The Story

We are at Cana, a little town of Galilee, near to Nazareth. Cana: what does the name bring to your mind? We have learned of the Lord's going from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John; of His coming back again with some disciples and attending a marriage feast - yes, it was at Cana; of His going to Jerusalem and cleansing the temple and doing miracles, so that many believed on Him and the Pharisees were displeased. We learned then that He left Judea, and came back again to Galilee by the way of Samaria. You remember the journey when He rested at Jacob's well.

Many months had gone by, perhaps nine or ten. Many people from Galilee had been in Jerusalem at the Passover, and had heard and seen His miracles, and had come home to tell of His great power. So when He came to Cana it is not strange that people all about should hear of it, and that even an officer of King Herod's court living in Capernaum should know of it. The son of "the nobleman," was very sick with the fever, so sick they thought he was dying; but hearing that Jesus was come to Cana, the father started out to find Him and beg Him to come and heal his son.

But the Lord's miracles were done always to teach lessons of a deeper kind. He was not just a healer of men's bodies, but of their souls. The healing of the bodies was done to help people in their dullness to believe in His power to heal their souls - to strengthen a feeble faith. So the Lord said to this officer, "Except ye see signs and wonders, ye will not believe." And the officer begged Him to come down before his son died, not knowing that the Lord had power to raise the boy from the dead; not knowing that His power was with Him to heal him however far away He might seem to be. But it seems that the father was learning the lesson of faith in the Lord and His power, for when He said, "Go thy way; thy son liveth," he believed the Lord's word and hastened back to his home.

Think how eagerly he must have hurried home. But before he got there he saw some of his servants coming to meet him, and they said, "Thy son liveth." Then he enquired when it was that he began to get better, and he found that it was at the very same time that the Lord said, "Thy son liveth," that the fever left him, and he and his whole household believed on the Lord.

This is a lesson to each little child, as well as to King Herod's officer, a lesson to us now as well as in the time when the Lord lived upon the earth; that He is always near to help us in our troubles if only we will ask His help and will trust Him. We do not always know what is wise to ask for our bodies, so if we ask for things that will not be best for us the Lord does not give them; but He will help us to bear the disappointment bravely. We do know when we need the Lord's help to save us from bad thoughts and feelings, and to give good, kind thoughts and feelings. This is the healing of our souls, and this is the help that He, longs to give us, and it is really and truly much more important than anything we can ask for our bodies. If we ask for this kind of help from Him it will always come. It will come so sure and strong that we shall know that He is near us, loving us and caring for us. And we shall go even further; we shall learn to feel sure that if we cannot have everything that we want in this world it is because the Lord loves us too much to give us what will not be best for us.

1. "Thence," verse 43 from what place? "At the feast," verse 45: what feast? "Second miracle," verse 54: what first miracle is referred to?

2. Where was Cana? Who lived there? What are we told of the Lord's first visit to Cana? Of His second visit?

3. Where was Capernaum? For what do we chiefly remember the place?

4. In what other event of the Lord's life, and in what events of the Old Testament story, is the truth of the saying about a prophet in his own country shown? (Luke 4:24)

5. Do time and distance separate us from the Lord?

Spiritual Study

Much difficulty has been found in understanding verse 44 in connection with this going of the Lord from Judea into Galilee. Possibly, as some suppose, the saying refers to the fact that the Lord must first become known through His miracles done in Jerusalem, before He could find a welcome in Galilee. It is true that Galilee, and especially Nazareth, are called the Lord's country in the other Gospels. (Matthew 13:54, 57; Mark 6: 1, 4) But John's Gospel differs from the others in describing with much greater fullness the Lord's works and teachings in Judea and Jerusalem. It seems as if in this Gospel Judea and Jerusalem were regarded as the Lord's home, and Galilee was thought of as comparatively a strange country. The fact that John's Gospel dwells at such length upon the incidents in Judea, is significant when we remember that this Gospel especially expresses the deep things of the Divine love, and that Judea is the part of the Holy Land which has relation to interior states of love, while Samaria has relation to instruction, and Galilee to outward life. Commenting on the words in the first chapter, "He came unto His own, and His own received Him not," Swedenborg says: "By His own are meant those who were at that time of the church, where the Word was." (L. 18; E. 745) They were especially the priests and Pharisees at Jerusalem.

The practical lesson is plain: the danger of becoming careless and indifferent about holy things from very familiarity; of neglecting our religious duties and opportunities because they are made easy for us. Compare our opportunities and advantages with those which many others enjoy. We must not on that account become careless.

Read verses 46 and 54. This coming into Galilee is compared with the former coming into Galilee, when the Lord came from John's baptism at the Jordan. On both occasions He came to Cana. Each coming was also marked by a miracle; the first by making the water wine, the second by healing the nobleman's son. The healing in this second miracle was not, however, in Cana, but in Capernaum, at some distance, down by the Sea of Galilee. Comparing the two miracles, if the first represents the gift of sweet perceptions of the ways of good life, the second represents a further step of progress, the bringing down of the perceptions into the conduct of the world, giving it new life. (E. 447)

Compare this account of the healing of the nobleman's son, with the healing of the centurion's servant. (Matthew 8:5-13; Luke 7: 1-10) There are resemblances, but important differences, which seem to mark them clearly as two miracles.

What is the nature of faith which rests only on "signs and wonders"? In what way are the Lord's miracles helpful to a true faith? (P. 130, 133)

The healing of the nobleman's son, in a distant place, but at the same hour in which Jesus said, "Thy son liveth," brings home to us the fact of the immediateness of the Lord's presence with us all - His knowledge of our needs, and His power to help as soon as we are ready to be helped. (Isaiah 65:24) The hour of healing, suggests spiritually the quality and degree of the help received from the Lord. It was the seventh hour, the number associated with heavenly states, especially with states of peace after faithfulness in temptation when the Lord's comfort is received; it is always, in a sense, the seventh hour. (A. 716, 10360)

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