Capernaum's Hope

 John 4:46-54

There he is…

anxious, fearful, troubled

Capernaum’s royal official

no city matter or political riot,

but a sick child

triggering his panicked heart to throb

 

My child is sick…O dear God my child is dying… I cannot lose him… 

every parent knows the helpless, desperate hope

a mother, a father ready to do whatever it takes

There HE IS…  

        who makes water wine 

        the subject of everyone's debate 

        can he really do what they say? 

Jesus speaks only ... “Unless you see signs and wonders you will not believe." –

What signs? What wonders? What must I believe?  What will this Jesus do to my child? Is he a quack?  But, will I not try anything for my son?   I hear inside me a voice not my own.. "Sir, come down before my child dies."

 Jesus responds only,  "Go… your son will live."

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O God give me the grace to move beyond my fear, my doubt. Help me to believe not because of a sign, not because my child is well, but because You are a God who loves my child, all children, all people, my entire city. You healed my child through the one you have sent to heal all ills, all sin, all death. Heal my faith so I believe not in a miracle for its fanciful sign, but for the power of Love it holds.  Amen.

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John 4:46-54

Once more he visited Cana in Galilee, where he had turned the water into wine. And there was a certain royal official whose son lay sick at Capernaum. When this man heard that Jesus had arrived in Galilee from Judea, he went to him and begged him to come and heal his son, who was close to death.

“Unless you people see signs and wonders,” Jesus told him, “you will never believe.”

The royal official said, “Sir, come down before my child dies.”

“Go,” Jesus replied, “your son will live.”

The man took Jesus at his word and departed. While he was still on the way, his servants met him with the news that his boy was living. When he inquired as to the time when his son got better, they said to him, “Yesterday, at one in the afternoon, the fever left him.”

Then the father realized that this was the exact time at which Jesus had said to him, “Your son will live.” So he and his whole household believed.

This was the second sign Jesus performed after coming from Judea to Galilee.