Long-Distance Dependence

Read John 4.43-54

John tells us in today’s reading of the “second sign” that Jesus performed in Cana of Galilee. A royal official, hearing that Jesus was in the area, traveled fifteen miles (not a short distance in those days) to ask for His help. The official had a son who lay close to death, and he begged Jesus to return with him and heal his child. Jesus agreed to help, but on His own terms: He instructed the father to return home alone, simply assuring him that “your son will live.”

The details about the meeting between the father and his servants are intended to clearly demonstrate that the child was healed precisely at the time Jesus had declared to the official that his son would live. The point of the story is clear: Jesus had in fact healed the man’s son…and had done so long-distance! As a result, “he and his whole household believed.”

Jesus led the royal official to the point of complete dependence: taking Jesus at His word apart from visible presence and, once doing so, believing in Him. Jesus also pushes us today to take Him at His word and believe. Sometimes circumstances may lead us to feel all we have is Jesus’ word…but Jesus is in His word. He gives Himself to us, just as He gave Himself to the Samaritans and to Nicodemus. When we become completely dependent upon Jesus, we move past the simple need for a miracle and move to personal faith in Him…and when we see Him as what we need more than anything else, we find our miracles.