Last week we began a series taken from John 20:30-31. “These have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name.”
John calls the miracles which Jesus performed signs, and by that John means that Jesus’ miracles weren’t just displays of supernatural power but were also symbolic. Each miracle contained a message. Each revealed something about Jesus. And each of these signs is intended to build our faith in Him.
So we’re looking at each of these signs; what they tell us about Jesus and about ourselves. Today we’re going to look at the second sign Jesus performed and which more than any of the other signs in John reveals what real faith looks like.
READ TEXT . . . John 4:46-54
Jesus has arrived back to Cana, where he turned water into wine, but this time he was greeted with hundreds of people who had heard about this miracle worker and among the crowd was one of the most powerful men in Galilee, who was desperate because his son was dying.
He had tried every form of treatment, and taken him to every doctor. He tried alternative therapy, and gone to healing centers. He had tried everything that medicine would make available to him but nobody can heal his little boy. All of his wealth and influence could do nothing to save him.
But as this man helplessly watched his little guy slip away, there’s an unexpected ray of hope. Everybody in Galilee has been talking about this miracle worker named Jesus.
As soon as the official hears that Jesus is only 25 miles away in the village of Cana, he heads out from his home in the city of Capernaum frantically trying to find Jesus and to bring Him back to heal his boy.
Cana is about 3,000 feet above sea level. Capernaum is on the Sea of Galilee and is about 600 feet below sea level - so those 25 miles are all uphill on rocky terrain and in that day they didn’t have good hiking boots . . . but he’ll do anything for his son.
Exhausted by his 25 mile climb, the father finally reaches Cana and follows the crowds to Jesus and he begs Jesus to come with him to Capernaum to heal his son.
But Jesus gives him a really strange answer. "Unless you people see signs and wonders, you simply will not believe."
I have to be honest . . . for a guy that’s known for his compassion that seems like a really uncompassionate thing to say to this desperate father. You’d think that Jesus would have embraced this man and then grabbed him by the hand and said, “Let’s go, there’s no time to waste.”
But just like Jesus’ response to his mother last week when he said “Woman, my time has not yet come”, Jesus’ answer is the key to understanding the Sign that is about to take place.
You see, Jesus is not just talking about this man. He’s talking about all the Galileans . . . these people who have come out to greet him only to see what really cool trick Jesus was going to do next.
And what he’s saying to them . . . and to us for that matter . . . is that the mistake people make is thinking that if I could just see a miracle, see Jesus do something really cool, or have some kind of “wow” experience that really pumps me about Jesus, then I could have faith.
But it doesn’t take any faith to believe in what you already can see, feel, or touch.
• If I can see it, I don’t need faith.
• If I can feel it, I don’t need faith.
• If I can experience it, I don’t need faith.
Faith is believing when I can’t see, when I can’t feel, when I don’t experience it; which means that faith is believing God more than I believe my senses or my understanding.
So when this dad asks Jesus for help, what Jesus is saying is, “Are you like these other Galileans who have to see before they’ll believe?”
But this dad is not here to debate theology and so he says, “Please just come before my child dies."
So instead of giving the crowd another miracle they could see and get pumped up about, he simply gives his word, “Your son lives”.
And now this man’s faith is really tested. He’s heard that Jesus can heal people. But when Jesus heals, he always goes and touches them or says something to them or prays over them. Jesus is always there with them but this time Jesus won’t be there.
And the challenge for this desperate father is this . . . Is Jesus’ word enough?
The text tells us, “The man took Jesus at his word and departed.”
Jesus said his son lives and that’s good enough for him. That’s how faith works. Once we have a promise from God, we don’t keep worrying about whether God will do what He says.
You what that means, the journey of faith in God always involves learning to distrust ourselves.
Learning to distrust ourselves . . . as vulnerable as that might make you feel . . . and allowing for the possibility that maybe I don’t know everything, maybe I can’t see everything; maybe I can’t accomplish everything opens the door to faith in God.
Faith is trusting in the word, regardless of what we see, feel, or experience, because His word is far more reliable and trustworthy than what I can see, feel, or touch.
The man leaves Cana so confident that his son was ok that he took his own sweet time getting home. It’s probably a 4-5 hour journey back to Capernaum from Cana; and it’s all downhill, which would have him home later on that evening.
But he doesn’t arrive home until the next day. I don’t know what he was doing during that time. Maybe he had some official business to transact in Cana. Maybe he was just exhausted from his journey up there and got a room and crashed.
I don’t know why the man didn’t go home immediately, but one thing is for sure . . . as soon as Jesus told him, “Your son lives,” this man knew the crisis was over. There was no hurry getting home now.
That’s real faith – believing without seeing . . . believing that Jesus’ word is enough.
But this second sign, as amazing as it was . . . isn’t about the miracle itself. You see, signs in the gospel of John always point to something else, something greater, something more eternal.
Those Galileans who had gathered to greet Jesus that day thought he was a holy man, a rabbi with supernatural powers, perhaps even a prophet.
Like many today, he's a good man, a moral teacher, and a wonderful example of how to live a good life but this far exceeds anything we had previously thought about this man, Jesus . . . who is he?
You see, this sign isn't about what Jesus did. It is intended to make us ask, "Who is this Jesus?" Who is this Jesus that just speaks and sickness and life and death obeys?
Hebrews 11 says, "Out of nothing, everything was made".
It was the word of God that caused all of creation to come into existence out of nothing, what theologians would call "ex nihilo". God didn't start with matter, God started with himself existing eternally, and he created time, space, and matter.
And the rhythm of creation is this, God spoke and it was so. God spoke and it was so.
God spoke . . . He spoke the heavens and the earth, and all of creation into existence. And then John tells us that that very word of God became flesh and made his dwelling among us.
And so when he entered into his creation and he speaks . . . creation obeys him because he is the author of creation. This is a familiar voice.
The same one who spoke this world into existence says to this desperate father, “your child lives” and with these words, Jesus does what no doctor could do.
This second sign in the gospel of John tells us, “This is God. This is the Word become Flesh and dwelling among us" and he's in the midst of our chaos and desperation and our fears and our anxieties, and he has authority over all of it.
Sometimes our lives can feel so chaotic, like everything is crashing down on top of us and we're not sure how we are going to get through this one.
Sometimes the chaos and fear and desperation is so loud that we forget that Jesus is in our midst and we think we have to do it all on our own.
Sometimes the voice of the chaos seems to shout "God doesn't care! Don’t bother him with your requests. What did you do to deserve this?"
But Jesus says to us in Matthew 11:28-30 "Come to me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.”
You are not alone; you have been and will forever be held in the loving hand of God -a God who sometimes calms the chaos and a God who sometimes gives us strength to grow through the chaos.
And he invites us to hear the voice of God reminding us what has been true all along – I AM God
God -who is able to accomplish in us far more than we can ever hope for or imagine, who has sent his son to be the authority over all of creation, and the authority over the evil that separates us from God, and the authority over sickness, life, and death, and to bring order out of chaos as he ushers in the kingdom of God.
And so let us pause in the midst of our lives that can sometimes be chaotic and listen for the voice of God