DON’T BE SIGN-DEPENDENT
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Opening Prayer
Holy Spirit, speak to me today as I read Scripture. Show me new things about Jesus, deepen my faith in him, teach me how I can follow him more faithfully.
Read JOHN 4:43–54
For additional translations of the passage, use this link to Bible Gateway.
Jesus Heals an Official’s Son
43 After the two days he left for Galilee. 44 (Now Jesus himself had pointed out that a prophet has no honor in his own country.) 45 When he arrived in Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him. They had seen all that he had done in Jerusalem at the Passover Festival, for they also had been there.
46 Once more he visited Cana in Galilee, where he had turned the water into wine. And there was a certain royal official whose son lay sick at Capernaum. 47 When this man heard that Jesus had arrived in Galilee from Judea, he went to him and begged him to come and heal his son, who was close to death.
48 “Unless you people see signs and wonders,” Jesus told him, “you will never believe.”
49 The royal official said, “Sir, come down before my child dies.”
50 “Go,” Jesus replied, “your son will live.”
The man took Jesus at his word and departed. 51 While he was still on the way, his servants met him with the news that his boy was living. 52 When he inquired as to the time when his son got better, they said to him, “Yesterday, at one in the afternoon, the fever left him.”
53 Then the father realized that this was the exact time at which Jesus had said to him, “Your son will live.” So he and his whole household believed.
54 This was the second sign Jesus performed after coming from Judea to Galilee.
New International Version (NIV)Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Reflect
Think about an occasion when you became deeply conscious of God’s presence in your life. How did you respond? Talk to God now about this experience.
Following a fruitful stay in Samaria, Jesus was back in home territory. Although ‘the Galileans welcomed him’ (v. 45), it was not the kind of reception the Samaritans had given Jesus. The Samaritans had believed in Jesus ‘because of his words’ (v. 41), without the benefit of miracles; but the Galileans, having seen the signs Jesus performed in Jerusalem at the Passover Festival (v. 45), were clearly hoping for more of the same. They sought more miracles, not a relationship with the Messiah.
Signs were significant in Jesus’ ministry. In this gospel’s purpose statement, John explains that he recorded these signs so that ‘you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah … that by believing you may have life in his name.’1 Although many in Jerusalem had seen his signs and believed in his name, ‘Jesus would not entrust himself to them, for he knew all people.’2 He knew that their professions of faith were shallow, not progressing beyond the sign to the One to whom the sign pointed. Similarly, Jesus criticized the Galileans because they required a steady diet of signs and wonders to sustain their belief (v. 48).
The royal official also sought a sign. What drove him to Jesus was not faith but despair over his dying son (vv. 46, 47). Yet, when Jesus declined to accompany him and simply instructed him to go home, assuring him that his son would live, ‘The man took Jesus at his word’ and obeyed (v. 50). When the sign materialized—and his son was healed—he was able to ‘realize’ the wonder of what Jesus had done (vv. 52, 53). For the Galilean crowds, signs were endpoints; but for the official, the sign was a starting point, a springboard to a deeper faith, one that he, like the Samaritan woman, also shared with those around him (v. 53).
Apply
What is your main emphasis when you talk with others about Jesus? Who he is? What he said? What he did?
Closing prayer
Savior, help me to keep on seeking you with all my heart, understanding that you yourself are the most precious sign of all. Use me to point others to you.
1 John 20:31 2 John 2:23, 24
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