(John 4:46-54)
WHAT has made this courtier travel a journey of about 25 miles?
Something urgent it must be that has brought him from Capernaum beside the lake to Cana. He has left a loved son behind him at the point of death. But why leave the son at the last? why has he not stayed to receive his last words? The nobleman has “heard” of Jesus; and “faith cometh by hearing” (Rom. 10:17). So with his heart no doubt big with love for his son, he has yet left him to go to the Lord Jesus, certain that He alone can meet his need. Oh, how full of anxiety must he have been, as he came to that Blessed One. Was it in vain? No! Jesus did something, and Jesus said something.
What was it that He did? He, though so far off, at once removed the fever from the dying son.
But, as we notice the distressed looks of the father, we say to ourselves, Does not that sorrowful courtier need something more? Does he not need to know that his son is no longer dying? Yes, and the Lord Jesus does not leave him in uncertainty. How is the centurion to know, so that he may be happy? Jesus said something, as well as did something? It was what Jesus did that healed the son; it was what Jesus said that enabled the father to know it. Had you asked him that day, “How do you know that your son is recovering” what could he have answered? He could not have said, “I see it,” for the son was far away. Nor would his reply have been, “I feel it,” for we do not get the certainty of what is happening at a distance, by feeling it.
But how then did the centurion know it, if neither by sight nor feelings? His simple answer might have been, “I know it, because HE said it.” And who is the HE? Ah, I see; it depends on the Person, Who it is that speaks the word of authority. The courtier did not need to think of his faith. Did he say, “I wonder if I have the right sort of faith?” No—it was a question of the Person. Could he simply trust the One who had said, “Thy son liveth.” Yes, he could.
Reader, if you are anxious about your soul’s salvation, has this story no voice for you? Have you expected to know it by your feelings? They change like the wind. You must rest on the solid word of God, which does not change.
For the actual salvation of the ungodly, something has been done. Christ has died on the cross, finished the work, and been raised from the dead, by the glory of the Father. God now in righteousness proclaims through Christ the forgiveness of sins to each who believes. You need also to know that your sins are forgiven. This can be known by something said, not by some good thoughts or feelings in yourself. God has said, “Through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins.” Acts 13:38. “These things have I written to you that believe on the name of the Son of God, that ye may know that ye have eternal life” (1 John 5:13). Can you trust the Person who declares this, or would you rather trust your own heart? “He that trusteth his own heart is a fool.” (Prov. 28:26).
The courtier believes the word spoken, and goes leisurely to his home, instead of hurrying to get back the same night, for it was only the seventh hour, (one o’clock) when Jesus spoke to him. His servants did not meet him till the next day. Perhaps they have been thinking what a surprise they have got for him.
But no, he does not seem surprised. He has one question; — “When did he begin to amend?”
Ah, it was the very same hour when Jesus said the good news to him. “Blessed are they that have not seen and yet have believed.”
Anxious reader, it is by what the Lord Jesus has done, that you must get salvation; it is by what God has said in His own Word, that you can have the knowledge of salvation.
J. P. R.