How Jesus reveals his glory though adversity (John 4:43-54)

43After the two days he left for Galilee. 44(Now Jesus himself had pointed out that a prophet has no honor in his own country.) 45When he arrived in Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him. They had seen all that he had done in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, for they also had been there.

46Once 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. 47When 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.

48"Unless you people see miraculous signs and wonders," Jesus told him, "you will never believe."

49The royal official said, "Sir, come down before my child dies."

50Jesus replied, "You may go. Your son will live." The man took Jesus at his word and departed. 51While he was still on the way, his servants met him with the news that his boy was living. 52When he inquired as to the time when his son got better, they said to him, "The fever left him yesterday at the seventh hour."

53Then the father realized that this was the exact time at which Jesus had said to him, "Your son will live." So he and all his household believed.

54This was the second miraculous sign that Jesus performed, having come from Judea to Galilee.



Observations:
In the case described above, we see an example of how the glory of god can be shown through adversity.

Sickness is never pleasant, and nowhere in the bible does god guarantee that sickness will always be cured. Indeed, sometimes the lord does choose either for the individual concerned to pass on or for the sickness to continue for a considerable time period, even in spite of earnest prayers on the part of sufferers themselves or of their family and friends.

But on other occasions, the lord does choose sickness as a means to demonstrate his glory. This is one such occasion. In this passage we see a wonderful example of how Jesus has power over sickness and, as we see later, even over death.

The passage does not indicate the specific nature of the illness from which the boy concerned was suffering. What it does tell us, however, is that the boy was bed-ridden and his illness was life-threatening. In other words, the situation is pretty bloody serious.

In addition, it is not likely that the illness was of a nature which could be easily treated. The passage indicates that the official concerned travelled from Capernaum to Cana (about 40km) in order to plead for the help of Jesus. Such a trip would not have been necessary if the disease concerned had been of a nature which was easily curable – in such a case, the services of a local doctor in Capernaum would have been sufficient

Nevertheless, what I think we see here is a case of god using adversity in a deliberate manner for the purpose of demonstrating the extent of his glory. I believe that it was god’s absolute intention for the particular boy concerned to suffer from the particular illness concerned for the precise reason of the scenario discussed in the passage taking place.

What we see here is that although the official referred to in this passage appeared to have a fairly strong level of faith – his actions indicated a belief in the power of Jesus to cure his son’s sickness, and he did take Jesus at his word upon being given the assurance that his son would live – we see that the power of Jesus is much, much greater than what he had imagined.

We see in the story that the official concerned begged Jesus to come with him, perhaps out of a belief that Jesus would either: (a) not properly understand the situation; or (b) have to be physically present in order to heal his son.

But Jesus is more powerful than that – way more powerful. As the son of god, Christ already knew about the whole situation and fully understood the situation of the boy concerned. His physical presence was simply not required, and he was able to ensure that the boy concerned was healed simply by speaking it into existence.

This kind of reminds me of what we learn in Genesis, and how light came into the world simply by god speaking it into existence. That’s the power of god. In Genesis we saw the degree of his command and control over the natural universe in the way that he single handedly brought the concept of light into the world by simply speaking it into existence. In this passage, we see the extent of his command and control over the most serious and incurable forms of sickness, how he can heal sickness with his mere words. And in a later passage, we see how the lord has command and control even over death, when he raises Lazarus from the dead with his mere words.

There is nothing, not a singular concept in this entire world, which is beyond the command and control of our god. So powerful is he that he has complete control not only over the natural laws of the universe, but also over the extremely serious concepts of sickness and death.



Prayer:
Lord, when we look at your power, we can only stand in awe. Complete and absoulute admiration are nowhere near adequate words – your pure power and glory are just so far beyond words and so far beyond understanding that there is no way that our earthly hearts can even come close to its complete comprehension.

You have complete command over everything we can see - over the natural universe, over sickness, and even over death. How can us mere mortals of this world ever come remotely close to understanding?

Yet, for those of us who have accepted your great peace offering, for those which you have chosen to make up a part of your great family, we can only thank you that you have opened our eyes wide enough to let in the great torrent and flood of your amazing grace. And we know further, lord, that you will open our eyes to receive the full notion of your glory when we meet you in that great day in heaven.

Though many of us will experience persecution and difficult times prior to then, lord, when we see the full extent of your glory, none of that will matter and all of our tears will be wiped away and our hearts will be full of pure gladness, joy and understanding.

Lord, when we look at your greatness, we can only bow down and worship in awe – at the greatness of your power and love.

In your great name,

Amen.