IN the healing by the Son of God of suffering men, as recorded in Scripture, one often finds striking figures of the gospel. A narrative at the end of John 4. is specially interesting and instructive for the Gentile. A certain nobleman, whose son was sick at Capernaum, went to Jesus, who had come out of Judæa to Cana of Galileo, and besought Him that He would come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death.
The position and state of this youth illustrate forcibly the moral condition of man in general. He is of noble origin. He was originally created in the image and likeness of the Lord God. But he is sick―very sick; he is sick through sin. It is a grievous malady, and it has mastered him. His whole moral being is affected by it. It is a high fever; man’s world is one of ceaseless restlessness, thirst, and excitement, and there is no peace. Man is a wreck; sin with its attendant weakness and suffering abounds; moreover, the sinner is at the point of death. And the son of a nobleman can no more escape than the son of a pauper from it, and from the judgment beyond (Heb. 9:2727And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment: (Hebrews 9:27)).
All are conceived in sin, shapen in iniquity, born of a fallen race, and subject to death as soon as they are born. Babes of a day die as well as old men of a century. From his birth onwards man is exposed to death. The wages of sin are his due; and any one may receive his wages at any moment of his short life. He is always at the point of death. Men sport and play, and dance and sing, but the fact remains, however they may seek to divest their minds of the thought, death is here, and may summon them at any unwished-for moment.
Jesus replied to the nobleman, “Except ye see signs and wonders, ye will not believe.” But the dawn of faith was in that nobleman’s heart. It was but little that he knew, but there was confidence in Jesus. There was the inward feeling that He and He only could help him in that moment of deep and painful distress. The loved one was dying; the father’s heart yearned over him. The help of man was vain. Probably, like others in like circumstances, he had turned to Capernaum doctors for the medical aid of the day; nevertheless, the fever ran its course, and the patient was at the point of death. One only could intervene in this dire extremity. That One was near. The nobleman’s heart-felt hope was in Him. “Sir,” said he to the Lord, “come down ere my child die.”
“Jesus saith unto him, Go thy way; thy son liveth. And the man believed the word that Jesus had spoken unto him, and he went his way.” The word of Jesus was a word of power. It carried conviction to His suppliant. Without another word he left Him to return to his son. But the heart of man is slow to enter into the perfect ways of God, slow to apprehend the perfection of the blessing pronounced and administered. “As he was now going down, his servants met him, and told him, saying, Thy son liveth.” They repeat the very words he had heard. He receives from the lips of his servants the full confirmation of the words which fell with such solace to his heart from the lips of Jesus. But as yet he has not realized their full force. Looking at the healing of his dad from a natural standpoint, he inquired of the servants the hour when he began to amend? To amend! There was no amendment. It was a sudden and a complete cure. It took no time. Divine power had gone forth with the word of Jesus, the Son of God, at Cana of Galilee, and healed at once the son of the nobleman at Capernaum. It was no gradual amendment, no amelioration of the malady until he was healed, but he who was at the point of death lived. “Yesterday,” said the servants, “at the seventh hour (the very moment when Jesus spake the word) the fever left him” (John 4:5252Then inquired he of them the hour when he began to amend. And they said unto him, Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him. (John 4:52)).
This wonderful miracle sets forth most blessedly how the Son of God heals poor perishing sinners today. Sin reigns in our mortal flesh, and it is an incurable malady as far as man is concerned. No human remedy whatever, whether moral or religious, can either ameliorate or eradicate it. All kinds of efforts have been, and are still, made to improve man after the flesh. But although you may improve him outwardly by civilization and religion, &c., for this world, all remedies are utterly useless and vain to improve him for God and the unseen world. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and remains flesh till man’s last breath on earth. He is a long way past amendment. This has been abundantly proved both without and with law. None but Christ can heal, and He heals perfectly. He does not mitigate the fever—sin,—but banishes its attack. When He speaks, He speaks with power and authority, and banishes forever the fever from the objects of His mercy and grace. He Himself bore the judgment of sin (2 Cor. 5:2121For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. (2 Corinthians 5:21)), and has all power to deliver the sinner from its mastery. He does not deliver any from its presence till He takes them home to Himself (hence God’s gracious provision for His own in the advocacy of Christ and the confession of our sins), but He can and does set many completely free from its mastery.
At the seventh, hour the fever left him. A blessed hour that! Surely the introduction of the seventh hour should speak to us. Seven is the well-known perfect number. Happy indeed is that poor sinner who at the seventh hour hears the Master’s voice, and is delivered from the awful power of sin. That man has done with death; he is passed from death unto life. “Thy son liveth,” were words of deep joy and consolation for the nobleman; it was health, rest, strength, liberty, life for the one who had been at the point of death. What must have been the astonishment of these servants, watching anxiously around that sick bed, and dreading that each moment the fever-tossed patient would be stretched lifeless before their eyes, when suddenly, without the slightest sign of amendment, he rose from his couch hale, hearty, and strong, and every trace of sickness departed from him! What a Saviour Jesus is!
And “Verily, verily, I say unto you,” are His precious words to every believer on Him, the Son, “He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from death unto life” (John 5:2424Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life. (John 5:24)). Moreover, the child for whom the father pleaded was henceforth a living son. May we not gather confirmation therefrom of that which we learn elsewhere that the healed soul is a son, who was once perishing in sin, but is now before the face of God in life forever.
The Son of God was at Cana, the One who could say, “I am the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:66Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. (John 14:6)). The One who could and did overcome death, rob it of its sting, and bring life and incorruptibility to light through the gospel. The nobleman’s son was delivered from fever and death, and had a fresh start in health and life. Dear reader, the same blessings may become yours spiritually today. The same blessed One is in glory today, from whence He speaks in power to souls. All who hear Him live. “The hour is coming,” said He, “and now is, when the dead (that is, morally in sin) shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live” (John 5:2525Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live. (John 5:25)). Have you heard His voice?
Now, the father knew that it was the same hour in the which Jesus said unto him, “Thy son liveth;” and we read, “Himself believed and his whole house.” The father knew. He was thoroughly convinced. His son was healed in body; and he and all his were healed in soul. The whole Galilean household believed. It was a blessed sample of that which was declared later by Paul, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house” (Acts 16:3131And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house. (Acts 16:31)). God, in grace, links the house with the head. Let every believer who has a household hold fast to that. You will surely not regret it. “Himself believed and his whole house.” How about you and yours? The world is in a great foyer of sin, with all the attendant restlessness, thirst, excitement, and lack of peace and satisfaction; death reigns; the grave is just waiting for the sinner. And there is no way of amendment for God. But the Son, who was and is life, says, “He that believeth on me hath everlasting life” (John 6:4747Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life. (John 6:47)). And that believer is saved from its power and sway, and is passed from death unto life.
“Oh, what a Saviour-that He died for me!
From condemnation He hath made me free;
‘He that believeth on the Son,’ saith He,
‘Hath everlasting life.’”
E. H. C.