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Christian faith is regularly considered to be ‘a leap in the dark’. Let’s think about this. Daily we take countless steps of faith – faith that the food we eat and the water we drink won’t harm us; the traffic will stop when we step out at a marked crosswalk or zebra crossing and the flight we board will land safely at the destination for which we were ticketed. We step out in faith in accord with the evidence and experiences we have.
In his Pensées, the 17th C French mathematician and philosopher, Blaise Pascal wrote: ‘If I saw nothing there which revealed a Divinity, I would come to a negative conclusion; if I saw everywhere the signs of a Creator, I would remain peacefully in faith’.
John’s Gospel is sometimes called the book of the signs – evidences that point to the existence of a transcendent power. It’s as though John had been constantly asked questions about Jesus of Nazareth. In response he put together a collection of events that happened in the course of Jesus’ life, so that his readers could meet the real Jesus.
Come with me to the story of a father who asked Jesus for help for his dying son. The story catches our attention and touches our hearts as three aspects of faith unfold.
Jesus was in Cana in Galilee when he was met by an official from the household of King Herod. The man’s title indicates he held a position of high office: he might have been the equivalent of Herod’s chief of staff. He came to Jesus because he’d doubtless heard of his growing reputation and because his son at home was dying: “Come with me,” he pleads.
But Jesus’ response is curt, bordering on the dismissive: “Unless you see signs and wonders you will not believe” (4:48).
Why was Jesus so abrupt with this desperate father? It’s hardly a response we’d expect from someone with the power to act and who purportedly cares.
Now what we need to observe is that you in Jesus’ response is not in the singular; it’s plural. Jesus isn’t saying to this anxious father, ‘Unless you personally see signs and wonders you won’t believe.’ Rather, he’s making a general statement about everyone – including you and me today. He’s saying, ‘all of you are the kind of people who won’t believe me unless you see signs and wonders.’
It’s an extraordinary statement. Jesus’ first response to an anxious father seems so negative and off-putting. No-one writing fiction would have put these words into his mouth at such a moment.
What then did Jesus mean? He is NOT saying, I find you people in Judea and Galilee to be hard-headed rationalists: you will never believe who I am. NOR is he saying, I want you to understand that it’s a real challenge for me to come up with the kind of extraordinary miracle that will awaken your faith.
Furthermore, he is NOT saying that he wouldn’t provide any evidence at all as to who he is. In other words, he is NOT saying that he wants people to have a blind faith – to take a leap in the dark.
The clue to what he is saying is found in John’s comment: Now this was the second sign that Jesus did after coming from Judea to Galilee (verse 54).
This is most important. The miracle John records here is another sign that is intended to open people’s eyes – to awaken faith. Jesus is NOT reluctant to provide us with the evidence of his unique power and his compassion – evidence that points to a transcendent figure who walked among us.
Consider the official’s response: “Sir, come down before my son dies” (4:49).
Let’s think about this. As someone in a position of authority, he was well aware of what people are like. Faced now with the prospect of his son’s death, he unexpectedly turned to someone outside the recognized religious leadership.
The drama of this event is simply stated. Think how it might be written up today. There’d be a profile of the background of the man, a detailed description of every word spoken and the details of Jesus’ action. There’d be interviews with people who witnessed what happened, with the ubiquitous question, ‘How did you feel?’
But the story here almost seems flat and disappointing. There are no emotional details. What mattered was not what was felt, but what was done.
Put yourself for a moment in the shoes of that desperate father that day. What would have gone through your mind? Is Jesus mocking me, playing with me? And think of your response to Jesus now? Is your thought, ‘How can I trust Jesus, how can I follow him when I can’t see him?
Madeleine L’Engle, writer, and author of A Wrinkle in Time, once commented, ‘I will have nothing to do with a God who cares only occasionally. I need a God who is with us always, … in the deepest depths as well as the highest heights. It is when things go wrong, when good things do not happen, when our prayers seem to have been lost, that God is most present. We do not need the sheltering wings when things go smoothly. We are closest to God in the darkness, stumbling along blindly.’
Just imagine if Herod’s official had got home and his son’s condition had worsened. He would have been the laughing-stock of Cana. And so would have been Jesus. Even in the days before social media word would have spread and no one would have trusted him again.
So, what happened? Even before he reached home, one of the official’s servants came out to meet him with good news. We can picture the anxious mother would have been caring for her son. He may have been running a high temperature in the hot and dusty climate and she had been constantly fetching wet cloths to cool him. But then there was a moment when he awoke, renewed, no longer feverish. ‘When precisely did that happen?’ the official pressed his servant. We can imagine a tense moment as the official waited for a response. “Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him” he was told (4:52). The seventh hour is one o’clock in the afternoon – the very hour Jesus had spoken.
So he himself believed, John records, along with his whole household (4:53).
The man’s faith was real. He wanted to share it, to let everyone know – his wife and family, his household and his neighbors. Jesus could be trusted. Here was someone with extraordinary power, who could heal a dying child from a distance.
Jesus challenges superficial faith that only looks for signs and wonders. ‘Will you trust me at my word?’ he asks. When we begin to understand that divinity has walked amongst us we will want to share what we have come to believe with others so that they too may come to believe in him.
Prayer. Almighty God, we thank you for the gift of your holy word. May it be a lantern to our feet, a light to our paths, and strength to our lives. Take us and use us to love and serve all people in the power of the Holy Spirit and in the name of your Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
© John G. Mason
