Jesus and the Frantic Father

John 4:43-54

October 12, 1997

by Dave Wilkinson

At a conference several years ago, one of my friends told me about an incident that he said took place at his dinner table. The family sat to eat dinner together and his four-year-old daughter immediately started to eat. She was told to wait until after they had prayed. After the prayer she started to eat again until they noticed that she had not washed her hands after playing in the yard. They told her to get up from the table and go wash her hands.

As she got up from the table, she exclaimed: "Germs and Jesus! Germs and Jesus! That's all we talk about around here and you can't see either one of them!!!"

This morning we are going to talk about what it means to have faith in what we cannot see.

Verse 44 of our text is hard to understand -- that Jesus went to Galilee "because He testified that a prophet has no honor in His own country." Jesus comes to Galilee with the expectation of rejection. He had good reason. Luke tells us that the people of Jesus' own hometown, Nazareth had tried to kill Him

by throwing Him off a cliff.

But Jesus is not rejected in Galilee. Instead, He is greeted by crowds of curiosity seekers. He is received -- but for all the wrong reasons. He is not welcomed as one who brings the Word of God by people willing to obey His teaching. Rather, He is welcomed as a miracle man by people who hope to see some of the things they had only heard about. They give Jesus attention but it is not the honor that is due to Him.

Into the midst of this crowd scene steps a royal official from Capernaum -- a town on the northwest shore of the Sea of Galilee -- who comes to Cana with a request for Jesus. "Heal my son."

For a royal official, a member of Herod's own household to ask a favor from a Galilean carpenter is amazing. But this is a man with an urgent need. "Come and heal my son."

Jesus' answer seems harsh. It’s certainly not therapeutic. He says: "Unless you people see signs and wonders, you simply will not believe."

We can only understand Jesus' response if we see what's going on. The Galileans who had been in Jerusalem for the feast came back with reports about the sensation their hometown boy had created there The Galileans had never themselves seen much in Jesus but if the sophisticated capital was going to take Him seriously they would give Him another opportunity to impress them. Jesus finds Himself surrounded by a constant buzzing of excitement and empty enthusiasm. They gape at Him. They wanted to see the man everyone is talking about. They don’t want to be left out. They want to be on hand in case He does one of those strange things of which they had heard. Now this nobleman comes to Jesus with his request and the people crowd closer to be in on the action. I think Jesus has had enough superficiality. He says, "Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will not believe."

Jesus is not talking here to the seeking father. He is also talking to the curious crowd. The "you" in the text is plural. In the South it would be translated "ya'11." "Unless ya’ll see signs and wonders ya’ll won’t believe."

The nobleman does not protest his innocent intentions or stop to argue. Instead he pleads. And this time he changes the word from "son" to a more affectionate term. He says to Jesus: "Sir. come down before my little boy dies.,' Any father or mother who has had a seriously ill child can feel and share his pleading.

Jesus' heart goes out to the man at this plea. But He gives an unexpected answer: "Go your way. Your son lives." And, despite the Nobleman's earlier assumption that Jesus needed to be present to heal. John says that he believed the word that Jesus spoke and started off."

That’s the story. Now the lessons.

There are three important lessons for our Christian lives that we can glean from this encounter The first lesson is actually three sub-lessons about prayer. These lessons aren't all we need to know about prayer but they are what we can learn here.

The first sub-lesson on prayer is that we need to swallow our pride.

In the structure of !st Century Palestine there was no more improbable scene than an important court official hastening twenty miles to beg a favor from a village carpenter. But he didn't come at night and he didn't send his servants. He was in need and neither convention nor custom stopped him from bringing his need to Jesus. His action would cause a sensation but he didn't care what people said as long as he got the help he needed. If we want the help that Jesus Christ can give us we must first swallow our pride and admit that we need it.

Second, we must refuse to be discouraged. The nobleman brought to Jesus the only credentials he had -- .his faith and his need. When Jesus at first seems to not respond to his plea he doesn’t get angry or give up in despair. He demonstrates that his faith is real and this faith, and his little boy’s need, brings Jesus' response. They were the only credentials he had and they were all he needed.

Third, we must be willing to have our prayer answered in ways we haven’t anticipated. The Nobleman wasn't looking for something specific or something splashy. He had anticipated that Jesus would return to Capernaum with him but when Jesus said: "Go your way, your son lives," he goes away believing.

In 2 Kings 5 is the story of the healing of Naaman the Leper. Naaman was a commander of the army of Syria who came to the prophet Elisha bearing rich gifts and asking to be healed When Elisha told him to go and wash himself seven times in the Jordan River, Naaman became very angry. He had expected Elisha to call on the "name of the Lord his God, touch him and heal him." Instead Elisha told Naaman to wash in the muddy old Jordan when there were much better and cleaner rivers in Syria. But it wasn't until Naaman finally did it God's way that he was healed of his disease.

The Nobleman from Capernaum was not this way. He was willing for Jesus to heal his son in whatever way he chose.

The second lesson we find in this text for our lives after the lesson about prayer is an insight into the place of miracles. It is interesting that the only ones who know that the boy has been healed are the Nobleman, his family, and his servants. The idly curious people in the crowd never knew whether or not anything had happened. In the same way, when Jesus changed the water into wine in this same Village of Cana, the only ones who knew that something special had happened were the servants and the disciples. After Jesus was raised from the dead, the only people He appeared to, with the exception of the Apostle Paul were those who already believed.

When Nathaneal made his confession of faith back in John chapter one, "You are the Son of God and the King of Israel," Jesus expressed surprise that he believed without some exterior sign. But now we find that the craving for these exterior signs is rebuked by Jesus. Jesus doesn't want to win people to an admiration of His power. He wants to win them to Himself.

In the twentieth chapter of John's Gospel is the account of the interview between Jesus and Thomas in the Upper Room. This took place after the resurrection. Thomas had said: "Unless I shall see in his hands the imprint of the nails, and put my finger into the place of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe"

Jesus came to Thomas and said, "Reach here your finger, and see my hands; and reach here your hand, and put it into my side; and be not unbelieving but believing."

Thomas said to Jesus, "My Lord and My God"

Jesus said to him: "Because you have seen Me, have you believed? Blessed are they who did Not see, and yet believe."

That’s us -- here today.

Unlike the disciples, we already have the overwhelming demonstration of the truth of Jesus’ love in the crucifixion and the truth of Jesus' words in the resurrection. We do not need to see miracles as the proof of who Jesus is.

The third and final lesson we find for our Christian lives in this passage is a lesson about faith. There are three stages in the faith of this nobleman, and in our own coming to faith.

The first stage is to believe enough to ask. The Nobleman climbed up the road from Capernaum to Cana and made his plea in the middle of a dusty road. That was his mustard seed faith that Jesus was going to cause to grow.

After he asked, he believed. That is the second stage of our faith. The Nobleman had met Jesus face to face and he knew that when Jesus spoke, what He said must be true It is interesting that the Nobleman apparently takes his time getting home. He is met on the road the next day by his servants. He isn’t worried that when he arrives home he will find his son either still ill or even dead. He had seen something in Jesus that had convinced him of the truth of something he had not seen. He believed and the proof came later.

Verses 50-53 of our text read: "Jesus said to him 'Go your way; your son lives.' The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him, and he started off. And as he was now going down, his slaves met him saying that his son was living. So he inquired of them the hour when he began to get better. They said to him, 'Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him.' So the father knew that it was at that hour in which Jesus said to him, 'Your son lives'; and he himself believed, and his whole household."

Here we see the third and most crucial stage in the growth of faith. The man no longer believes in just the word that Jesus spoke He now believes in Jesus Himself. His faith is not now based on the signs that Jesus did or even on the beauty or power of His words. It is based on the character of Jesus Himself. It is a trust that the one who revealed His faithful love at this one crisis moment in the life of this family will continue to show that faithful love in all the moments of their lives.

That is where we need to be. We must follow through on the implications of the answer to prayer that we receive. This nobleman was not a man who got out of Christ what he wanted and then went away to forget. John says that he and all his household believed.

The nobleman and his family became Jesus' disciples. They knew that Jesus was not just a talented wonder worker. They saw that the hand of God had been present and their faith was transformed to a greater faith. We cannot know for sure but it is possible that this Nobleman was Chuza, the steward of King Herod who is mentioned in Luke 8:3. Joanna, the wife of Chuza (and possibly the mother of the child healed in this text) is listed as one of the women who gave financial support to Jesus' ministry.

This family was touched by Jesus. As a result, their lives were changed. They began to operate with new directions, new motivations, and with new trust. In short, they became disciples.

Well there we have it -- three sub lessons on prayer, one insight into the place of miracles, and three stages in the growth of faith. That’s quite a lot from nine verses.

But what does it all mean?

Not much if we keep it "out there" -- or "left here" at the church as we drive out of the parking lot.

It only means something when we take it "in here’ into our lives -- only when we allow the story of the Nobleman and Jesus to become the story of us and Jesus -- only when we see ourselves standing with our need in the road, only when we hear and believe His word for us, and, above all, only when we respond with our lives.

"Faith is response,

Response to God's matchless favor,

Acceptance of his gracious bounty.

We trust god because we have no other

Adequate way to express our thanks.

We trust God because we have nothing else to offer Him.

Our wealth?

God is not a speculator who lives off other people's funds.

The earth and its fulness belong to Him.

Our works?

God is not a contractor who depends on labor unions.

The world and its populations were made by him.

Our talents?

God is not a conductor whose musicians determine his success.

Skills are his gifts, returned tarnished to Him.

A tip?

God is not a waiter who has rendered us an extra service.

His commitment to us was total. He did not spare his own Son.

Faith is relationship.

Relationship to the Spirit who helps us trust,

Kinship to Christ whose love draws our trust,

We trust God because he himself has stripped away our masks of self-righteousness:

Because He has introduced us to Himself as Lord, Savior, Friend:

Because He has come to dwell within us, as counselor, helper, guide.

Unrelenting loyalty, unqualified love -- with these God has said "yes" to us.

By our faith we say "yes" to Him the same way."

Amen.