Forming Faith Blog

Healing Signs (John 4b & 5)

Posted on January 27 2026 by Gregory Rawn

John the Evangelist describes only seven miracles and calls them signs. The second and third in our reading are healing miracles. What do you think those signs mean?

A boy lying in bed, sick and in need of healing
Photo by cottonbro studio
Gospels as Literature

Each of the four Gospels is a work of literature written by a particular person for a particular audience for a particular reason. Each evangelist took preexisting stories about Jesus and fashioned them into their own narrative structure. The Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke) are pretty obvious that they took preexisting stories (especially Matthew and Luke, which used Mark for source material). 

The Gospel of John, as I have mentioned many times before, is off on its own. Outside some of the events of Jesus’ passion week (the triumphal entry to resurrection), there aren’t a whole lot of overlapping stories between John and the Synoptics. John the evangelist had his own way of doing things.

John’s Seven Signs

One of John’s unique literary features is to limit the number of described miracles to seven. He specifically names these miracles as “signs” to emphasize that they are intended to point to Jesus’ divinity. The seven signs are:

  1. Water into wine (John 2)
  2. Healing the official’s son (John 4)
  3. Healing a man on the Sabbath (John 5)
  4. Feeding the 5,000 (John 6)
  5. Walking on water (John 6)
  6. Healing a man born blind (John 9)
  7. Bringing Lazarus back to life (John 11)

I have also heard the theory that, just as Jesus was raised on the eighth day, these seven signs point to Jesus’ resurrection as the eighth and ultimate sign.

Types of Signs

These seven signs fall into two or three categories: healing miracles and physical (as in related to physical objects) miracles. You can decide whether the raising of Lazarus counts as a healing (from death) or something different.

  1. Healing (the official’s son, the man on the Sabbath, the man born blind (also on the Sabbath), the raising of Lazarus)
  2. Physical (water into wine, multiplication of bread and fish, walking on water)

Jesus’ resurrection combines the two. More than being “healed” from death, his physical body is transformed.

All of the miracles inspire faith (as well as miracles not described, like in John 2:23; 20:30-31, and likely more), though some also inspire animosity from the religious leaders (signs 3, 6, and 7). In fact, they are described as part of the reason for Jesus’ execution.

The Second Sign: Seeing, Hearing, Believing

Jesus’ second sign happened, or at least started, in the same village as the first: Cana of Galilee. A royal official of the cruel client-king Herod Antipas came to Jesus in desperation. His young son was sick to the point of death in the town of Capernaum, which was over 20 miles from Cana. I’m sure that the official was hoping that Jesus would accompany him back to Capernaum (and make it in enough time to save his son). But Jesus did something very unexpected.

Jesus first makes a comment that seems a bit callous in my first reading:

Then Jesus said to him, “Unless you [all] see signs and wonders you [all] will not believe.”

John 4:48

I imagine that the comment caught the official off guard. He didn’t want Jesus to prove who he was; he already believed (or at least hoped) that Jesus could heal his son. In fact, the man reacted to Jesus’ pronouncement of his son’s healing with faith, and that faith was confirmed when he heard that his son was healed. His faith came from hearing, not seeing.

The connection between seeing and believing reminds me of the “come and see” invitation in John 1, the response of the crowd after seeing his unnamed signs in John 2, and his response to Thomas in John 20.

The Third Sign: Obedience and Challenge

Jesus’ third sign is described in the optional reading (John 5:1-18). He has returned to Jerusalem for yet another festival, and he sees a man who has been ill for 38 years (I’ve always assumed that the man was paralyzed, as with similar stories in the other Gospels, but that’s not directly stated here). Jesus approached the man and asked him if he wanted to be healed. The man thought Jesus was referring to the superstition that led him to be lying near the pool at Beth-zatha (Bethesda), but basically says, “I’m lying here because I want to be healed.”

Just like in the previous healing miracle, Jesus spoke a command, the man obeyed, and he was healed. The man believed Jesus enough to attempt the impossible: for him to stand up, carry his mat (thus picking it up), and walk.

The man’s faithful obedience is contrasted with the response of the religious leaders. They saw the man and interpreted his action (carrying his mat) as “work,” and work was forbidden on the Sabbath. The man just responds, “But he told me to.” The leaders were so incensed by Jesus’ actions that they started persecuting him. Jesus made it even worse by claiming to be God’s son (and therefore somehow equal to God), which was blasphemy. The persecution now turned murderous.

Faith Formation Connection

While I find the literary structure of John’s seven signs fascinating and bearing insight, it’s not a useful topic for every faith formation participant (especially children). But if you have older youth and adults, you can explain that John calls the miracles “signs,” and ask them what they think these two signs are pointing to (or pointing out) related to Jesus.

Instead (or in addition), you can focus on the distance in the first miracle and the obedience to Jesus’ word in both miracles.

In God’s Messiah,

Gregory Rawn (Publisher)

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