Anchor My Faith

Go, Your Son Will Live

Scripture: John 4:50-54

We ended the previous lesson with the Roman official again asking Jesus to come with him to heal his son before he dies. “Jesus said to him, “Go; your son will live.” The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and went on his way” (John 4:50 ESV). The Roman official did not have to see Jesus perform a miracle, but believed what Jesus said and went on his way home to embrace a healthy son.

“As he was going down, his servants met him and told him that his son was recovering” (John 4:51 ESV). As the man walked toward home, believing in what Jesus told him, he was met by his servants who came to tell him that his son was recovering.

“So he asked them the hour when he began to get better, and they said to him, “Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him.”’ (John 4:52 ESV). He asked this question to determine if his son was getting better on his own or if it happened at the time Jesus spoke.

“The father knew that was the hour when Jesus had said to him, “Your son will live.” And he himself believed, and all his household” (John 4:53 ESV). It is very possible that the father wondered about his son as he walked home, but now it has been confirmed that healing happened as Jesus spoke. We should be careful not to focus on the healing, but on the faith the healing produced. Compared to the faith in Jesus that was produced in the father and all his household, the healing of the boy was secondary. We need to be careful today that we not pray for healing for the sake of comfort and not for the faith that the healing will produce in others.

“This was now the second sign that Jesus did when he had come from Judea to Galilee” (John 4:54 ESV). The first sign was changing water into wine at the wedding at Cana (John 2:1 – 11). Between these two signs, Jesus had performed other signs in Jerusalem. For example, “when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, many believed in his name when they saw the signs he was doing” (John 2:23 ESV); “This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.”’ (John 3:2 ESV); “So when he came to Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him, having seen all that he had done in Jerusalem at the feast. For they too had gone to the feast” (John 4:45 ESV). John doesn’t specifically say what Jesus did; simply that he did perform signs.

Prayer

Father, an important lesson here concerns the importance of a miracle; what is to be accomplished by it. Do we request a miracle so we or someone will feel better or do we seek a miracle so that the faith of others in Jesus would be developed? Father, as I look at miracles in Bible, I see their primary purpose is to develop faith. Father, help us see a miracle as not an end in itself, but as a means of growing faith in others. A miracle may have only temporary results, but the resulting faith may be eternal.