JESUS TRAINS FAITH

Twenty-first Sunday after Trinity, 2022

Readings: Is. 59:15b-21; Eph. 6:10-20; John 4:46-54

6 November a.d. 2022

JESUS TRAINS FAITH

Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be always acceptable in thy sight, O LORD, my strength and my redeemer. AMEN.

Today’s Gospel recounts Christ’s second miracle at Cana. The first was changing water into wine at a wedding, a happy occasion. This second miracle answers a parent’s anguished cry. Christ’s purpose in this miracle is to perfect weak faith. We see a man who begins with weak faith, then Christ tries and trains his faith to make it grow, and brings it to perfection.

CHRIST’S RESPONSE

A nobleman’s son is sick, “at the point of death.” When he hears that Jesus had come out of Judea to Galilee, he goes to him to ask him to come and heal his son.

Now you and I would call that faith. The son lies at the point of death, and this man of high station not only hopes that Jesus can heal him, he even lowers himself to go down himself and find Jesus and ask him in person.

Notice this: he believed, and so he acted. Faith and action are always twins. If he had not believed, he would not have acted. If he had not acted, he would have proved he did not believe.

But Jesus perceives that his faith is weak, so Jesus throws cold water on him: “Except ye see signs and wonders, ye will not believe.”

Christ’s response is not anger, but sorrow. This ignorant father is one of a whole group of spiritually blind people. Jesus had just come from Samaria, the land the Jews scorned, where people had believed him only because of what he said, not miracles. These Jews, Christ’s own people, believe only the physical, and cannot see the spiritual. So Jesus must show the man – and these watching Jews -- that his own faith is far more important than healing his son.

In our materialistic age, we ought to understand this easily. Material things rule our hearts and minds. The only things we count true or important are things we can see and touch. Unseen spiritual things are not things at all, and spiritual progress is no progress at all.

CHRIST’S ENCOURAGEMENT

Bewildered, the father repeats his request. He doesn’t take Jesus words as a refusal to help. He confesses that he doesn’t understand everything Jesus wants him to know, and that all he wants is for his son to be healed.

Jesus grants his request, but at the same time he doesn’t.

Why did Jesus not go with the man? For the man’s sake. Out of his infinite, kind love. To train and test and build his faith.

Remember the Centurion in Mark 8:5-13? He comes to ask Jesus to heal his servant, and when Jesus offers to go with him, he says, “I am not worthy you should come under my roof. Just say the word and he shall be healed.”

In this case the man says you must come, but Jesus refuses. Why? Because the man thought Jesus couldn’t do anything unless he was physically present. Jesus doesn’t go because he wants to encourage the man’s weak faith. He simply says, “Go your way: your son lives.”

Look how just a few minutes with Jesus change the man. Look how his faith, weak in the beginning, has grown. He believes the bare word Jesus has spoken to him, and he acts on it.

What if he had refused to go? His son would not have been healed. Faith acts, and it acts not on what we see, but on the bare word of God. We believe, and so we act, not because we first see miracles.

CHRIST’S ABSENCE

Now Christ rewards and confirms the man’s faith. When the servants meet him and tell him his son lives, he asks them what time he began to mend. The servants answer, “At the seventh hour.”

The father knew that was the very same hour when Jesus had said, “Your son lives.” The moment Jesus spoke, the son was immediately and completely healed.

The man had to learn that Jesus could heal from a distance. He needed to know not only Christ’s power, but also that Christ’s mere uttering his will carries that power, whether Jesus is present or absent.

What was the outcome of Christ’s refusal to go with the man? He believed, along with his whole house. His faith was increased and perfected, and many others were brought to faith.

FOR US

We live in a materialistic age that believes that all that counts is what we can see and touch, so it is crucial for us to keep looking at the unseen Christ. We must fix the eyes of our faith on him.

Even though he sits in heaven where we cannot see him, he still rules all things, he still accomplishes all his will, he is still with us. He still sends his healing power not for individuals alone but for the whole world. And as he did for this man, he heals both body and soul. Jesus trains our faith to make it grow. He seems to say NO when in fact he is preparing a better YES than we could have imagined.

What does that mean for us? That we must believe Jesus’ word, his bare word, and act on it, without needing continual reminders.

Faith acts. Jesus honours faith, even weak faith, and he trains our faith, and rewards it. Ω

Glory be to the Father, And to the Son, And to the Holy Ghost.

As it was in the beginning, Is now and ever shall be, World without end, Amen.

Twenty-first Sunday after Trinity

GRANT, we beseech thee, merciful Lord,

to thy faithful people pardon and peace,

that they may be cleansed from all their sins,

and serve thee with a quiet mind;

through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.