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| Archbishop Averky (Tauchev) Explanation of the four Gospels IntraText CT - Text |
(John 4:46-54).
On the way to Capernaum, the Lord came to Cana where He performed His first miracle by turning water into wine. Having found out about this, one of the inhabitants — one of Herod’s noblemen — hurried to Cana so as to ask Jesus to come to Capernaum and heal his son, who was close to death. “Then Jesus said to him, ‘Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will by no means believe.’” The Lord regarded faith that was founded on the witnessing of miracles was lesser than that, based on the comprehension of His pure and exalted Divine teachings. Faith, born from seeing miracles, demands more and more new miracles in order to sustain itself, because the previous ones become mundane and cease to amaze. Coupled with this, a person accepting the teachings that accompany such miracles may fall into error as the miracle may be illusory — from the devil. That’s why the Word of God warns us to be wary of all miracles (Deut. 13:1-5). And the Lord speaks with some sorrow about the Galilee inhabitant’s indiscriminate attitude toward this. However, to this rebuke, the nobleman displays persistence, which shows the magnitude of his faith: “Sir, come down before my child dies!” And the Lord heals the nobleman’s son. Furthermore, He does it in absentia, saying: “Go your way; your son lives.” At that precise time, the fever left the boy. Startled by the dying youth’s instant recovery, the nobleman’s servants hurried to their master with their joyous news. The father, believing the Lord’s words but thinking the healing will take place slowly, inquired: at what hour did the youth recover. When he found out that it was at the precise hour when the Lord said that his son was cured, the nobleman: “himself believed, and his whole household,” ie. when he notified them of the miracle, his whole family and servants believed in the Lord. Perhaps, it was the same Chuza, whose wife, Joanna, later followed Christ and served Him.
This was the second miracle, which “Jesus did when He had come out of Judea into Galilee.”