John 4:43-54
This story seems calculated to bring me face to face with one huge question: what is my faith in Jesus based on? Do I believe Him only as long as He brings good gifts my way, or do I trust His word no matter what?
Verse 44 seems like a key: Jesus testifies that a prophet has no honor in his hometown. That sets us up to avoid getting confused by what follows. The very next verse says that the Galileans welcomed Him. At first that seems odd, cuz Jesus’ hometown is in the region of Galilee, and based on what Jesus said in the previous verse, we’d expect that the Galileans would not welcome Him. But a closer look shows that they aren’t really excited about Jesus Himself. They’re just impressed with His miraculous deeds. That’s the point of the rest of verse 45: they saw all the cool stuff He’d done in Jerusalem earlier. And Jesus criticizes them for their consumeristic faith in verse 48. (NOTE: The English doesn’t show us that Jesus uses plural pronouns here, which shows that He’s criticizing the crowd, not the single man who just asked Him to heal his son.)
All of that is contrasted with the faith of the official. He believed Jesus’ word immediately, even before he knew if the healing had actually happened (v 50). And when he learned that the boy had begun to get well at the exact moment Jesus spoke, he and his entire family believed (v 53), presumably the sort of belief in Jesus that John talked about in chapter 3—the kind of belief that saves (cf. 3:16, 18).
So the point, once again, is a question: why do I trust Jesus? Is my faith strong only as long as He keeps on wowing me with blessing and bounty? Or does my faith rest on His unchanging word and His perfect character?
Verse 44 seems like a key: Jesus testifies that a prophet has no honor in his hometown. That sets us up to avoid getting confused by what follows. The very next verse says that the Galileans welcomed Him. At first that seems odd, cuz Jesus’ hometown is in the region of Galilee, and based on what Jesus said in the previous verse, we’d expect that the Galileans would not welcome Him. But a closer look shows that they aren’t really excited about Jesus Himself. They’re just impressed with His miraculous deeds. That’s the point of the rest of verse 45: they saw all the cool stuff He’d done in Jerusalem earlier. And Jesus criticizes them for their consumeristic faith in verse 48. (NOTE: The English doesn’t show us that Jesus uses plural pronouns here, which shows that He’s criticizing the crowd, not the single man who just asked Him to heal his son.)
All of that is contrasted with the faith of the official. He believed Jesus’ word immediately, even before he knew if the healing had actually happened (v 50). And when he learned that the boy had begun to get well at the exact moment Jesus spoke, he and his entire family believed (v 53), presumably the sort of belief in Jesus that John talked about in chapter 3—the kind of belief that saves (cf. 3:16, 18).
So the point, once again, is a question: why do I trust Jesus? Is my faith strong only as long as He keeps on wowing me with blessing and bounty? Or does my faith rest on His unchanging word and His perfect character?
posted by Josh @ 4:33 AM
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