THE NOBLEMAN’S SON HEALED.
I have already told you, my little ones, how our Lord Jesus Christ turned the water into wine at the marriage feast. That was His first miracle, and one of the few He performed which were not works of healing; for He went about curing the sick, and in some instances restoring to life those who were already dead.
We are told in the Bible that after this first miracle, our Saviour left Cana and went to Jerusalem to keep the Passover, and it is stated that while there He performed several miracles in the way of healing, which were so wonderful that His fame spread throughout the land. After the Passover, Christ left Jerusalem, and turned His steps towards Galilee.
Now in a city of Galilee, called Capernaum, there lived a nobleman, who had an only child, a son, that he loved with his whole heart. The child was very ill—so ill that there was no hope of recovery. The little face that the poor father loved so much grew pale and wan, and the pretty bright eyes lost their brightness. Everything that human skill could do had been tried in vain; but the father had heard of the miracles done by Jesus in Jerusalem, and knowing that He was then passing through that part of the country, he left the bedside of his dying child, and came himself to Christ.
St. John tells us—“He besought Christ that He would come down and heal his son; for he was at the point of death. Then said Jesus unto him, Except ye see signs and wonders ye will not believe. The nobleman saith unto Him, Sir, 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.”
From this account it appears as if the nobleman went to our Saviour only as a last resource, and scarcely believing in His power. This was why Christ said as a sort of reproof, “Except ye see signs and wonders ye will not believe.” Then the poor father prayed again to Him to come to his son, thinking that to save the boy our Saviour must see and touch him. But Christ showed him that He could heal the boy as well at a distance as near, and said, “Go thy way: thy son liveth.”
This man’s faith, you see, had grown suddenly, and became perfect; for he believed without hesitation our Saviour’s word, and returned home at once. He did not stay to question, but he went home, taking it for granted that he would find the miracle performed, and that his son was living as Jesus had declared, although this was the first instance in which Christ had healed at a distance.
He believed so firmly that all would be well when he got home, that he does not appear even to have hurried on his journey; and he met some of his servants the next day before he reached his house. The servants had come out to meet him, and they were the bearers of the happy tidings of his son’s recovery. Then he anxiously inquired when the child began to get better, and they told him: “Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him.” And the father knew it was at that hour Christ had said to him, “Thy son liveth.” From that time, St. John tells us the nobleman and all his household were believers.
We learn, my dear children, from this miracle that sorrow and trouble often lead to good. They brought the anxious and sorrowing father to Christ, and caused not only the father but all the household to become believers. Let us trust and pray that through such suffering and such trials as may be in store for us we too may be brought nearer to God.
