Jesus said to him,
“Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will not believe.”
If this were a criticism we might expect Jesus to withhold the signs and wonders. He withholds from the Pharisees all signs but the sign of Jonah. But he does not do so here. This man needs this sign to believe. Jesus wants him to come to faith in him so he grants him the sign. Maybe he would rather that he not see but believe. But for Thomas as well he was willing to go to whatever lengths Thomas needed in order to reveal himself to him. For those of us who are weaker in faith, and let's be honest, that is most of us, Jesus guides as little by little. There is a gradient of increasing faith.
Jesus said to him, “You may go; your son will live.”
The man believed what Jesus said to him and left.
The royal official still isn't all the way there. Something about Jesus causes him to trust enough, even having not seen, to return to his son. Yet he still isn't fully convinced, can't be fully convinced, of the identity of Jesus as messiah until he sees the sign.
He asked them when he began to recover.
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,”
and he and his whole household came to believe.
Now this was the second sign Jesus did
when he came to Galilee from Judea.
Jesus does give the man the sign he needs. But he draws from him a little bit of faith without sight first. He is helping him to trust and obey first, to have faith first, and to see the results only after. The royal official comes to believe that Jesus can be trusted, that he has his best interest at heart. He comes to learn in this way that God is for him, not against him. He can act on God's word without seeing the whole contract or without holding collateral blessings to assure his compliance.
Jesus wants to convince us how much he loves us. He uses signs when we need signs. But the point is the same with or without them. We are called to faith in him. He wants to show us that he makes everything work together for our good.
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.
Jesus wants to continue to make this appeal to the world through us. We who already believe must be willing to keep trusting before we see. Jesus may choose to work mighty deeds through us for the sake of others. This will be more difficult if we insist on the conditions in which we believe him for those mighty deeds. Rather, we must trust and let him work. He may call us to speak his appeal even when there seems to be no fruit. We must trust, then, and speak.
Sing praise to the LORD, you his faithful ones,
and give thanks to his holy name.
For his anger lasts but a moment;
a lifetime, his good will.
At nightfall, weeping enters in,
but with the dawn, rejoicing.
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