When it is said
Orthodox churches read the whole story (John 4:46-54) on the Monday 15 days after Easter.
The Russian Church’s 2025 prayer for gravely ill children recalls this father and the answer Jesus gave him.
Any parent may pray his words for a child who is ill, at home or beside a hospital bed.
Where it comes from
Author known
A son close to death
Jesus had come back to Cana in Galilee, the town where He had turned water into wine. A royal official had a son lying ill in Capernaum, close to death. When the official heard that Jesus was in Galilee again, he went to Him and begged Him to come down to Capernaum and heal his son.
John 4:46-47
“Your son will live”
Jesus answered the official, “Go. Your son will live.” The man took Him at His word and set off for home. On the way his servants met him with news that the boy was alive. He asked them when his son had begun to get better and learned that the fever had left him the day before, at the very hour Jesus had spoken. He and his whole household believed.
John 4:50-53
Not the centurion
In a sermon on John’s Gospel, St John Chrysostom noted that some took this father for the centurion of Capernaum, whose servant Jesus also healed with a word (Matthew 8:5-13). Chrysostom showed they were two different men. The centurion’s servant was paralysed, but this man’s son had a fever. The centurion asked Jesus not to come under his roof, while this father begged Him to come down.
John Chrysostom, Homily 35 on John (English translation of 1889)
The Scripture in it
“Sir,” the official said, “come down before my child dies.”
When he heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee, he went and begged Him to come down and heal his son, who was about to die.
Bible text: Berean Standard Bible, public domain.
In Greek
Κύριε, κατάβηθι πρὶν ἀποθανεῖν τὸ παιδίον μου.
From John’s Gospel in Greek (4:49), on Elpenor (ellopos.net).