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You come to Jesus. You beg him to personally come and heal your son who is dying. Jesus puts you off. Won’t go see him and heal him. Jesus makes a blunt statement that all you are interested in is miracles. Jesus challenges you.

Will you be put off? Will you slink away? Do you have faith?

This man did not slink away. He had faith and kept at Jesus. He begged. He pleaded. He knew Jesus could heal his son.

So, Jesus says to him:

“Go,” Jesus told him, “your son will live.” The man believed what Jesus said to him and departed. | Christian Standard Bible. (2020). (Jn 4:49–50). Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers

He went home. His son was healed. Just as he believed and just as Jesus said.

Jesus challenges us. Do we really believe?

This man began with crisis faith. He was about to lose his son and he had no other recourse but the Master Jesus the Messiah. Many people came to Jesus with their crises, and He did not turn them away. The nobleman’s crisis faith became confident faith: he believed the Word and had peace in his heart. He was even able to delay his trip home, knowing that the boy was out of danger.

His confident faith became confirmed faith. Indeed, the boy had been completely healed! And the healing took place at the very time when Jesus spoke the Word. It was this fact that made a believer out of the nobleman and his household. He believed that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of God; and he shared this faith with his family. He had contagious faith and shared his experience with others.

This is one of several miracles that Jesus performed “at a distance.” He healed the centurion’s servant from a distance, and He healed the daughter of the Canaanite woman in the same manner. These two were Gentiles and, spiritually speaking, were “at a distance” (Eph. 2:12–13). Perhaps this nobleman was also a Gentile. We do not know.