Trinity21 Bulletin↓ Our Savior Lutheran Church, Grants Pass, OR
↓ Faith Lutheran Church, Medford OR
TRINITY-21
John 4:46-54 “FAITH IN WORD ALONE”
A REAL CAPERNAUM EVENT There was a certain nobleman, one of the
royal officials of King Herod, whose son was critically ill and about to
die. This nobleman had heard about Jesus, a Prophet whose powerful
teaching was backed up by miraculous works, like the turning of water to wine.
In fact it may well be that this royal official had heard Jesus preach in person,
since he lived in Capernaum and Jesus had previously been there. So when
the nobleman heard that Jesus had come to Cana, which was in the same
general region, he went to Him there to implore His help.
GEOGRAPHY From this we can see that the nobleman had
faith in Jesus. It may have been faith that had a long way to grow in terms of
perceiving the fullness of who Jesus was, but it was faith nonetheless. This
man was not merely grasping at straws in coming to Jesus, willing to try
anything since nothing else had helped. Consider this: Cana was eighteen
miles away from Capernaum, easily a day’s journey on dirt roads, more than
two-thirds the distance of a marathon. That meant that he would have to be
away from his dying son for at least two days, traveling there and back. How
could this man leave the bedside of his deathly ill child that long unless he
believed that Jesus could really help? No, this man had faith in Christ. He
traveled those eighteen lonely miles, sometimes walking, sometimes running,
until he came to Jesus to plead for His help.
YOU ARE A/THE NOBLEMAN You are not unlike this nobleman. You are
here today because you have faith in Christ. You are here by God’s grace to
seek the help that only He can give. I certainly hope you wouldn’t take this
chunk of time out of your schedule for any other reason except that you believe
Jesus can do for you what no one else can do–forgiving your sins, rescuing you
from the power of the grave, restoring you to life with the Father–and that He
does it in this very place through His words and sacraments. Today this place
is Cana, the location of Jesus for you.
RUN A HUNDRED MILES Still, when we see the example of this
nobleman, we have to ask ourselves, are we that fervent in our faith?! This
man had only the slightest knowledge of Christ and His Word. And yet he had
faith enough to go immediately to Christ in his time of need. On the other hand,
we’ve had God’s Word preached and taught to us for years and years, and yet
how sluggish our faith often is! Would you walk eighteen miles to church? Is
your situation that urgent? Do you see your need to be that dire? It is, you
know. Apart from Christ you are without hope, without help, in bondage to sin
and death. Martin Luther says in the Large Catechism that every Christian
should be willing to run 100 miles to hear Christ’s Words of Absolution and
life.
COME TO MY HOME The nobleman traveled the long distance
necessary to get to Jesus. He came before Him and begged Him to go down
with him to heal his son. And what was Jesus’ reply? “Unless you people see
signs and wonders, you will by no means believe.” Why would Jesus respond
that way? Clearly the nobleman believed. Otherwise he wouldn’t have come all
that way. He wasn’t asking for some miraculous work before he would believe.
He already believed and trusted in Jesus to help him and called on His name.
Why these seemingly stern words?
1. The answer, I believe, is twofold. First, Jesus was testing this man’s
faith in order to strengthen it. Would he continue to seek Christ’s help after this
rebuke or would he succumb to doubt and despair? Was his trust resting
entirely on Jesus and nothing else? The nobleman had completed the journey
in body. Now our Lord sees to it that he completes the journey of faith, in heart
and soul as well. In the fires of desperation our Lord purifies this man’s faith
and draws him closer. The nobleman throws himself completely on the grace
and mercy of Christ, crying out, “Sir, come down before my child dies!”
KYRIE ELEISON! Perhaps there have been times when you’ve
felt such urgency and desperation because of trials and afflictions in your life
or the lives of ones you love, or because of the awareness of your own fallen
condition before God. You know the temptation to succumb to doubt and
despair. But in those trials our Lord is seeking to purify your faith, as gold is
purified and refined in the fire, to strengthen your reliance on nothing else but
Him. His rebuke is not meant to turn you away but to draw you closer. So let
your prayers become urgent, and even desperate. “God, help us!” “LORD, save
me!” “Christ, have mercy on me!” “Sir, come down before my child dies!” If you
have never prayed such prayers, then you have not yet learned how to pray.
Faith is born and enlivened under fire, in desperate circumstances. Such faith
prays fervently.
2. And there is a second reason why Jesus responds to the nobleman
in the fashion that He does. The man’s request was that Jesus come back with
him personally to heal his son. He believed that it was necessary for Jesus to
be visibly present in order for Him to exercise His power. He wanted the Lord to
do this in such a way that he could witness the miracle with his own eyes. But
faith has nothing to do with what you see. As it is written, “We walk by faith, not
by sight.” It is not necessary for our Lord to be visibly present to exercise His
power. Nor is it necessary for faith to have a visible sign before it truly believes.
SURE & SOLID FAITH In fact Jesus once said, “A wicked and
adulterous generation asks for a miraculous sign!” What is your faith based
on? What sustains it? Is it special experiences or supernatural occurrences in
your life? Faith based on such signs is not Christian faith at all. For then it is not
trusting in the eternal Christ but in temporary events. And who knows if that
sign was really from God anyway? It could be that the devil conjured it up to
lead you astray. It could be that you were just looking for something to confirm
what you already thought or that helped you rationalize what you already
wanted to do. Signs by themselves are slippery and unsure. Faith is about
what is sure and certain and solid.
WHAT JESUS SAYS Christian faith is based entirely on the Eternal
Words of Christ. As it is written, “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the
word of God.” Faith doesn’t have to see a thing to be satisfied. It relies
entirely on what Jesus says.
FAITH BY HEARING And that’s why Jesus doesn’t come back with
the nobleman. He wants him to rely not on his eyes but his ears. Our Lord
gives the nobleman nothing but His Words, “Go your way; your son lives.”
Jesus says. That was ALL the nobleman needed. This was the Creator
speaking, whose words bring about what they say. By the Holy Spirit of Christ,
the man believed the words that were spoken to him, and he went his way. By
all appearances he was returning with nothing more than he left with. But by
faith he was returning with the greatest treasure of all, the healing words of
Jesus. He traveled those eighteen miles back home trusting in what Jesus said.
AT THAT VERY SECON The nobleman’s faith was not in vain. On
the way back, before he arrived home, his servants met him with Good News
about his son which showed the wonderful power of Jesus’ Words. Remember,
Jesus had said to the nobleman, “Your son lives.” And what are the first words
out of the mouths of the nobleman’s servants? “Your son lives.” It was at the
seventh hour of the day before that the son had gotten better; and it was at the
seventh hour of the day before that Jesus had said to the nobleman, “Your son
lives.”
CREATOR SPEAKS Jesus speaks, and it is so. He is the very
Son of God through Whom all things were created. He is the Word of the
Father who calls things into being out of nothing and who gives life to the world.
He says, “Let there be light,” and there is light. He says, “Your son lives,” and
he lives.
CREATOR SPEAKS TODAY And so it is still today. The same God who
said, “Let there be light” and “Your son lives” is still speaking. Now He is
calling Christians by the power of His Word in the water. To every parent at
Baptism He says, “Your child lives.” Now the LORD is speaking the Absolution,
“I forgive you all your sins.” And it is so; by the power of those words of Christ,
your sins are truly forgiven. Now the Son of God is saying, “This is My Body;
this is My Blood.” And by the power of those creative Words, the bread and
wine truly are His body and blood, so that eating them in firm faith you may be
filled with His healing and share in His resurrection. As Jesus says, “Whoever
eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the
last day.”
ONWARD CHRISTIAN SOLDIERS Indeed, Jesus Himself is raised up
from the dead. We can now say to the Heavenly Father, “Your Son lives.” He
who suffered on the Cross at the seventh hour to take away your sins is alive
forevermore to bring you into the new creation to come, in which there will be
no more sickness or sorrow or death. For the old order of things has passed
away.
GO IN PEACE As you make that journey to your new and
everlasting home, God grant you the desperate, fervent, confident faith of
the nobleman. Cling to the Words of Jesus as you make that sometimes
difficult and lonely trek. In the end your faith will not be in vain. Go your way in
peace. Because, by the grace and mercy of Christ, YOU LIVE.
In the Name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.