4:47
The official begs Jesus to “come down and heal his son”. The son was so seriously ill that he was at the point of death. The official had heard that Jesus was now in Galilee and went to Him in desperation. In the case of the centurion (Matt 8:5-13; Luke 7:2-10) the man had faith in Jesus and is commended for it. I must admit that before reading the commentary by Carson the thought of this being another account had never occurred to me, and with good reason it seems! Some people seem to get so obsessed with minutiae and trying to pick things apart, they would be far better focusing on the message of the Bible.
4:48
The you is plural and Jesus’ words are directed to the people of Galilee in general, not just the official, though they do apply to him as well. It is interesting that Jesus on a number of occasions rebukes people for insisting on “signs” and being reliant on miracles. At the same time He did perform many miracles, and in John 14:11 tells them to at least believe because of the miracles. So what are we to make of this? An over reliance on miracles is a mistake. People can see miracles and not believe, a faith based just on miracles is likely to be a shallow faith at best. Yet God does miracles. So we are to move beyond miracles, not just being fascinated by the spectacle, or relieved at the healing, we are to move beyond that to see and believe in the God behind the miracles.
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