Readings: Genesis 1:1-2:3 | Ephesians 6:10-17 | John 4:46-54
Text: John 4:46-54
Being a Christian requires faith, and a right faith will make you a Christian. This was demonstrated by the Samaritans who encountered Jesus along with the woman who was at the well:
39Many Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me all that I ever did.” 40So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them, and he stayed there two days. 41And many more believed because of his word. 42They said to the woman, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is indeed the Savior of the world.” (John 4:39-42)
This is why one of the names for those who hold to Christ is “the faithful..” There are -isms for persuasive schools of thought. There are philosophies to which people subscribe. But to be with Christ involves faith.
The faithful recognize and acknowledge God’s creation of the world.
~ The world as we can see and experience it is not the result of mindless natural forces, but the intentional and good creation of the one true God.
~ That also means personally that “I believe that God has made me and all creatures. He has given me my body and soul, eyes, ears, and all my limbs, my reason, and all my senses, and still preserves them.” (Concordia, p. 328)
~ This God is presently maintaining and directing all things in the world (and for that matter, the universe) according to His good purposes. People and the devils are rogue agents, but they cannot ever circumvent God.
~ It also means that, as creatures who have agency (the ability to make choices), we have a duty to make choices that honor our Creator and live within the roles He has designed for us.
The faithful also acknowledge the corruption of sin.
~ Human desire and inventiveness are warped. We want things, but in our desires, there is always a seed of unbelief and want to do things our own way (thank you very much!). This shows up early in life, as the Lord shows: “I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the intention of man’s heart is evil from his youth.” (Genesis 8:21)
~ Death and eternal separation from God are what sin deserves—yes, even the sins we have committed. “12 Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned” (Romans 5:12)
The faithful also acknowledge the faithfulness of the good and loving God, who gave His only begotten Son that He might rescue and restore us.
~ For as universal as the corruption is among the human race, that did not prevent God from sending His Son, “born of woman, born under the law, 5 to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.” (Galatians 4:4-5) It was promised from the very day that sin entered the world. That promise was fulfilled throughout the Gospels. The rescue which not even the noblest and wisest person could achieve came as a gift through the lovingkindess of God.
~ He endows the undeserving and corrupted with this great salvation through faith when He says to another crowd, “Blessed are those who hear the Word of God and keep it” (Luke 11:28) and to his own disciples before He ascended, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” (John 20:31)
These are the faithful, who have turned from their godless ignorance (as beautiful as it might seem to man) and now take God at His Word. They cling in repentant faith to the Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, who takes away the sin of the world.
So, the faithful cry out to God, confident of who He is, His love for us, and His power to do all things necessary. We see this in the Gospel for today:
46So he came again to Cana in Galilee, where he had made the water wine. And at Capernaum there was an official whose son was ill. 47When this man heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee, he went to him and asked him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death. 48So Jesus said to him, “Unless you see signs and wonders you will not believe.” 49The official said to him, “Sir, come down before my child dies.” 50Jesus said to him, “Go; your son will live.” The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and went on his way. 51As he was going down, his servants met him and told him that his son was recovering. 52So 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.” 53The father knew that was the hour when Jesus had said to him, “Your son will live.” And he himself believed, and all his household. 54This was now the second sign that Jesus did when he had come from Judea to Galilee.
Here was a man who did not have much cause for faith. He was a royal official (basilikos, derived from the word for king) who likely had access to whatever he needed.
Despite the opulence of his position, his son was dying, and there was nothing he could command to save him. So, he came to Jesus.
Jesus rebukes that born-in desire for God to be on our terms, where we would put an ultimatum on Him before we’re willing to abdicate the throne.
Having the genuineness of his faith tested, this official continues to plead for the life of his son, because he insists that Jesus is God and Lord over this creation and the lives of all in it. It is only true of Jesus that, “What He says goes.”
This faithful man received the blessing of God who is known chiefly through His Word: Jesus says, “Your Son will live.” No other additional exhibits than that. And the confirmation he received was not a sign or wonder from heaven—because those involve man demanding of God—but a gift given from heaven in the life of his son. And not only that, but “he himself believed, and all his household.”
Rejoice together, beloved by God, because this is your God and Savior. As beloved sons and daughters in the Father’s kingdom, hold fast to Christ in whom you have believed. Turn away and put to death all that unbelief and stubbornness that you inherited from Adam and Eve. Let it be drowned each day in the waters of Baptism so that you are raised up with a firm belief in your God and Savior.
In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.
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