7 March 2016 - focal point

Jesus said to him,
“Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will not believe.”

Make our hearts quicker to listen to you. Help us to believe at your word. Gives us ears to hear and hearts that believe. But when we cannot, you are willing to offer the signs we need.

The father realized that just at that time Jesus had said to him,
“Your son will live,”
and he and his whole household came to believe.
Now this was the second sign Jesus did
when he came to Galilee from Judea.

The father is so invested in his son that he cannot believe without a sign. He can't look in any direction except the sign he needs. Yet in your goodness Jesus, you stand before him. He hopes in you. He believes that you have power to do what he asks. But you shift the focus, LORD. He does not get to see the healing happen. Instead he is with you while you heal at a distance. Rather than the miracle it is you who are before his eyes.

They told him,
“The fever left him yesterday, about one in the afternoon.”
The father realized that just at that time Jesus had said to him,
“Your son will live,”

The sign that the father seeks is given. But it isn't seen or delivered as expected. Instead it is transformed. It is not just new health which will one day fail again. It is now belief in you.

and he and his whole household came to believe.

You change mourning into dancing, Jesus. But you are not content to let us settle for short lived rejoicing in temporal things. You raise our gaze and lift our eyes to the joy which endures. We don't even have to remember the former things. The healing of a doctor and of science still reminds us of the frailty of human flesh. It reminds us that nothing here below lasts. But with your healings our memory is no longer held captive by the things of the past.

Lo, I am about to create new heavens
and a new earth;
The things of the past shall not be remembered
or come to mind.
Instead, there shall always be rejoicing and happiness
in what I create;
For I create Jerusalem to be a joy
and its people to be a delight;
I will rejoice in Jerusalem
and exult in my people.

Because you are the center we have a hope beyond this age. The sound of weeping and crying need not dominate our lives any more.

Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil nd deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery (see Hebrews 2:14-15).

We still experience nightfall. We still experience weeping. But we look toward a dawn of rejoicing which never ends.

And we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts (see Second Peter 1:19).