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"A Believing Household"

March 6, 2022

Passage: John 4:43-54, Daniel 4:1-3

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNiNdxGcTD0

 

“A Believing Household”

John 4:46-54

March 6, 2022

 

Read John 4:46-54

This is the Word of the LORD

This morning we pick up on a couple of themes that will go throughout the gospel of John: faith and life.  Faith and life – keep in mind the relationship between the two.

As Jesus returned to Cana in Galilee, the townspeople were excited.  John indicated that some of them had seen Jesus in Jerusalem.  Also, by this time, it was clear that it had become known that Jesus was the one responsible for the miracle at the wedding feast.  What would he do next to top that?

Enter the royal official.  The royal official was most likely someone serving King Herod, who was the recognized Jewish ruler of Galilee.  Herod served at the pleasure of Rome; thus, was a feared but not favored person.  Those who served were either soldiers or administrators of some sort.

This royal official had a son who was ill.  The son was seriously ill.  John made a point of telling us that the boy was ill “to the point of death.”

The royal official was a man of influence and some power within his community, so you can be assured that all human means of intervention in the illness had been exhausted. How desperate this man must have been to make the day-long journey from Capernaum to Cana to try to have Jesus come back with him.

How desperate did this man have to be to leave his post for the purpose of pursuing this wandering preacher?  When people are desperate, they will go to extraordinary lengths to seek help.

               Dan

When we lived in San Diego, we had friends who lived in San Juan Capistrano, a little over an hour north of us.  Jen had previously worked with Shaun, and Shaun was married to Dan.  They had two children: Tara and Matthew.   Dan was basically a model with a rising career in computer technology.  He had a beautiful wife, two great children, a wonderful home, and the freedom to do most anything he wanted. Basically, he had the life most Americans would dream of living.

Dan was an interesting person.  He had grown up Catholic in New Jersey.  Like a lot of New Jersey Catholics I knew, he had a pretty good knowledge of what faith was, but had no real living relationship with Jesus.  His stories about church usually centered on nuns with rulers in their hands.

Then, suddenly, Dan literally went from being healthy to hospitalized – in a moment. He was playing soccer in an adult league one afternoon when he lost control of one of his legs and collapsed.  The scan of his head revealed a massive, aggressive, inoperable brain tumor.

Dan went through a series of treatments in Orange County.  When the doctors began talking about courses of action that had not had much success, Shaun and Dan began researching experimental treatments.  They looked at many.  They took a trip to Dallas to interview research teams there.  They were exhausting every medical option available to them.  They were looking for a miracle.  Finally, they ended up going to Duke University and participating in a trial treatment program that did provide some short-term benefits.

At the time Shaun had a growing personal relationship with Christ.  Even before Dan got ill, her vocabulary had been changing – she no longer talked about being lucky, she would refer to being “blessed.”  She was interested in Bible studies and prayed fervently for God’s hand to be upon Dan.

So, to bring you back to our text: if word got out that Jesus had come to Sacramento or San Francisco (or Chicago or anywhere that was more than a day’s travel), I am sure that Dan would have sent Shaun to try to bring Jesus to Orange County.

You see, despite what we think, times are not so different.  In desperate circumstances we look for a miracle.  Desperate to heal his young son, the royal official made the more-than-a-day humbling trek to find Jesus.  Jesus was his only hope.  Hold that thought: Jesus was his only hope.

               Faith

Before we jump to the conclusion of this story, let me urge you: do not miss the spiritual lesson for the miracle. John structured this story to drive home the point that Jesus had (has) authority over death and life.  The boy was at the point of death.  The official begged Jesus to come with him before the boy died.  Jesus responded, “Go, your son will live.”  The official spoke of death; Jesus declared life.  The official believed and then, on the way home, learned his boy was alive.  Again, Jesus declared life and the boy was alive.  When the official asked about the timing, he put it together that the healing occurred when Jesus said, “Your son will live.”  Jesus had (has) authority over death – and life.

The gospel of John was written so that readers may believe in Jesus.  The first sign in Cana – where Jesus turned the water into wine – resulted in the conclusion, “Jesus did this, the first of his signs, in Cana of Galilee, and revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him.”  Last week, the Samaritan woman and many of her townsfolk believed.  Here, the royal official believed and then, his belief confirmed and his son alive, he believed along with his whole household.

In other words, faith is not a solitary activity.  The good news is not intended to be kept to yourself.  The disciples, the Samaritans, and the official’s whole household all became believers because of someone who shared what Jesus had done for them. Faith is not something that is strictly personal and never to be shared.  It is communal.  It is for families.

For years when I was growing up and into early adulthood, I heard a lot of parents saying things like, “We do not talk much about our faith at home.  We are not going to make our kids go to church.  We want our kids to discover faith for themselves.”  This was stated as a virtue of parenting: the belief that children would be more likely to embrace faith if it was not imposed upon them.  For some, faith was the choice of the children.  Unfortunately, for many others, the message conveyed was that faith was not important or – perhaps worse – that faith was based upon whatever pleased “me.” That is the pragmatist’s approach to faith, “I will believe in whatever pleases or serves me best.”  The standard for evaluating truth has become like it was at the end of the book of Judges, “in those days, there was no king in Israel; all the people did what was good in their own eyes.”

Friends, let me be clear about this: we are terribly deficient judges of what is good. Adam and Eve only got a bite of the fruit of “knowledge of good and evil” and our capacity to discern has not improved much since.  If you want a case-in-point: look at Ukraine.  Does that look like what is “good?”  As we walk the road with Jesus in Lent, we are further reminded that the best and brightest religious minds of the time did not recognize the good when he walked among them.

Remember the prologue of John?  “He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him.  He came to what was his own, and his own people did not receive him.”  However, what comes next?  “But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.”

In contrast: the royal official came to Jesus and the conclusion of the story is that he believed, along with his whole household.

               Signs

John emphasized that the official believed Jesus’ word – that is, he believed Jesus’ word before he knew that his son had recovered.  That point is important because Jesus was aware that people were gathering around him to see if he would do something amazing.  God knows that we are impressed by demonstrations of power. Miracles are crowd pleasers.       

Daniel 4:1-3, Nebuchadnezzar’s testimony to the people of his empire, “The signs and wonders that the Most High God has worked for me I am pleased to recount.  How great are his signs, how mighty his wonders!  His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and his sovereignty is from generation to generation.”  Nebuchadnezzar moved from talking about God’s signs to recognizing what they meant: God’s kingdom is an everlasting kingdom and his sovereignty is from generation to generation.

The fascination with signs is why Jesus made the comment in verse 48.  When the official begged Jesus to come save his boy, Jesus said, “Unless you see signs and wonders, you will not believe.”  Jesus was not responding to the official; the “you’s” are plural.  Jesus’ comments were directed to the crowd in Cana.  Jesus was making the same point Nebuchadnezzar made.  Jesus was exhorting people to look past the signs to the meaning of the signs.  Signs open the door for faith, but faith based upon signs is shallow and difficult to maintain.  That kind of faith leaves you hungry for “one more;” it falters in the syndrome of “what have you done for me lately?”

Years ago, I sat through a movie called “High Fidelity.”  It was a dreary winter afternoon and I was being lazy, so I stuck with it.  The language is really bad, but it starred John Cusack, whom I have always liked as an actor.  He plays a character who is deeply hurt because his girlfriend has left him.  He breaks the fourth wall, and he invites the viewer in as he reviews his “top five breakups” to figure out what has gone wrong.  Much of the movie involves his quest to reconnect with prior girlfriends to discovery why the relationships failed.

Laura, the girlfriend who left him and put him into this tailspin, continues to make appearances – each one a painful moment of realizing what has been lost.  Late in the movie, she calls him in tears because her father has died.  “Mom wants you to come to the funeral because, for some reason, my dad liked you.”  He goes to the funeral and to the reception at her home after.  He approaches her, says, “I’m sorry,” and walks out into the rain.

As he sits soaked on a bench waiting for a bus, the rain becomes a deluge.  He looks into the camera and says,

I can see now I never really committed to Laura.  I always had one foot out the door, and that prevented me from doing a lot of things, like thinking about my future and... I guess it made more sense to commit to nothing, keep my options open.  And that's suicide.  By tiny, tiny increments.

I remember sitting up and taking notice when he said that.  How many people do I know who have spent their lives on the fence about faith, committing to nothing and keeping their options open?  Friends, that is not living; that is death.  Jesus was making the same observation to the people in Cana when the royal official arrived.  Have faith.  Commit.  Look beyond the miracles.  Don’t just keep your options open, don’t keep waiting for something or someone better to come along.  There is no other savior.  There is salvation in no one else.

               Life

Faith in Jesus Christ leads to life.

Let me return to my friends Dan and Shaun.  During the course of the illness, Dan and Shaun spent so much time together in prayer and study.  Dan came to a place that he relied and trusted Jesus.  He no longer just knew about Jesus – he came to know Jesus.  He wanted to be healed, for sure; but more importantly, he began to live into his relationship with Jesus as Lord and Savior.  It was a gift of grace to Shaun, who was relieved that Dan was saved.  It was a gift of life to Dan, who could put his life, his death into the hands of Jesus and have peace that he would not be disappointed.

The beginning of the Heidelberg Catechism – one of the statements that are a part of our denomination’s Confessional Standards – includes this question and answer that this congregation has recited in the past:

1. What is your only comfort, in life and in death?

That I belong—body and soul, in life and in death—not to myself but to my faithful Savior, Jesus Christ, who at the cost of his own blood has fully paid for all my sins and has completely freed me from the dominion of the devil; that he protects me so well that without the will of my Father in heaven not a hair can fall from my head; indeed, that everything must fit his purpose for my salvation. Therefore, by his Holy Spirit, he also assures me of eternal life, and makes me wholeheartedly willing and ready from now on to live for him.

It took a serious brain cancer for Dan to begin to understand what this meant.  But he got it.  I was blessed to be able to say a few words at Dan’s memorial.  My text that day was 1 Corinthians 15.  I would like to share a part of that with you:

The last couple of times I came up and sat with Dan, he had peace with God. He fought the good fight – oh, how he fought.  Frankly, I am amazed at how he adapted and managed through his illness. 

Last summer, some of us were in Cape Cod for Pete and Sharon’s wedding.  Shaun, my wife Jennifer, Dan and I spent some time wandering around the shops.  Well, Shaun and Jen wandered, Dan and I found a little bar and had a beer together.  He was walking using the cane and he had that purple paisley bandana around his head to cover the surgery scars – and I know he hated that he had both of them.  But in our conversation, Dan talked about how grateful he was: how grateful he was for all of God’s blessings.  He remembered his parents and his family growing up – how their love for him was a great gift.  He remembered Shaun and Tara and Matthew and talked about how deeply he loved them and how important they were to him.  He talked in general terms about what he had been able to do in his career; how the opportunities and adventure were amazing.  In all of it, he was grateful.

Dan knew how the blessings he had seen and experienced in his life were a gift.

Listen to Paul’s last line in our Scripture text; it is the kicker.  “But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

The victory Jesus won, Dan received as a gift.

The peace that Dan received as a gift of his faith became a gift to others.  In his last moments, Shaun was reading Psalm 23 to him.  As she read, he opened his eyes as if to both confirm what she was reading and to say good-bye.

Where, O death, is your victory?

Where, O death is your sting?

Dan is victorious over death; he is victorious because God has given him victory over death through Jesus Christ.  Those who confess Jesus Christ is LORD and believe in their heart that God raised him from the dead will be saved.

Dan’s faith had a huge impact on his family.  As he was able to share his peace and hope of eternal life because of his faith in Jesus, his children were prepared for his death.  They wept, yes.  They hurt, yes.  They grieved, yes.  But all that would pass; what was deeper than any of that was the peace that passes all understanding: Dan had shared his faith with his family.  He believed along with his whole household.

When the royal official came to Jesus, his son was at the “point of death.”  The official begged Jesus to go to Capernaum, “before my little boy dies.”  Jesus said, “Go, your son will live.”  Not, “he will get better,” or, “he will be healed.”  Jesus said, “Go; your son will live.”  At Jesus’ command, the boy had life.  He lived and he was a part of the household that believed.  Don’t miss the point of what John was telling us here: yes, Jesus healed the boy from illness.  But more important, he gave him life and faith – meaning Jesus also gave him eternal life.  Believing in Jesus means that death does not have the last word.

               Communion

Jesus himself would find himself at the point of death as he walked the road to Jerusalem.  There, the Son – the eternal Word of God – would suffer death – actual death – even death on the cross.  We believe in him because he walked that road for you, for me, for us.

That road led him to this table.  At this table, Jesus instituted the new covenant: the covenant that leads to life – eternal life as a sinner redeemed and washed clean; eternal life as an adopted son or daughter of the King; eternal life as a brother or sister of Christ and co-heir with him.  This table was a declaration of life.  It was a preview of the victory about to be won . It was a tangible representation of Jesus’ authority and sovereignty over death – and life.

Faith and life.  There is only one worthy of faith – do not wait for someone else or something better; there is no need to be tantalized by the flashy or new.  There is only one with the authority to declare life: there is only Christ, the only one in whom there is life.  Believe, along with your whole household, and live.

Amen.

Invitation to the Communion Table

Questions

  1. How much do you try to handle on your own before you go to God?  I would like to think I go to God first, but that’s not the truth.  I am working to get better; yet the truth is that I try not to “bother” God with my trivial things.  It is like I want to save up to ask God for the big things.  How about you?
  2. How have you shared your faith with your household?  How have you shared your faith with your community (both inside and beyond the congregation)?
  3. Do you trust Jesus for your life?  Do you trust Jesus with your life?  How does trust that look in your life?