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Possibly there is an allusion here to this prophetic period, and the fact that in these
two signs, and in these only death and resurrection, or death and revival, are found, help
to confirm the thought that the link is intended.
Moreover, the two signs have a lesson to teach by their points of difference.
The nobleman's son was "at the point of death", and the prayer was, "Come down ere
my child die", whereas Lazarus had been dead four days before the miracle was wrought.
Like Paul in I Thess. 4:, John speaks of two companies of the redeemed:
(1)
Those who are living at the second coming, who will be changed.
(2)
Those who have died, who will be raised, as well as changed.
The two companies form the subject of the Lord's revelation in John 11::
"I am the resurrection and the life: he that believeth in Me, though he were dead, yet
shall he live, and whosoever liveth (Gk. `is alive') and believeth in Me shall never die"
(John 11: 25, 26).
Attempt has been made to identify this sign of the healing of the Nobleman's son,
with that of the healing of the Centurion's servant of Matt. 8: 5-13, but, as the
Companion Bible note reads,
"The two miracles differ as to time, place, person, pleading, plea, disease, the Lord's
answer, and the man's faith, as may be easily seen by comparing the two as to these
details."
Commenting upon the difference, Chrysostom says that "the weak faith of the
nobleman is strengthened, while the humility of the centurion is honoured".
When the returning nobleman was met by his servants, and heard their glad cry, "Thy
son liveth", his interest was quickened. He inquired of them the hour when he began to
amend, and upon learning that is was "Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him"
(John 4: 52), he was struck by the fact that it was at that self-same hour that the words of
Christ were uttered, and this most evident witness to the saving power of the Saviour's
word not only intensified the nobleman's faith, but led to the saving of his whole house.
Here therefore is the second sign which John selected out of many to lead to the
conviction that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of God, and so to the bestowal of life
through His name.