John 4:48Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

Therefore Christ exposes the thought with which he had come and spoken such words. In this way He drew him still more toward faith, for before the miracle he was not greatly disposed toward faith.

For this reason Jesus rebukes him and touches his very conscience, showing that miracles are performed chiefly for the soul.

Here He heals the father also, who was sick in soul no less than the son. He teaches us to attend to Him not for the sake of His miracles, but for the sake of His teaching.

Miracles are not performed for the faithful, but for unbelieving and coarse men.

At that time this man, because of grief, did not attend closely to the Savior’s words, except perhaps those that concerned his son. Later, however, he had to appropriate what had been said and receive the greatest benefit from it.

And so it happened.

If he himself and his whole household believed because he was told that his son was well, and because he compared the hour of the report with the hour of the announcement, then when he asked, he did not yet believe.

The Samaritans did not await any sign. They believed His word alone. Yet His own fellow citizens were judged worthy to hear, "Unless you see signs and wonders, you will not believe."

And still, when such a miracle was done there, no one there believed except him and his household. After one word of His, many Samaritans believed. After His miracle, only that household believed, the household in which it was performed.

What then, brethren, does the Lord show us? Jewish Galilee was then the Lord's homeland, for He had grown up there. But now these events foretold something particular.

For miracles, prodigia, are not called so without reason, but because they foretell something. A miracle, prodigium, is so called as if it were a saying beforehand, porrodicium.

What is said beforehand is indicated beforehand and foretells some future thing. Since all those events foretold something, and since they all prophesied something, let us for the moment take Galilee as the homeland of our Lord Jesus Christ according to the flesh.

For He had no homeland on earth except according to the flesh which He took on earth. Let us therefore take the Lord's homeland to be the people of the Jews.

Behold, He has no honor in His own country. Consider the multitude of the Jews. Consider that this people is now scattered over the whole world and torn away from its roots.

Consider that they are branches broken off, cut away, scattered, and dried up. After these branches were cut off, the wild olive was counted worthy to be grafted in (cf. Rom 11:17).

Look at the multitude of the Jews. What do they say now? "He whom you worship, He whom you honor, was our brother." Let us answer them: A prophet has no honor in his own country.

In short, they saw the Lord Jesus walking upon the earth and working miracles. He gave sight to the blind, opened the ears of the deaf, loosened the mouths of the mute, and restored the limbs of the paralytic.

He walked upon the sea, commanded the winds and waves, and raised the dead. They saw Him perform such miracles, and only a few of them believed in Him.

I speak to the people of God: how many of us believe, and what miracles have we seen? What was wrought then foretold what is happening now.

The Jews then were, and now remain, like the Galileans. We are like the Samaritans. We heard the Gospel, assented to the Gospel, and through the Gospel believed in Christ. We saw no miracles and ask for none.

Thomas, although he was one of the twelve chosen and holy disciples, still belonged to the Israelites, that is, to the Lord's people. He wanted to place his fingers into the Savior's wounds.

The Lord reproved him just as He reproved that royal official. To the royal official He said, "Unless you see signs and wonders, you will not believe" (Jn 4:48). To Thomas He said, "Because you have seen, you have believed" (Jn 20:29).

He came to the Galileans after the Samaritans. They had believed His word, among them He had performed no miracles, and soon He left them in peace, strengthened in faith, for He remained with them by His divine presence.

So when the Lord said to Thomas, "Come, put out your hand, and do not be unbelieving, but believing" (Jn 20:27), and when Thomas touched the wounds, he cried out and said, "My Lord and my God!" (Jn 20:28).

Then He reproved him and said to him, "Because you have seen, you have believed" (Jn 20:29). Why did He say this to him, if not because a prophet has no honor in his own country (Jn 4:44)?

But since this Prophet has honor among foreigners, what follows? "Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed" (Jn 20:29).

We were foretold, and what the Lord praised beforehand He has counted worthy to fulfill in us. Those who crucified and touched Him saw Him, and yet few believed.

We have not seen Him and have not touched Him. We have heard and believed. Let this be accomplished in us. Let the blessedness promised by Him be fulfilled in us.

Let it be fulfilled here, because He preferred us to His own country, and in the age to come, because we have been grafted in place of the shoots that were cut off.

He showed that He intended to cut off the shoots and graft in this wild olive when He marveled at the faith of the centurion. The centurion said to Him, "I am not worthy that You should enter under my roof."

"But only say the word, and my servant will be healed. For I am a man under authority, having soldiers under me. I say to one, 'Go,' and he goes, and to another, 'Come,' and he comes."

"And to my servant, 'Do this,' and he does it." Turning, He said to those who followed Him, "Truly I say to you, I have not found such faith, no, not in Israel" (cf. Mt 8:8-10; Lk 7:6-9).

Why did He not find such faith in Israel? Because a prophet has no honor in his own country (Jn 4:44). Could the Lord not have said to this centurion what He said to that royal official: "Go; your son lives"?

See the difference. That royal official longed for the Lord to come to his house. This centurion said that he was unworthy for the Lord to come to his house.

To this man Jesus said, "I will come and heal him" (Mt 8:7). To the other He said, "Go; your son lives." To this one He promised to be present in person, while He healed the other's son by a word.

The first compelled Him to come. The second said that he was unworthy of His presence in his house. Here there is concession to pride; there, a gift to humility.

It is as if He said to that royal official: "Go; your son lives. Do not weary Me. Unless you see signs and wonders, you will not believe."

"You want Me to be present in your house, but I can command even by a word. You believe only through signs. The centurion, a foreigner, believed that I can accomplish by a word."

"He believed even before I acted. But you will not believe unless you see signs and wonders" (Jn 4:48).

Therefore, if this is so, let the proud branches be cut off, and let the humble wild olive be grafted in. Yet let the root be preserved, while the former are torn away and the latter received.

Where is the root preserved? In the patriarchs. For Christ's homeland is the people of Israel, since from them He came forth according to the flesh. But the root of this tree is Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the holy patriarchs.

And where are they? They are in rest with God, in great honor. Thus the poor man, received into Abraham's bosom, received consolation after bodily death.

It was seen how far away, in Abraham's bosom, he was from the proud rich man (cf. Lk 16:22-23).

Therefore let the root be preserved and counted worthy of praise. But the proud branches deserved to be cut off and to wither, while the humble wild olive was grafted in their place (Rom 11:17).

Hear how the natural branches, rami naturales, were cut off, and how the wild olive was grafted in. Learn this from the centurion himself, whom I have thought it necessary to mention in comparison with that royal official.

"Truly I say to you," He declared, "I have not found such faith, no, not in Israel. And I say to you that many will come from east and west" (Mt 8:10-11).

What vast spaces the wild olive has covered. This world was a bitter forest. Yet because of humility, because of the words, "I am not worthy that You should enter under my roof" (Mt 8:8), "many will come from east and west" (Mt 8:11).

Imagine that they come. What will happen to them? If they come, they will have been cut off from the forest. Where must they be grafted, so that they do not dry up?

"And they will recline," He says, "with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob" (Mt 8:11). At what banquet? Let no one suddenly think that You called them not to eternal life, but to abundant feasting.

"They will recline with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob." Where? "In the Kingdom of Heaven," He says. What then will happen to those who come from the root of Abraham?

What will happen to the branches in which the tree abounded? Surely only this: they will be cut off, so that others may be grafted in.

Show that they will be cut off. "But the sons of the kingdom will be cast into the outer darkness" (cf. Mt 8:11-12).

Let the Prophet therefore have honor among us, for He had no honor in His own country. He had no honor in His own country, in which He was born.

He had no honor in the country which He Himself begot. For there the Creator of all was born, born in the form of a servant (Phil 2:7).

The very city in which He was born, Zion itself, the people of the Jews itself, Jerusalem itself, He Himself begot. For with the Father He was the Word of God, since all things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made (cf. Jn 1:3).

Concerning that Man of whom we have heard today, "there is one mediator between God and men, the man Jesus Christ" (1 Tim 2:5). So also speaks the psalm of prophecy, where it says, "Mother Zion, a man shall say" (cf. Ps 87:5).

A certain man, the mediator between God and men, Himself man, calls Zion mother. Why does He call Zion mother? Because there He received flesh.

From there came the Virgin Mary, from whose womb He appeared in the form of a servant (Phil 2:7). In that form He deigned to show Himself most humble.

"Mother Zion," says the man. The man who says, "Mother Zion," was born in her. "A man was born in her" (cf. Ps 87:5).

For God was before Zion, but man was born in her. That man who was born in her Himself established her as the Most High (cf. Ps 87:5), not as the most humble.

Man was born in her as the most humble, for "the Word became flesh and dwelt among us" (Jn 1:14).

He Himself established her as the Most High, because "in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God". "All things were made through Him" (cf. Jn 1:1, 3).

Since He created this country, let Him have honor here. The country in which He was born rejected Him. Let the country which He begot anew receive Him.

Signs and miracles differ from one another in that the former are performed as if directly by God Himself and most often come from Heaven. Sometimes they occur because of prayer and with the participation of a prophet.

Miracles, however, are performed by men themselves, though, of course, by the power of God.

Chiefly, signs and miracles differ according to their purpose and function in relation to men.

Signs serve to assure men of the truth and of God’s fulfillment of human prayers and expectations. Miracles have the immediate purpose of helping suffering or needy humanity.

Thus the rod of Moses changed into a serpent, Aaron’s rod that blossomed, Gideon’s fleece, Samuel’s thunder during harvest, the fire that came down from Heaven upon Elijah’s sacrifice, the return of the sun’s shadow under Hezekiah, the star of the Magi, and the like were heavenly signs.

They assured men of what had been said by the prophet or to the prophet.

But the parting of the sea and of the Jordan for the Jews’ passage, the manna that fed them forty years in the wilderness, the feeding of the five thousand with five loaves, the healing of the sick and the possessed, the raising of the dead, and the like were miracles in the proper sense.

They served for the good of those who suffered and were in need.

Yet some miracles, while serving for some as means by which the mercy or wrath of God is manifested, serve for others as signs, means of instruction.

Thus Jesus Christ calls the miracle of Jonah a sign for His contemporaries (Mt 16:1). The Apostle Peter considers the extraordinary destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah a sign, or image, of the punishment awaiting all the ungodly (2 Pet 2:6; Jude 7).

According to the order of presentation in the evangelist John, after the conversation of Jesus Christ with the Samaritan woman comes the account of His arrival at Cana of Galilee and the healing of the son of the royal official of Capernaum.

According to the synoptic accounts, however, there is mention of the preaching in the synagogue of Nazareth, which the evangelist John does not mention.

But the saying of Jesus Christ that John cites in this place, that a prophet is without honor only in his own country, is cited by the other evangelists in the account of His visit to Nazareth.

This shows that these events belong to the same period of time.

Their order is easily determined by the fact that the healing from afar of the sick man in Capernaum is called by John the second miracle in Galilee. The first took place in the same Cana.

In the account of the preaching in Nazareth, it is said that the inhabitants of Nazareth asked Jesus to perform among them such miracles as He had performed in Capernaum.

They plainly had in mind the recent healing there of the royal official’s son.

The rebuke undoubtedly also referred to the royal official. The Lord saw concerning him that, although he would believe and already did believe, he believed only on the condition that a miracle be performed.

Without the miracle, his faith would weaken and perhaps run dry.

The Lord always preferred faith in His word to faith in His miracles. Yet He did not reject this latter faith, and under certain circumstances even required it (Jn 10:38; Jn 14:11 and elsewhere).

But such faith had less significance in His eyes than faith in His word.

A third group occupied the middle place between these two classes. They were compelled by afflictions to ask miraculous help from Jesus, and until then had thought little about eternity. They needed instruction.

Once instructed, however, they became sincere venerators of Jesus. The courtier belonged to this class.

He certainly would not have come to Jesus if he had no faith at all. But to his first request Jesus answered with instruction, exposing his insufficient attention to eternal needs.

The courtier, touched by the word of truth, repeats his request for help, but still in a form that is not entirely correct. He still thinks that Jesus will heal his son only if He sees the sick boy.

“Go; your son lives,” Jesus says to him. And it turned out that the one who had been at the point of death became well at the very hour when Jesus said, “Go; your son lives.”

The result that followed was this: the courtier “himself believed,” “and his whole house.”

“Christ, who saw the heart, knew well when He said: unless you see a sign, you will not believe,” says Zigabenus.

Is this story the same as the one related by St. Matthew (Mt 8:5) and Luke (Lk 7:1)? Irenaeus and some others thought that here and there it is the same event.

St. Chrysostom and Euthymius Zigabenus held another opinion. For many reasons we must accept that the evangelists describe two different events.

In St. John the sick person is the petitioner’s son; in Matthew and Luke, he is a servant. Here the petitioner is Herod’s courtier; there, the centurion of Capernaum.

Here the father comes to Jesus and twice asks for help. There the centurion asks first through the elders of the city, then through friends.

Here Jesus comes from Samaria to Cana, where the courtier’s request is fulfilled. There He comes from the mountain to Capernaum, where the centurion’s request is satisfied.

The persons, the courtier and the centurion, are altogether unlike one another in their dispositions of soul.

The type of the believer was expressed in the Apostle Peter’s words. He did not say that they, the disciples, believed because they had seen miracles. He cried out, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life” (Jn 6:68).

These words of eternal life drew the hearts of God’s chosen children to the Lord.

To those who had been satisfied by the miraculous multiplication of the loaves, the Lord said, “You seek Me... because you ate of the loaves and were filled. Labor not for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you; for Him God the Father has sealed” (Jn 6:26-27).

“The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life” (Jn 6:63).

Apparently the royal official had not yet been touched by the “words of grace” (Lk 4:22) proceeding from the Lord’s mouth. Like all Jews, he “sought to see signs and wonders.”

Perhaps he would never have come to the Lord if his son’s illness had not forced him to seek help from Him.

He probably came to the Lord when he had exhausted every human means of salvation and had lost all hope for his son’s recovery.

Yet the Lord received him, and the glimmer of the father’s faith saved his sick son from death.

Therefore, marveling and worshiping the mercy of God, let us draw the lesson constantly repeated throughout the Gospels: “Do not fear, only believe.” “Your faith has saved you” (Mk 5:36; Lk 8; Mt 9:22; Mk 5:34; 10:52; Lk 8:48; 17:19).