John Chapter 4

vs 41

This is perhaps the less surprising of the two - you would expect that many people would become believers upon the teaching of Jesus directly to them. So to imagine that a bunch of them listened to a woman who has had 5 husbands, that's pretty incredible.

vs 42

And they were really listening too - this verse shows that they had an understanding of who Jesus is - not just some nebulous prophet or Messiah, about whom nobody really knew much, but they saw him as a saviour.

vs 43

Little trip planner update there. Of course, this verse doesn't have much spiritual significance, but it does show how much social interaction we have lost through the speed of our travels, and how a deadline could be stretched by a couple of days without a problem.

vs 44

I think the reason this is in parentheses is because of the word "for". There's no parentheses in ancient greek as far as I know. Jesus knew what sort of reception he'd get regarding his position, but he went anyway.

vs 45

What he had done in Jerusalem, it seemed, was the clearing of the temple. It's something I guess you wouldn't have missed. And even here, in his hometown, people recognised that he had done this.

vs 46

So already, you see, he's done a bit of a trip. Now he returns to where he was at the beginning of chapter 2. This time, though, there's no wedding - instead, there is a sick boy. He wasn't in Galilee, though, he was in Capernaum. That's a pretty long way. Although everywhere is a long way by foot it seems.

vs 47

News has obviously spread about Jesus. So far, John hasn't told us that Jesus has healed anyone else, so you've got to wonder if this guy is really at his wits' end.

vs 48

This seems an odd thing to say to a guy who has come and asked his son to be healed. You would think that means he believes. But of course, from looking at other healing stories in other gospels, you know that not everyone who is healed is a master of faith at the time.

vs 49

This guy probably hasn't thought through the consequences of Jesus being who he claims to be - he just wants his son to live. We often see the immediate problem before seeing the bigger picture problem, which Jesus came to deal with. If people knew that Jesus was offering eternal life and a repaired relationship with God, you would assume they'd ask for that.

vs 50

Perhaps as a test, Jesus tells the man that he doesn't need to go all the way to Capernaum, and that his son will be fine. The guy takes Jesus at his word. This is probably not as incredible as it seems - after all, even Elijah did healings from afar, like with Naaman. So it has biblical precedent. But most often, people don't think about biblical precedent when their son is dying.

vs 51

No email, no pager, no mobile phone, just messengers. And you were obviously pretty lucky if, like this guy, you ran into them on the way.

vs 52

Remember what I was saying about learning the times? Well, the NASB has them in it, but they don't know whether the speakers are using Jewish time or Roman time, and that apparently makes a difference. It was either 1pm or 7pm. I think most people go for the Jewish time. Not important, but interesting.

vs 53

It's interesting that this man's beliefs were contingent on seeing a miracle. He had heard about Jesus and what he had done, or else he wouldn't have asked him to heal his son. Now we look back at Jesus' words to him about requiring a miracle, and we see that Jesus wasn't far off the mark at all.

vs 54

Obviously it wasn't the second per se, but it's the second one John calls a miracle. Actually, he calls it a miraculous sign, and perhaps that is important.