DAILY GRACE
March 23, 2020, Monday in the Fourth Week of Lent
Hello again everyone!
No “Daily Grace” was sent yesterday (Sunday). Rather, a video-link to yesterday’s abbreviated worship service that was posted on YouTube was emailed out to all of you. I hope you had a chance to view it. The YouTube video-link has also been posted on our church’s website (www.tazpreschurch.org).
I wish you all grace and peace in the Lord,
Pastor Dave Gilbert
Scripture: John 4:43-54
When the two days were over, he went from that place to Galilee (for Jesus himself had testified that a prophet has no honor in the prophet’s own country). When he came to Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him, since they had seen all that he had done in Jerusalem at the festival; for they too had gone to the festival.
Then he came again to Cana in Galilee where he had changed the water into wine. Now there was a royal official whose son lay ill in Capernaum. When he heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee, he went and begged him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death. Then Jesus said to him, ‘Unless you see signs and wonders you will not believe.’ The official said to him, ‘Sir, come down before my little boy dies.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Go; your son will live.’
The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and started on his way. As he was going down, his slaves met him and told him that his child was alive. So he asked them the hour when he began to recover, and they said to him, ‘Yesterday at one in the afternoon the fever left him.’ The father realized that this was the hour when Jesus had said to him, ‘Your son will live.’ So he himself believed, along with his whole household. Now this was the second sign that Jesus did after coming from Judea to Galilee.
The Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God
Meditation
“. . . come down before my little boy dies.”
This story of the royal official takes us by surprise. It begins predictably enough: word has gotten around in Capernaum that Jesus is back — the one who turned water into wine at the wedding in Cana, saving the family name of the young couple and providing for the feast. As this Gospel story takes place, Jesus has already said some extraordinary things, but he hasn’t yet performed any of the healing miracles described in the Gospel. We’re about to see the second “sign” Jesus performs in the Gospel of John.
This royal official’s son is seriously ill, to the point of death. He goes to Jesus and asks him to come and heal his little boy. Jesus challenges him, “Unless you see signs and wonders you will not believe.” Here we have a father desperately concerned for his son (as people today are desperately concerned for family loved ones in ICUs with COVID-19 or other medical crises), and yet Jesus is speaking of signs and wonders. The man loses no time. Ignoring what Jesus has said, with calm and measured insistence, the father demands, “Sir, come down before my little boy dies.”
When our loving concern for another is so intense, so utterly anxious, we focus. All else is irrelevant — we zero in on our goal, determined to force a solution. Can anything distress a parent more than to see a child suffering? This father pleads with Jesus, who immediately relents. He gives the father everything he has asked and more, “Go; your son will live.”
Instantly the boy is healed, long-distance. In this case, it is Jesus who receives the wonder — a father’s faith so profound it needs no explanation or proof. The requested visit from Jesus is unnecessary. The father goes directly home without another word.
Prayer
Do I dare be so direct with you, Lord? Perhaps too often I am not nearly so insistent, so determined, so convinced that you will reply. Lord, you responded immediately, completely, to that father’s distraught plea. May my love for the needs of all your suffering people move me to be as direct and resolute with you in prayer. Although you will not always answer the way I wish, I believe that in your goodness you are already providing for me, for my loved ones, and for all your people.
Contemplation
“Lord, I believe. Increase my faith!”