Samaria was the part of Israel between Judah (in the south) and Galilee (in the north). The people in Samaria worship the Lord God of Israel. But they worshipped him in a different way from how Israel’s people worshipped him. They believed only some of the Old Testament and they refused to worship at Jerusalem. As a result of these differences, Israel’s people were not friendly to the people from Samaria. ‘This mountain’ means a mountain in Samaria called Gerizim. That was where the people from Samaria worshipped God. Jesus heals the son of a royal official who is near death. The passage teaches about the importance of biblical faith, which is trust in Christ. Jesus challenges the people to believe without seeing miracles, but also graciously meets the official at his point of crisis. The official shows his faith by obeying Jesus’ command to go, and his son lives. Jesus Christ the Word of Truth Who is the only sure foundation.

It reads in John 4:43-54 Easy> After those two days in Samaria, Jesus left there and he went to Galilee. Jesus himself had said earlier, ‘When a prophet of God visits his own town, the people there will not accept him.’ When he arrived in Galilee, the people there were happy to see him. They had been in Jerusalem at the Passover festival too. They had seen all the things that Jesus had done there. Jesus visited Cana again. This was the town in Galilee where he had changed the water into wine. A certain man who was one of the king’s officers was there. This officer had a son who was at his home in Capernaum. His son was very ill. The officer had heard the news that Jesus had arrived in Galilee from Judea. So he went to Jesus and asked him to go to Capernaum. His son was dying. So he asked Jesus strongly to make his son well again. Jesus said to him, ‘You people want me to do great miracles that will surprise you. Unless you see these great miracles, none of you will ever believe my message.’ The king’s officer said to Jesus, ‘Sir, come with me now before my child dies.’ Jesus replied, ‘Go home. Your son will live.’ The man believed what Jesus had said. He started to go home. While he was on the way, his servants met him. They told him, ‘Your child is now well. He will live.’ He asked them, ‘At what time did he start to get well?’ They told him, ‘It was yesterday afternoon, at one o’clock. Then his body was no longer hot.’ Then the father remembered. He knew it was the time when Jesus had said to him, ‘Your son will live.’ So the man and all his family believed in Jesus. This was the second miracle that Jesus did after he returned from Judea to Galilee.