The Lord, having left Samaria, comes to Galilee. Then, lest someone begin to investigate and wonder why He did not always remain in Galilee, but came to it at intervals, even though He apparently came from Galilee, he says: "The reason He did not live in Galilee was that the Galileans showed Him no honor."
Jn. 4:44. For Jesus Himself testified that a prophet has no honor in his own country.
Jesus Himself testified that a prophet has no honor in his own country. For we people ordinarily despise what has become commonplace, while we always pay attention to what is strange and unusual. What then? Do we not see many who are honored among their own? Yes, but this is very rare. And if some are honored even in their own country, in a foreign land they will be esteemed far more, so that the honor shown in one's homeland, when compared with the honor in a foreign land, will seem like dishonor. For envy does not allow fellow countrymen to render due glory, but they render it diminished, considering it a shame to themselves to glorify one of their own tribe.
Jn. 4:45. When He came into Galilee, the Galileans received Him, having seen all that He had done in Jerusalem at the feast — for they also had gone to the feast.
When the Lord came to Galilee, the Galileans believed, having seen the signs which He had done in Jerusalem. But the Samaritans are worthy of greater commendation, because they believed without signs, by the word of the woman.
Look: those considered rejected are everywhere distinguished by faith; I mean the Samaritans and the Galileans. For these latter too were despised as living in a rustic manner, which is why they said that no prophet comes from Galilee (John 7:52). But those considered chosen, such as the Jerusalem Jews, are rejected. Truly, we Gentiles too have been rightly received. For in His own homeland, understood in another sense as the Jewish synagogue, the "Prophet" Christ had no honor, as Moses calls Him: the Lord our God will raise up a prophet (Deut. 18:15).
Jn. 4:46. So Jesus came again into Cana of Galilee, where He had made the water into wine. And there was a certain nobleman in Capernaum, whose son was sick.
The Evangelist reminds us of the miracle at Cana, where water was turned into wine, first of all, in order to more clearly set forth the merit of the Samaritans. "The Galileans," he says, "received the Lord on account of the signs performed in Jerusalem and among them, but the Samaritans — on the sole testimony of a woman and on the teaching of the Lord Himself."
Secondly, in order to show us that from the miracle at Cana the royal official also received a certain good, though not entirely worthy, understanding of Christ. He calls him "royal" either because he was of royal lineage, or because he held some dignity of authority bearing that title. Someone might say: "Is this royal official not one and the same as the centurion mentioned in the Gospel of Matthew (Matt. 8:5–15)? For he too was in Capernaum."
I think that it is not the same person, but another. That one, when Christ wants to come, holds Him back, saying: "I am not worthy that You should come under my roof" (Matt. 8:8). But this one earnestly calls Jesus to his house. That one had a servant suffering from paralysis, that is, a slave, while this one had a son — with a fever. There the Lord came to Capernaum after descending from the mountain, but now He comes from Samaria, and not to Capernaum, but to Cana. In every respect that one is a centurion, and this one is a nobleman by rank.
Jn. 4:47. When he heard that Jesus had come from Judea into Galilee, he went to Him and asked Him to come and heal his son, who was at the point of death.
The courtier asks the Lord to come and heal his son, but the Lord rebukes him for believing not fully, but only in part. For the words "come down before my child dies" (John 4:49) reveal that his faith is weak. He does not believe that even in the event of his son's death, the Lord is powerful enough to raise him.
Jn. 4:48. Jesus said to him: you will not believe unless you see signs and wonders.
Therefore, reproaching him, He says: "you will not believe unless you see signs and wonders," condemning along with him the other inhabitants of Capernaum as well. For they are everywhere presented as guilty of great unbelief.
Jn. 4:49. The royal official says to Him: Lord! Come before my son dies.
Jn. 4:50. Jesus says to him: Go, your son is well. He believed the word that Jesus said to him, and went.
Since the nobleman was unsteady in his thoughts and insisted that the Lord come to heal his son, the Savior shows him that He can heal him even from a distance, and says: "Go, your son lives." Thus, in one stroke He healed the son of his fever and the father of his unbelief.
Know also that a miracle is one thing, and a sign is another. A miracle is that which is beyond nature, for example, to open the eyes of one born blind, to raise the dead; while a sign is that which is not outside of nature, for example, to heal the sick.
Such a miracle the Lord performs even now upon everyone who comes to Him. Every person is, as it were, a royal man, not only because he is akin in soul to the King of all, but also because he himself has received royal authority over everything. It often turns out that someone's mind, like the son of a courtier, suffers from the fire of inappropriate pleasures and from lusts. If he goes to Jesus and asks Him to come, that is, to show the condescension of His love for mankind and to forgive him his sins, before he dies completely from the disease of lusts (for if God does not condescend to us but looks upon our iniquities and judges according to them, then "who shall stand?" (Ps. 130:3))—so then, if he goes to Christ, he will, as it is said (Matt. 7:7–8), find what he seeks and obtain health for his mind.
However, notice that the Lord says to him: "Go, your son lives," that is, do not be immovable toward the good, but go and show unceasing movement toward the good. For in that case your son is alive. But if you cease your journey, then your mind will finally die, having received deadness from immovability toward the good.
Jn. 4:51. On the road his servants met him and said: your son is well.
The servants, astonished by the sudden change in the illness, meet their master and tell him about his son's health. For he was freed from the fever not gradually or as if by chance, but suddenly.
This matter was obviously not a consequence of nature, but an action of the power of Christ.
Jn. 4:52. He inquired of them the hour when he began to get better. They said to him: Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him.
Jn. 4:53. From this the father knew that it was the same hour in which Jesus said to him: your son is well, and he himself believed, and his whole house.