John 4:43-54 A miracle in Galilee

John 4:43-45 Jesus' return to Galilee is marked by a bit of confusion. John notes that Jesus Himself said that a prophet has honor, except in his own country. But the Galileans had seen Jesus' works at the feast (John 2:23) and received Him. This implies that perhaps they acknowledged His works and honored Him as a prophet or a miracle worker.

John 4:46-54 Jesus performs His second miracle in Galilee. He went to Cana where He had already performed one miracle. But the officer of the king was in Capernaum, which was approximately 30 km from Cana, both obviously in Galilee, so he went to find Jesus. Jesus healed the child remotely, in response to the request of faith. Jesus' response seemed almost ambivalent about whether He cared about the child, or thought that the only reason the nobleman asked was because he wanted to see a miracle. The nobleman persisted in his request and Jesus granted it. This was similar to other instances in which people had to persevere in their efforts to get Jesus to help them. (Matthew 15:21-28; Mark 5:25-34 , Luke 8:43-48).

          Is there a pattern here? It could be possible that Jesus tests whether people approach Him in petition out of faith, or simply out of a desire for either having a need met or wanting to see a miracle. In John 6:26, we see that Jesus told the crowd that they were seeking Him because they ate the (supernaturally provided) loaves and fishes and were satisfied. In the incidents cited in the previous paragraph, it seems that Jesus either allowed or even created tests to see if people wanted His presence enough to continue despite difficulty.