Jesus said to him,
“Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will not believe.”
It might not seem unreasonable to expect that Jesus would use signs and wonders to reveal himself. After all, how else would we come to know that he is who he claims to be? And we recognize that Jesus did in fact perform signs that revealed his identity. But we notice a problem along the way. People seem to get hung up on the signs and wonders and never final proceed to believing in his revealed identity. They would seem content to without belief indefinitely so as to force more and more miracles to amuse them and to satisfy their curiosity.
The royal official said to him,
“Sir, come down before my child dies.”
It is sometimes the case that difficult situations can help us move beyond our own reluctance to fully believe and trust in Jesus. At such times it can no longer be a matter of mere casual interest or entertainment. Then what we need from Jesus is something desperate, a last hope, something we are willing to trade all that we have and all that we are in order to receive.
Jesus said to him, “You may go; your son will live.”
The man believed what Jesus said to him and left.
In the world we tend to insist on seeing in order to believe. But in the order of faith we often must first believe in order to see. We must set our minds to accept, think, speak, and live in accord with the word of God, and only after we will see the full flowering of the fruit of that word in our lives.
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.
Trusting in Jesus in his hour of need resulted in not only in the tentative faith of the royal official, but also the healing of his son and the faith of his entire household. It bore disproportionate fruit to the meager belief with which the official first approached Jesus. Even though he was probably a Gentile he was able to genuinely recognize the identity of Jesus whereas the Galileans, those of his native place, could only provide a superficial welcome based on what they knew of him from the feast in Jerusalem. In an impressive reversal, those who had seen signs did not come to deeper belief, while the official who believed experienced a miracle that led to still deeper belief.
Past experience with Jesus can lead to complacency if we allow the signs, wonders, and other forms of experience to become idols that take the place of dynamic relationship with Jesus himself. We must not become so preoccupied with the gifts in whatever form they come as to become forgetful of the giver. This is in fact vital because, whatever Jesus may have done in the past, he has much better things prepared for us in the future which we will not be in a position to receive if we continue to insist on only more of the same. In order to remain open to what he desires to do we must remain open to Jesus himself, so that we can give our hearts to him in trust as the royal official did. Only then will the new things be realized and the past forgotten.
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.
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