John 4:46-54
“Notice what you notice.” John’s account of a long-distance, words-only healing… Commentators differ as to whether John’s account of this healing is a different healing from Matthew’s and Luke’s or that it is the same. No matter – we just look at what it says.
First, the differences…
- John has an “official” (or nobleman or royal official), while Matthew and Luke have a centurion.
- John has the man’s son dying while Matthew and Luke have a servant as the sick person.
- Matthew and Luke have the “Lord, I am not worthy…” wording which is absent in John; instead, John has the official specifically asking Jesus to …come down before my child dies (John 4:49).
- After the official’s son was healed John has the official believing in Jesus, along with his entire household. This is absent in Matthew and Luke.
Forgetting about the differences, the main similarity between the three accounts is the long-distance, words-only healing. There is no laying on of hands, no touching, no “power going out from Jesus” (see Luke 8:46, Mark 5:30). Is this the power of intercessory prayer in our own lives? Healing from afar…? The Holy Spirit working “behind the scenes”…? My siblings and I have been praying for our unbelieving brother, Dickie, who has prostate cancer and kidney problems. During our prayer time his kidney condition has gone from borderline stage-5 “kidney failure” to stage-3/4 “kidney injury”. And this while he has been at home recuperating. Will my brother continue to get better? Will his kidneys continue to get better? Will his prostate cancer vanish (for which we have been praying)? And will he, as did the official, come to belief in Jesus? That is our most sincere, most urgent prayer. Lord, we are asking for a long-distance, words-only healing in Dickie’s life – and for him to come to Your saving grace. Please pray with us.
Slava Bohu!