Day 8 – (March 14, 2019)
Read
John 4:46-54
46 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. 47 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. 48 Then Jesus said to him, “Unless you see signs and wonders you will not believe.” 49 The official said to him, “Sir, come down before my little boy dies.” 50 Jesus said to him, “Go; your son will live.” The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and started on his way. 51 As he was going down, his slaves met him and told him that his child was alive. 52 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.” 53 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. 54
Reflect
Jesus regularly challenged people with the unexpected. It happened when the father of a boy who was dangerously ill came to him for help. The father lived in Capernaum and was an officer in Herod the Tetrarch’s service. He had heard of Jesus’ previous miracle of turning water into wine in Cana, twenty miles away in the hills. Learning that Jesus was again in Cana, he went in person to see him. What Jesus said to him was startling: “Unless you see signs and wonders you will not believe.”
The official was not put off: “Sir, come down before my little boy dies.” Jesus responded with more unexpected words, “Go; your son will live.” What a test of the father’s faith! Apart from this, Jesus gave the man no assurance. Yet the father believed his word. Going home he learned that his son was completely healed at the hour Jesus had spoken –
Here was a second sign pointing to Jesus’ unique power, a power we only associate with God. John has been telling us that Jesus is God in the flesh, glory personified. As such he welcomes anyone whose faith in him is real, small though it may be.
Prayer
Almighty God, you wonderfully created us in your own image and have now more wonderfully rescued and restored us. Grant us, we pray, that as your Son our Lord Jesus Christ was made in our likeness, so may we share his divine nature; we ask this through Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and
Daily Reading Plan
Read John 4:27-54
