Difficult Faith

John 4:43-54

According to commentator Lamar Williamson Jr. is his book Preaching the Gospel of John: Proclaiming the Living Word, our text from the fourth gospel today is a story in which a man’s life is transformed by his desperate search for a miracle. “Then (Jesus) 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’" (John 4:46-48).

For me the challenging part of the text comes in Jesus’ initial rebuff of the official. It is only when the man persists that Jesus heals the son (from a distance) and as a result plants the seeds of faith. But would Jesus really have allowed the son to die had the father not continued to beg? There is no way to tell. We only know what we read which is that Jesus did act and the boy did recover as a result. If nothing else, though, this passage should remind us that faith in Jesus Christ as the Son of God is to be taken very seriously. If we want signs and wonders for our own delight, if we seek a good luck charm that we can keep in a dresser drawer for special occasions, if we are only interested in Jesus on our terms (what can Jesus do for me?) then we will find that we have no faith at all. But if we are willing to trust Jesus as Lord of our lives all the time, to remain attuned to the message of the gospel even when it is not to our liking, to allow Jesus to work through us as vessels of grace for others, then Jesus is already calling us to respond.

As difficult as it is, the story about the royal official’s son is a reminder of the demands that faith places upon us, of the claims it makes on our time and talents. Faith, too, is difficult, but as a gift from God nothing is more important in our lives.

Prayer: Lord grant us the faith we need to live as your people all the days of your lives. In Jesus’ name. Amen.