Monday of the Fourth Week of Lent -- April 4, 2011
John 4:43 – 54
After the two days he left for Galilee. (Now Jesus himself had pointed out that prophets have no honor in their own country.) When he arrived in Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him. They had seen all that he had done in Jerusalem at the Passover Festival, for they also had been there.
Once more he visited Cana in Galilee, where he had turned the water into wine. And there was a certain royal official whose son lay sick at Capernaum. When this man heard that Jesus had arrived in Galilee from Judea, he went to him and begged him to come and heal his son, who was close to death.
“Unless you people see signs and wonders,” Jesus told him, “you will never believe.”
The royal official said, “Sir, come down before my child dies.”
“Go,” Jesus replied, “your son will live.”
The man took Jesus at his word and departed. While he was still on the way, his servants met him with the news that his boy was living. When he inquired as to the time when his son got better, they said to him, “Yesterday, at one in the afternoon, the fever left him.”
Then the father realized that this was the exact time at which Jesus had said to him, “Your son will live.” So he and his whole household believed.
This was the second sign Jesus performed after coming from Judea to Galilee.
At some point in spiritual development there comes a time when “faith” really does become faith.
What most of us call faith is not faith at all, but a desire for assurance and certainty. We want to nail things down. We want to know that something is true. We want all of our questions about God turned to certainties. Then we mistakenly call that “faith.”
In contemporary religious expression, those who are most sure of what they believe – and sometimes most dogmatically insistent on it – are thought to have the most faith. That is not so. They may have the most assurance or the most confidence, but they don’t have the most biblical faith.
Authentic faith traffics in what is unseen and unknown. Faith is not trust in what we know, but trust in what we don’t know.
I always think it is a good idea to be a bit leery of those who know too much, those who seem certain of the way things are, those who have all the riddles and puzzles figured out, those for whom life and devotion is no longer a mystery, those who have all the charts and diagrams that can answer every possible question.
In fact, some folks have no more questions; they only have answers. I’d distrust them.
The Gospel story tells of a man, an “outsider” – that is its own story! – who believes Jesus can heal his son, but believes that it can only happen in a certain way, that is, if Jesus is physically present to effect the healing, so that it can be witnessed as a legitimate healing. As Jesus says, this is someone who wants to “see signs and wonders,” not necessarily “believe that they can happen.”
It takes little faith to “see signs and wonders.” One does have to have open eyes, but signs and wonders don’t necessarily lead to – or spring from – biblical faith.
I said at the outset that at some point in spiritual development what we call “faith” becomes faith. At least, that’s the design.
I suppose for some persons of strong religious conviction, though, that degree of faith never comes.
After the two days he left for Galilee. (Now Jesus himself had pointed out that prophets have no honor in their own country.) When he arrived in Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him. They had seen all that he had done in Jerusalem at the Passover Festival, for they also had been there.
Once more he visited Cana in Galilee, where he had turned the water into wine. And there was a certain royal official whose son lay sick at Capernaum. When this man heard that Jesus had arrived in Galilee from Judea, he went to him and begged him to come and heal his son, who was close to death.
“Unless you people see signs and wonders,” Jesus told him, “you will never believe.”
The royal official said, “Sir, come down before my child dies.”
“Go,” Jesus replied, “your son will live.”
The man took Jesus at his word and departed. While he was still on the way, his servants met him with the news that his boy was living. When he inquired as to the time when his son got better, they said to him, “Yesterday, at one in the afternoon, the fever left him.”
Then the father realized that this was the exact time at which Jesus had said to him, “Your son will live.” So he and his whole household believed.
This was the second sign Jesus performed after coming from Judea to Galilee.
At some point in spiritual development there comes a time when “faith” really does become faith.
What most of us call faith is not faith at all, but a desire for assurance and certainty. We want to nail things down. We want to know that something is true. We want all of our questions about God turned to certainties. Then we mistakenly call that “faith.”
In contemporary religious expression, those who are most sure of what they believe – and sometimes most dogmatically insistent on it – are thought to have the most faith. That is not so. They may have the most assurance or the most confidence, but they don’t have the most biblical faith.
Authentic faith traffics in what is unseen and unknown. Faith is not trust in what we know, but trust in what we don’t know.
I always think it is a good idea to be a bit leery of those who know too much, those who seem certain of the way things are, those who have all the riddles and puzzles figured out, those for whom life and devotion is no longer a mystery, those who have all the charts and diagrams that can answer every possible question.
In fact, some folks have no more questions; they only have answers. I’d distrust them.
The Gospel story tells of a man, an “outsider” – that is its own story! – who believes Jesus can heal his son, but believes that it can only happen in a certain way, that is, if Jesus is physically present to effect the healing, so that it can be witnessed as a legitimate healing. As Jesus says, this is someone who wants to “see signs and wonders,” not necessarily “believe that they can happen.”
It takes little faith to “see signs and wonders.” One does have to have open eyes, but signs and wonders don’t necessarily lead to – or spring from – biblical faith.
I said at the outset that at some point in spiritual development what we call “faith” becomes faith. At least, that’s the design.
I suppose for some persons of strong religious conviction, though, that degree of faith never comes.
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