that Jesus was coming from Judea to Galilee, he went out to meet him and asked Jesus if he would come and heal his son, for his son was about to die. 48 Jesus said to him, “Unless you see miraculous signs and wonders, you won’t believe.”

49 The royal official said to him, “Lord, come before my son dies.”

50 Jesus replied, “Go home. Your son lives.” The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and set out for his home.

51 While he was on his way, his servants were already coming to meet him. They said, “Your son lives!” 52 So he asked them at what time his son had started to get better. And they said, “The fever left him yesterday at about one o’clock in the afternoon.” 53 Then the father realized that this was the hour when Jesus had said to him, “Your son lives.” And he and his entire household believed in Jesus. 54 This was the second miraculous sign Jesus did while going from Judea to Galilee.

This is one of the miracles Jesus performed. He healed a man’s son from a distance. Taking a second thought on this one, that is pretty amazing – healing someone sight unseen.

Anyways, the topic of today is the belief. In verse 53, after everyone realized what Jesus had done, they all believed.  But what about verse 50? The man believed the word that Jesus spoke.

What was different between the belief of verse 50 and verse 53? The man believed in Jesus enough in verse 50 to leave Jesus and go home. That is a lot of belief. Then again “he and his entire household believed.” The man believed again. Didn’t he believe in the earlier verse? Or perhaps this is a figure of speech or some other writing technique.