John 4:46-48 (ESV)

So he came again to Cana in Galilee, where he had made the water wine. And at Capernaum there was an official whose son was ill. When this man heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee, he went to him and asked him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death. So Jesus said to him, “Unless you see signs and wonders you will not believe.”

This royal person walked about twenty miles to beseech a Jewish carpenter to heal his dying son. There were many other parents who did the same thing on behalf of a sick child. What parent would not…if they had seen or heard about Jesus’ miracles? As the father of four, I know I would. Whatever it took. Wherever I had to go. Then imagine how it would feel if you got to this “miracle man” and he said what Jesus said:

“Unless you see signs and wonders you will not believe.”

Jesus rebuked those who depended on signs and wonders before they would believe. It might seem that Jesus was harsh towards this man—who wanted his son healed—but He encountered many in Galilee who were interested only in His miracles. This is not new in John’s Gospel. We’ve seen it before. Do you remember John 2:23–25? Looking back on that passage, Pastor John Piper wrote:

They “believed,” John says, but this was not a kind of faith that Jesus accepted. It was simply an excitement with his miracles, not what they pointed to, namely, his beauty and glory as the Son of God, the Messiah, the Savior of the World—the things that the Samaritans saw, even though the emphasis there didn’t fall on miracles, but on his word.

The Samaritans believed in Jesus because of his words, rather than any miraculous signs. On the contrary, most Jews would only believe if he performed signs and wonders. There are countless millions in the world today who are the same. If so-and-so becomes a Christian…or if God heals my friend’s stage 4 cancer…or we see some pastor turn water into wine, verified by an objective scientific review. THEN I will believe in Jesus.

It is wonderful when people show interest in Christ, but the question has to be asked: Why are you interested? Are you looking for a genie in a bottle to give you what you want…or are you looking for the one who can save your soul? Jesus most certainly cared about the royal visitor’s son, but he also cared about the royal visitor’s soul. To heal one to the exclusion of the other would only be a temporary fix, rather than the loving intervention of the Savior who could save both the son and the father.