Jesus spends two days in Sychar, a Samaritan town where Jesus was welcomed and many came to faith by simply listening to Him. From there, He continues on to His destination of Galilee, back to the town of Cana, where He performed His first miracle. This is where we're introduced to Herod's official from Capernaum who has a son on his death bed.
In desperation he seeks out Jesus to come back to Capernaum with him to heal his son. We see that as Jesus arrives at Cana, He is not received with honor, yet the text tells us He is 'welcomed'. This would be the equivalent of a modern-day rock-star coming home. While all appearances are that everyone loves Him, the reality of the situation is that they are using Him for His popularity, His miracles, or some other selfish reason. We will see this later on as Jesus doesn't become what the people want, and they turn on Him. We also see from chapter 2 "Now when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, many believed in his name ewhen they saw the signs that he was doing. 24 But Jesus fon his part did not entrust himself to them, because ghe knew all people 25 and needed no one to bear witness about man, for ghe himself knew what was in man.
When we see the desperation of the official, Jesus has some harsh words for not just him, but for all those in Galilee. He uses the plural form of 'you' when saying "You will not believe unless signs and miracles are given." This is in sharp contrast to Samaria. Jesus, in His graciousness and mercy, tells the official that his son will live. The next day as the official arrives back home, he is told his son's fever had broke. When asked, they confirmed that his fever broke the same time that Jesus said that he would live. This miracle allowed the official to believe in Jesus as the savior and we read that his entire family came to faith as well.
This scripture allows us the opportunity to review how we approach our Savior. Do we come to Him with selfish reasons? or do we revere Him? Often we can fall into one of the two ditches, namely if we have reverence only, God is isn't One we can relate and approach easily. If we are too far in the other direction (Jesus is my home-boy), we make Christ just like us (which He is not). There needs to be a line drawn and followed. Question is: How do you approach Jesus?
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