Going Deeper: Meeting the Messiah in John 1-4Намуна

Day 9: Death is Swallowed Up (John 4:43-54)

Read John 4:43-54

We’ve seen a lot of what it means for us for Jesus to be the Messiah in this section of John, but John has one more thing to teach us, and it’s one of the most important things we could hear.

As we come to the end of this section of John’s Gospel, Jesus returns to Galilee, His home region. He’s welcomed by the people who saw what happened at the Passover (see day 4), and we’re told Jesus heads back to Cana, where he turned water into wine (4:46). John wants us to connect what we see here with the wedding in 2:1-11.

But at first glance there couldn’t be a more different occasion to the joy of a wedding. In walks a man in a desperate situation. His son is about to die. He has travelled more than 20 miles to see Jesus (4:47). This man is important, connected to royalty, but he is not too proud to beg Jesus to heal his son.

Jesus’ response is probably not what we expect. He challenges the man, and the crowd listening in (the you is plural here) about the kind of belief they have in Him. It seems that enjoying watching Jesus’ miracles is not the same as true faith. Yet the royal official insists... Jesus can heal his son.

What can Jesus do? In five short words He heals the dying boy (4:50). What power! And notice the reaction of this father. He takes Jesus at His word – he trusts what Jesus says completely. While he is still on the way home, his household servants rush to meet him with the wonderful news that his son is well again (4:51). When he hears that it happened exactly when Jesus spoke His words, both he and his whole household believe in Jesus. Like the Samaritans, true belief happens as people take Jesus at His word and put their trust in Him.

But what about the connection to the wedding at Cana? Why does John deliberately draw our attention to it? On day three we thought about how the sign of the water turning into wine fulfilled the Old Testament promises of the Messiah; the Lord Himself coming to bring a banquet for His people. The same passage prophesied He will ‘destroy the shroud that enfolds all peoples, the sheet that covers all nations; he will swallow up death forever’ (Isaiah 25:7-8). This is what Jesus does for the royal official’s son. Death is simply swallowed up as He speaks. Jesus is the Messiah, the Lord Himself.

As we come to the end of this section in John, the right response is also there in Isaiah. Chapter 25:8-9 tells us that ‘In that day they will say, ‘Surely this is our God; we trusted in him, and he saved us. This is the Lord, we trusted in him; let us rejoice and be glad in his salvation.’