A Royal Official with a dying son

[B-A-C]

John 4:46-54;

John 4:46 Therefore He came again to Cana of Galilee where He had made the water wine. And there was a royal official whose son was sick at Capernaum.
John 4:47 When he heard that Jesus had come out of Judea into Galilee, he went to Him and was imploring Him to come down and heal his son; for he was at the point of death.
John 4:48 So Jesus said to him, "Unless you people see signs and wonders, you simply will not believe."
John 4:49 The royal official *said to Him, "Sir, come down before my child dies."
John 4:50 Jesus *said to him, "Go; your son lives." The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and started off.
John 4:51 As he was now going down, his slaves met him, saying that his son was living.
John 4:52 So he inquired of them the hour when he began to get better. Then they said to him, "Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him."
John 4:53 So the father knew that it was at that hour in which Jesus said to him, "Your son lives"; and he himself believed and his whole household.
John 4:54 This is again a second sign that Jesus performed when He had come out of Judea into Galilee.

I've read this story several times before, and I've always just viewed it as another healing that Jesus did. The more I read about the miracles that Jesus did
I see something unique in each of them. So we see this royal official, his son is dying and he comes imploring (begging) Jesus to come heal his son because
he is about to die. Jesus has an interesting reply to this. "Unless you people see signs and wonders, you simply will not believe."
The official obviously believed something about Jesus. Why else would he come ask him to heal his son? So what did Jesus mean about not believing?
Well it could be that in the officials mind, death was the end. Game over. But he didn't realize Jesus can raise people from the dead. In a way, that's
what happens here if you watch closely. Jesus then says 4 words to the official. "Go; your son lives." again, it says the man believed. Believed what?
That his son was healed of course. I love this story, because it shows Jesus didn't have to go to Capernaum to heal his son. Distance is no obstacle to
the power of Jesus. (We see this in other verses also (Matt 8:10) But even though the man believed Jesus when he said his son was healed, he still
wasn't a believer. Amazingly we see this even today. People believe in Jesus up to a point, they even believe he has power to do miracles. Anyway, on
with the story, so the official heads back home (probably about an 8 hour walk from Galilee to Capernaum) and his servants (some translations say slaves)
meet him along the way. They tell him is son is better now, and so he asks them what time he began to get better. When they give him the answer he
realized this was exactly at the time Jesus said "your son lives". Finally we see yet again, this phrase "he himself believed". Now, finally the official
gets it. He didn't just believe that Jesus had the power to do miracles, he believed in who Jesus was!!!!

I said earlier that Jesus raised someone from the dead here. But it wasn't the official's son, it was the official. The story wasn't really about Jesus
healing the man's son. It was about the official becoming a believer. Still, I wonder, if the son would have never gotten deathly ill, would the official
ever believed in Jesus? Could it be God uses circumstances to bring people to him?

Is Jesus just someone who can do something for you. Or is he the Lord of Lords, the King of Kings and someone you can follow?