Trinity Twenty-One Sunday

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Our Gospel Lesson today begins where the Gospel Lesson of the Third Sunday after Epiphany ended. On Epiphany III, we learned about JESUS’ first sign in Galilee. On that occasion, JESUS showed Himself to be the Vine who produces life for all that abide in Him. This occurred at the wedding in Cana of Galilee. At this feast, JESUS turned water into the best wine the host of the wedding had ever tasted. And though the meaning of this wedding-sign was not revealed for another thirteen chapters in Saint John’s Gospel, we learn in John 15 that JESUS is ‘the true Vine’ that gives life to His branches. And His branches, JESUS says, if they ‘will abide in Him,’ will bring forth much fruit – even the virtuous fruit of the Holy Spirit for the joy of the Father.  

Late in Saint John chapter 2, we get the story after the story, when JESUS left Cana of Galilee to attend the Feast of the Passover in Jerusalem. At that feast, John records: “Many believed in His Name, when they saw the miracles that He did” (2:23). After the Passover, JESUS returned to Galilee, leaving Judea, and passing north through Samaria. And to which city would the LORD then go? … He chose to go back to Cana of Galilee where he had made the water wine (v. 46); thither He went to see if there were any good fruits of that miracle remaining; and, if there were [faithful abiding branches in Cana], JESUS went to confirm the faith of those branches that believed upon Him there, to water what he had planted by that sign, [and to seek the fruit of faith from His disciples].”1  

Arriving in Cana, JESUS found the people amenable to Him, for Saint John tells us “the Galileans received Him, having seen all the things He did in Jerusalem at the Feast [of the Passover]; for they also had gone to the feast” (v. 45). We are not told what those ‘things’ were that JESUS did in Jerusalem, but it convinced the Galileans to receive JESUS, though, as we will soon find out, only as a ‘wonderworker,’ and not as the Christ, the Anointed One – the Messiah. — Yet, to provide a counterbalance to the shallow faith of these Galilean branches, another disciple enters the story, whose son was lying on his deathbed, sick with a mortal fever. This man, not having seen any of JESUS’ wonders, nor His miracles, yet because of the rumor of such things, came from Capernaum to Cana to seek out JESUS. This man, whom John labels a ‘royal official’ of Herod’s court, a ‘reguls’ or ruler, sought JESUS out because word had come to him that JESUS was able and willing to do wonders and signs. The man was desperate, but hopeful, because his son lie at the point of death.  

A dichotomy must first be observed if we are going to understand the importance of JESUS’ words and actions in this Gospel Lesson. Again, note, the people of Galilee, having seen and experienced the sign of the water turned to wine at the wedding in Cana, had yet to believe that JESUS was anything particularly special. Suspecting a ‘snake oil salesman,’ they sought JESUS out in Jerusalem, at the Passover, where they went to be convinced that He was more than a carpenter. — After witnessing His miracles, the people of Galilee were willing to receive JESUS into their region – their territory – as a prophet of GOD. Yet, their hearts, as we will soon see, were still hardened to His claim, which He appealed to through the prophet Isaiah. — These people were not desperate enough, and they were not hurting enough, to believe they needed a Savior – the Great Physician. Yet, one was among them who was hurting enough – who was desperate enough to lay down His pride of place and position and plead with JESUS to come medicate his son with Heaven’s mercies.  

The ruler approached JESUS and emphatically pleaded with Him: “Sir, come down before my child dies!” (v.49) — I imagine there was a very pregnant pause before JESUS replied to the man: “Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will by no means believe” (v.48). — The response was for the Galileans, not the ‘regulus’. These people, who had repelled JESUS from their region because of His claim to be the Anointed Messiah of GOD, were not completely healed of their unbelief. So deep was their incredulity and skepticism of Him that in another place, JESUS had said the following because of them: “Verily, I say unto you: No prophet is accepted in his own country” (Saint Luke 4:24). — Thus, to highlight the perseverance of their disbelief in His certain anointing of GOD and divine power over sin and sickness, Saint Gregory of Nyssa says, “He must again bring about the resurrection of one who was believed about to die. To accomplish this, He would need to perform a miracle with a greater act of power than could be humanly imagined, in that He could not even approach the home of the official but sent life from afar off by the force of His command.”2 And like the healing of the paralytic lowered through Peter’s roof, JESUS identifies the harder over the easier. Thus, He says to the ruler, “Go your way, your son lives.” (v.50)  

When setting up this scene in my mind, I prefer to read the interchange as follows: ‘Sir, come down before my child dies!’ — ‘Go your way, your son lives. For unless you people see signs and wonders, you will by no means believe.’ — Reading the exchange in this way, it provokes several questions: Did the ‘regulus’, the royal official of Herod’s court, have faith or no? And what kind of faith does the LORD require if not the faith of this father for GOD’s healing of his son? For it was obvious that the Galileans were still on the fence about JESUS, but the ruler sought the LORD purposefully, intently, and, we might say, hopefully for a working of GOD’s providence.  

First, did the man of Herod’s house possess true faith? Did he have the faith that JESUS was who He said He was, and that GOD was with Him to do the things He said that He was sent from the Father to do? — Again, JESUS clarifies what the Father sent Him to do in Isaiah 61. “The Spirit of the LORD GOD is upon Me, because the LORD has anointed Me to preach good tidings to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, and the day of vengeance of our GOD; To comfort all who mourn – to console those who mourn in Zion – to give them beauty for ashes; the oil of joy for mourning; the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness” (61:1-3). — We do not know what certain characters in Holy Scripture know about the ancient oracles of GOD, but it would appear, at first glance, that this royal official came to JESUS with the necessary faith to be comforted, and if willing, to have JESUS give him and his family ‘beauty for ashes’ – to heal his son and give them oil of joy instead of mourning.  

And upon second glance, even when the LORD speaks what seems to be a rebuke to the people, including the man, the official maintains his perseverance of faith in JESUS. — The Scriptures say: “And the man believed the word that JESUS had spoken to him, and he went his way” (Saint John 4:50b). And finding his son healed at the very hour that JESUS spoke His words to him, the Bible says again: “He believed and his whole house [with him]” (v. 52). The ‘regulus’ – the royal official – now a Christian, truly had the stuff of godly and biblical faith: hope, perseverance, and fortitude.  

At this point, I think it is valuable to refresh ourselves as to what biblical ‘faith’ is, and the royal official in today’s Gospel Lesson catechizes us unto the knowledge of that faith. First, the man hopes that JESUS is willing, because he knows JESUS is able. Second, in the face of resistance to his hope, the man perseveres and drifts not away from his original intentions of belief. And finally, the man reveals his fortitude of trust by outwardly obeying JESUS’ word, by returning to his home where he discovers the reality of all that he hoped for: even the healing of his son. — The Bible defines faith as “the substance of things hoped for; the evidence of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1). And the Bible continues, “without [this] faith, it is impossible to please GOD; for he that cometh to GOD must believe that He is, and that He is the rewarder of them that diligently seek Him” (Hebrews 11:6). Such faith the royal official did have!  

In an honest reading of John 4, we see that the faith of the royal official is also not without a tinge of humble, humanly doubt. For when the father returns home, his servants greet him with the news of his son’s healing, and he asks them at what hour his son began to amend; they told him, “‘Yesterday, at the seventh hour the fever left him.’ So, the father knew that it was the same hour, in which JESUS had said to him, ‘Thy son liveth,’ and then, he himself believed” (Saint John 4:52-53). — The difference between the ruler from Capernaum and the Galileans was that the ruler’s humanly doubts were in himself, while his faith was in JESUS; the Galileans’ humanly doubts were in JESUS, while their faith was in the signs and miracles He performed.  

The Galileans received JESUS, bade Him welcome, and cheerfully attended on His doctrine, for it suited the purposes of their needs, which were limited to signs and wonders only. Yet, for the royal official, his desire for JESUS and his hope in His doctrine were issues of life and death! People like the Galileans in today’s Gospel have needs that are only skin deep, and they are willing to receive and trust JESUS only as deeply as their attention spans will allow Him to go. The Galileans welcomed JESUS as they would an entertainer, hoping like Herod, that He would perform some miracle for them. (cf. Lk. 23:8) The regulus, he came up, putting his full hope of heart into action at a cost, travelling the fifteen-plus miles between Capernaum to Cana to bring back with him the only Person, he believed, that might save whole his son from the fever that pinned him to death’s door. — The only thing the regulus did not understand, which JESUS shows him, is that present or absent, JESUS need only say the word, and his soul and his son’s body would be saved. — Thus, JESUS said to the man: ‘Go thy way; thy son liveth.’  

The thing is always done better JESUS’ way. — Trusting that JESUS had the Spirit of GOD’s anointing indeed, the man exudes the stuff that faith is made of – he believes JESUS’ word and patiently makes the long trek back home, not knowing for sure what he will find when he arrives. — We can imagine the man’s internal thoughts and musings in the following way as he walked, not hurriedly, but temperately, patiently, and hopefully, all the way home: “‘If Christ JESUS can heal my soul, surely He will heal my son; if He can cure my unbelief, surely He will heal my son’s fever.’ As the word of GOD well-studied will help us to understand His providences, so the providences of GOD, well observed, will help us to understand His word.”3 And, thus, upon his arrival at home, his servants met him and pronounced to him, excitedly, that his son was healed, and healed at the very hour that JESUS made His pronouncement. (cf. v.54)  

From this scene, we learn that the power and efficacy of one word of Christ may be the happy means to introduce and settle the whole authority of Christ’s dominion as the Son of the Living GOD – the Ruler over the world and the human soul. JESUS has many ways of gaining the human heart, and by the grant of a temporal mercy, He makes a way for better things in the house of the royal official. — What a blessed change was there in the house of the regulus occasioned by the sickness of his son! This scene should reconcile us to our afflictions; we know not what good may follow from them, [when we put our whole faith in JESUS to rule over them].”4  

But what if no good follows the occasion of our afflictions? How would our view of this scene from Saint John 4 be altered, if the royal official had arrived home, and his son had not been healed, but had died at the very hour that JESUS had made his pronouncement? Would our faith in JESUS change? Would our belief in His dominion over the cosmos and cosmology of our souls be threatened with doubt and scrutiny? — Undoubtedly, our faith would be shaken, but would we no longer be able to stand?  

As I told our adult Catechesis Class earlier this morning, there was a family this week, deeply committed to GOD in Christ, who has supped with the LORD for two generations, at least. For the last ten months, they have been deep in prayer, hoping with great endurance and patient faithfulness for the LORD to come down with them and heal their son. — It was not to be. — That son died this past week after a very long battle with his ‘fever’. — They will mourn, and then they will ask ‘why?’.  

Saint Paul slaps us to proverbial sense in today’s Epistle Lesson from Ephesians 6, when he says: “Put on the whole armor of GOD, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” (vv.10-11) — A soldier who puts on armor that is offensive as well as defensive; that covers the vulnerable areas of his back side, as well as those of his front side, does not enter into his profession lightly. In other words, brothers and sisters, his commitment is not skin deep; it goes much deeper – he fights for life and death.  

We have all been frustrated and perhaps even disappointed in our walk with the LORD. Yet, as your spiritual father in Christ, I’d be remiss if I did not tell you (assuming you do not know), GOD is not a genie, and JESUS is not a puppet. — And yet the question remains, and the question, I feel, deserves an answer. — Through GOD in Christ, the answer for those who believe that JESUS is the One who He said He is, and that He has come to do the will of the Father, that answer is never ‘no’. If it is not ‘yes’ now or ‘yes’ later, it is ‘not yet’, or ‘not in this way’ — The lesson we are to draw from our proper readings today, dear people of Saint Mark’s, is that we must have persevering and courageous faith. Faith that stands and withstands the counterforce of all headwinds; the headwinds of circumstance, the headwinds of the devil’s wiles, and the headwinds of disappointment, when my will is not done on earth, as GOD’s will is done in Heaven.  

The regulus, the royal official of Saint John 4 has a profound lesson to teach us this Twenty-First Sunday in Trinity. We may have doubts in ourselves, but our immovable, unswerving, and ever-enduring faith must lie in JESUS Christ alone, no matter what we discover after a long journey home. For if we look to JESUS for ‘signs and wonders’ only, we will be greatly disappointed. — Today, in a particular experience of the power and efficacy of one word of Christ, we learn by happy means that the whole authority of Christ’s dominion as the Son of the Living GOD, over the world and the human soul, is granted through the temporal mercy of the healing of a man’s son. — Our challenge is to make ourselves immovable, to stand, and to withstand, if the same temporal mercy does not come our way, and all we hear from the LORD is, ‘Go’. — “The thing is always done better JESUS’ way, my friends. If He denies what we ask, JESUS gives what much more to our advantage is; we ask for ease – He gives us patience.”⁵ Thus, in every case, Christian, put on the full armor of GOD, for our battle is not against flesh and blood, and JESUS, the Anointed One of GOD, the One who died that we might live everlastingly, always makes a way for better things for those who have true faith like the regulus – always. — May it never be said of the good people of Saint Mark the Evangelist: ‘For unless you people see signs and wonders, you will by no means believe.’ Amen.  

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1 Whitacre, R.A., John, Vol. 4 (Downers Grove, InterVarsity Press 1999), 114. 

2 ChristianClassicEtherealLibrary.org. Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church. Gregory of Nyssa: Dogmatic Treatises, etc. T&T Clark: Edinburgh. Accessed 20 October 2026. https://ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf205/npnf205.x.ii.ii.xxvi.html?scrBook=John&scrCh=4&scrV=49#x.ii.ii.xxvi-p14.1  

3-5 BlueLetterBible.org. Henry, Matthew. “Commentary on Saint John 4.” Accessed 23 October 2026. https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/mhc/Jhn/Jhn_004.cfm?a=1001045.