God of miracles, Sometimes we are slow to believe in your power, even when your miracles occur all around us each day. Open our eyes to see and our hearts to believe. Amen
Then he came again to
Cana in Galilee where he had changed the water into wine. Now there was a royal
official whose son lay ill in Capernaum. When he heard that Jesus had come from
Judea to Galilee, he went and begged him to come down and heal his son, for he
was at the point of death. Then Jesus said to him, “Unless you see signs and wonders
you will not believe.” The official said to him, “Sir, come down before my
little boy dies.” Jesus said to him, “Go; your son will live.” The man believed
the word that Jesus spoke to him and started on his way. As he was going down,
his slaves met him and told him that his child was alive. So he asked them the
hour when he began to recover, and they said to him, “Yesterday at one in the
afternoon the fever left him.” The father realized that this was the hour when
Jesus had said to him, “Your son will live.” So he himself believed, along with
his whole household. Now this was the second sign that Jesus did after coming
from Judea to Galilee.
In John’s Gospel, a “sign” is something that is not simply miraculous but that
reveals Jesus’ divine nature and mission to those who are open to seeing it.
They are, in this sense, pointers to Jesus’ identity. Moreover, and as John
indicates from the first verses of his gospel, Jesus himself functions as
something of a sign. He is the Revealer, the Word who was with God from the
beginning and is God (1:1-2), the Word made flesh (1:14) who makes the
invisible God known (John 1:18).
Throughout his Gospel, John
shares seven signs that Jesus performs, each revealing something significant
about Jesus’ identity and mission.
Early in the story, Jesus turns
water into wine — and not just wine, but the best wine in vast quantities —
revealing the profound abundance of God in Jesus, what is earlier described as
“grace upon grace” (1:16). In this scene, Jesus heals the son of a “royal
official,” revealing his opposition to those things that keep abundant life
from the children of God and his ability to restore health and life.
The first time he is in Cana,
where he produces the abundant wine for a wedding, Jesus is reluctant to offer
a sign, and all but rebukes his mother, saying that this is not yet his “hour.”
And now in Cana for the second time, Jesus at first ignores the official’s plea
for the health of his son and instead seems to chastise the man for his need of
signs.
So what’s going on? Why this
peculiar, even confusing stance on signs?
Keep in mind that the issue isn’t
the miraculous but signs, signs that point to God’s presence in our lives. And,
truth be told, we still often look for signs. Signs of whether or not to take a
job, to enter into a relationship, to decide upon one college over another, to
continue treatment or give in to the inevitability of a diagnosis, to keep
faith with another or betray that relationship. At one point or another, we all
look for signs, something that will help us to find the way, or at least the
next step, forward.
God sent the chief sign of God’s
love for God’s wayward world in the figure of a broken but triumphant man on
the cross. So when we encounter events and persons in our life and wonder what
they mean or hope to find from them guidance, we might ask the following:
Do they point us to God’s love,
to the people that God loves, to the broken places in life that call out for
love, and to the broken places in life in which God’s love for us and ours for
each other is most clearly expressed?
Because in the scene today and
throughout John’s Gospel, it would seem that at those moments when are drawn to
love others as Jesus loved us, then — and perhaps only then — are we really “reading
the signs” aright.
How do we respond when God
speaks?
What is our response when God
shows us where He is at work? Do we argue with Him? Do we drag our feet? Do we
make excuses and use diversion tactics like the woman at the well?
The royal officer saw himself as
a man under command like a military officer. His attitude was not, "No one
is going to tell me what to do?" He had an attitude of submission. He was
a man under command.
The man said, "Come";
Jesus said, "Go." Without any hesitation the man went home. He obeyed
the command of Jesus.
Do we really believe that the God
who leads us where He is at work will also provide the resources to bring it to
pass? When God calls a person He also provides. Often He provides even before
we have time to ask. He leads us to seize an open door and the timing of His
provision is always perfect.
When God tells us what He wants
to do through us, we will face a time of spiritual testing. Can I trust God to
do what He has said He will do? Do I believe that He will accomplish what He
has chosen to do? What is my response when Jesus says, “Come”? Do I follow all
the way with Him?
The healing of the official’s son
shows that God is generous with his grace. What is your response to Jesus’
offering mercy to someone not like us?
Sources
New Revised Standard Version Bible,
copyright © 1989 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United
States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
http://nrsvbibles.org
http://www.abideinchrist.com/messages/jn4v50.html
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