Monday in the Fourth Week of Lent, March 15, 2021

John 4:43-54

At that time Jesus left [Samaria] for Galilee. For Jesus himself testified that a prophet has no honor in his native place. When he came into Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him, since they had seen all he had done in Jerusalem at the feast; for they themselves had gone to the feast. 

Then he returned to Cana in Galilee, where he had made the water wine. Now there was a royal official whose son was ill in Capernaum. When he heard that Jesus had arrived in Galilee from Judea, he went to him and asked him to come down and heal his son, who was near death. Jesus said to him, “Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will not believe.” The royal official said to him, “Sir, come down before my child dies.” Jesus said to him, “You may go; your son will live.” The man believed what Jesus said to him and left. While the man was on his way back, his slaves met him and told him that his boy would live. He asked them when he began to recover. They told him, “The fever left him yesterday, about one in the afternoon.” The father realized that just at that time Jesus had said to him, “Your son will live,” and he and his whole household came to believe. Now this was the second sign Jesus did when he came to Galilee from Judea.

The Gospel reading for today directly follows the visit of the Lord to the woman at the well in Samaria, which took place after Jesus left Judea, where he had faced opposition from the Pharisees and the Temple authorities.  Now, St John tells us, “At that time Jesus left for Galilee. For Jesus himself testified that a prophet has no honor in his native place.”  This sounds odd, since it seems as though John were saying that Judea was the Lord’s native place: Jesus had faced hostility there and now was leaving for the outer lands, as though in a self-imposed exile.  However, we modern readers know from the other Gospels that the Lord was raised and lived in Galilee.  Furthermore, we know from the other Gospels that Jesus testified in Nazareth that “a prophet has no honor except in his native place”, and he had found no faith there.  Finally, it seems very strange that if a prophet had no honor in his native place that the Galileans would welcome him upon his return.  What does this mean?  It seems to me that John was, in fact, recognizing Jesus as a native of Judea, born in Bethlehem, near Jerusalem.  Nazareth was his adopted home-town, not his native place.  Thus, when the priests and Pharisees of Jerusalem showed him no honor there, the proverb about the prophet and his native place makes sense.  And, indeed, the people of Galilee who lived in and around Capernaum were glad to have him back among them, especially since they “had seen all he had done in Jerusalem at the feast; for they themselves had gone to the feast”.  It was a proud moment for the Galileans to see one they considered of their own making a name for himself in the snobby world of the Judeans.

The story of the “royal official” and his sick son at Capernaum is also found in Matthew 8, 5-13, where we are told that the man is a centurion, which the Greek word John uses allows for.  Matthew quotes the man as saying, “Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof” (Matthew 8, 8), so that the story is about the faith even a Gentile could show.  John, however, does not emphasize the man’s faith but rather the power of the Lord, who can heal even from afar.  For John, this is one of the seven “signs” which reveal Jesus as the Son of God who has come to save the world, just as John considered the earlier miracle at Cana and the later raising of Lazarus.  The Lord shows in the sign of the healing of this boy that if he will save a Gentile child whom he has not so much as set his eyes on, out of his compassion, how much more he will save those who belong to him through faith, obedience, and love.