TThhaatt DDeessppeerraattee RRooyyaall OOffffiicciiaall Rediscovering John 4:43-54 through the Lens of Context We have forgotten that we read the Bible as foreigners, as visitors who have traveled not only to a new geography, but to a new century. We are literary tourists who are deeply in need of a guide. – Gary Burge1 Introduction With Scripture, the past is often the prologue for the present encounter. At the end of John 4, Jesus returns to Cana and heals the son of a royal official from Capernaum. John refers to this particular miracle as Jesus’ second sign; the first sign being the miracle of turning water into wine at a wedding feast in that same town (John 2). Why does John choose to designate this particular royal official miracle as his second sign after alluding to other miracles that occurred between these two Cana miracles? That question is the focus of this month’s contextual Reflection. Here’s how John describes this intriguing encounter: Now after the two days (in Samaria), Jesus departed from there and went to Galilee. For Jesus Himself testified that a prophet has no honor in his own country. So when He came to Galilee, the Galileans received Him, having seen all the things He did in Jerusalem at the feast; for they also had gone to the feast. Once more he visited Cana in Galilee, where he had turned water into wine. And there was a certain royal official whose son lay sick at Capernaum. When this man heard that Jesus had arrived in Galilee from Judea, he went to him at once and begged him to come and heal his little boy who was on the brink of death. “Unless you people see attesting miracles and miracles that excite wonder,” Jesus told him, “you will never believe.” The royal official said, “Sir, come down at once before my child dies.” “You can go home,” Jesus said, “your son will live.” The man took Jesus at his word and departed. He was well on his way home when his servants met him with the news that his boy was living. When he inquired as to the time when his son began to mend, they said to him, “Yesterday, at one in the afternoon, the fever left him.” Then the father realized that this was the exact time at which Jesus had said to him, “Your son will live.” That clinched it. So he and his whole household became believers that Jesus is the Messiah. This was the second attesting miracle Jesus performed after coming from Judea to Galilee. John 4:46-54 (a composite of several translations). Where Are We? A good first question to ask of any passage is: Where are we? John 4 ends with Jesus back in Cana which is located on the E/W running Ptolemais-Taricheae (Magdala) road. This lovely town rests on the north central slope of the Beth Netofa valley between the Sea of Galilee and the Mediterranean coast.2 Capernaum is also part of this story. It is a city of roughly 5,000 people located in the NW corner of the Sea of Galilee, approximately ten miles north of Tiberias and acts as the base of Jesus’ Galilean ministry. That proximity is important to this encounter since Herod Antipas resides in Tiberias, ruling over the Galilean and Perean Districts. Herod Antipas is the one who arrested3 and later beheaded4 John the Baptist. Scripture tells us that the Baptist had confronted Antipas over the sin of marrying his step-brother’s (Phillip) wife, Herodias.5 If you are Jesus, you might want to shield yourself from this couple as best as you can. As part of this proximity backdrop, remember that Antipas is the only person about whom Jesus ever made a derogatory remark – that cunning fox.6 Geologically speaking, the Sea of Galilee sits in a recessed bowl 700 feet below sea level. As a result, leaving Capernaum one has to go UP to travel to Cana, which is why the Royal Official implores Jesus to go DOWN to his home in Capernaum. In constructing his narrative this way, John lets us know he understands Galilean geography. What’s Happened Before? The second question to ask of any text is: What happened before that bears on this passage? As mentioned before, Jesus performed His first sign (miracle) of turning water into wine at a wedding feast in Cana. Important to that first sign is that Marriage feasts were intended to be joyous occasions and in the Hebrew worldview wine was the personification of joy. The Old Testament speaks to wine being the symbol of joy; e.g., Judges 9:13, Psalm 104:15 and Isaiah 55:1. With the capacity of the water purification vessels given to us by John– each holding from twenty to thirty gallons – Jesus created the equivalent of 800 (750 ml) bottles of fine wine for use in the latter stages of this wedding feast! John gives us this detail so we will appreciate the enormity of the amount of fine wine that Jesus created. When the joy of heaven invades your life, that joy is intended to flood your soul so that your cup continually overflows. John wants us to know that as a result of experiencing this first miracle (sign), these new disciples believed in Him. Being very familiar with the Old Testament understanding that “the joy of the final days is an abundance of wine” (Amos 9:13-14, Hosea 14:7, Jeremiah 31:12),7 the disciples likely would have understood this as a sign of the advent of the Messianic age. What Cultural Clues Shape This Encounter? The next question to ask of any passage is: What contextual clues are important for discerning the fuller meaning of this passage? Consider: The word was indeed spreading in the Galilee District regarding the (onsite) healing and exorcism miracles that Jesus was performing. In first-century Jewish worldview, this would have likely established Jesus as yet another in a long line of miracle-working, Pharisee rabbis from the Galilee. These rabbis were called the Hasidim (or Chasidim) – “the righteous ones” – and they were well known for 1) their pious, prayer-warrior nature and 2) doing things for the benefit of the community, e.g. laying on of hands for healing.8 However, as wonderful as those traits might be, that is certainly not the same thing as THE Messiah. Therefore, could it be reasonable to assume that the healing paradigm of this royal official is that this Rabbi Yeshua could (only) perform onsite healing miracles? If you are a royal official in Capernaum, you are Herod Antipas’ representative. Thus you need to be careful in how you relate to or interact with this controversial new Rabbi Yeshua. You have probably heard that Antipas, and particularly Herodias, do not feel kindly toward John the Baptist, who is not only a relative of this Yeshua, but also seems to be a collaborator with him having recently immersed (“ordained”) him into his ministry.9 Thus, caution needs to be taken in identifying too closely with another potential political threat to Antipas. And what if this Yeshua would (likewise) confront Antipas and Herodias regarding their adulterous marriage? Nothing good could come of that! Thus, getting too close to this miracle-working rabbi could be detrimental to my career development! Desperate People Do Desperate Things Ever been close to a situation where a child was at death’s door? Parents of such a child will do anything and seek out anything that might make a life-sustaining difference. I have no doubt this royal official (and his wife) were similarly desperate. How many tears of anguish had they already shed as they watched life slowly slip away from their little boy? How much dread had already invaded their souls? How many physicians have already tried to make a difference, but to no avail? A Risky Move One day this royal official gets word (maybe he or someone from his office overheard people talking in the Capernaum marketplace) that this Rabbi Yeshua is back in the Galilee District up in Cana. Could this rabbi make a difference in his son’s life? Might he be worth a try? (Praise God for people who talk about Jesus in the marketplace in ways that not only allow others to overhear, but causes them to want to seek Jesus out!) Lots of Time to Wonder As a rule of thumb, a good day’s journey (on fairly level ground) in first-century Israel was considered to be 16-18 miles per day.10 Thus, it appears from Galilean geography that it may well have taken this Royal Official one and a half days to cover the 22-25 miles up to Cana from Capernaum. Plenty of time to worry about his son’s deteriorating condition and to wonder: Is he even still alive? Plenty of time to second- guess: Am I doing the right thing, or am I making a career-ending fool out of myself? Will this Jesus even grant me an audience? What will those in my Capernaum office think? Questions, doubts, and fears. Finally he arrives in Cana, seeks Jesus out and begs Him to intervene in the illness of his son. A Challenging Rebuke Jesus’ initial response to this imploring royal official is unless you people see attesting miracles and miracles that excite wonder…you will never believe. Given the plural nature of this you people statement, commentators have speculated on just how much of the rebuke was aimed at the Galilean crowd versus this royal official.