Lenten Reader | Day 13

February 28th, 2024

Take Him At His Word

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.

John 4:46-53

There are a lot of things one can talk about from this passage. Like how sickness and death still come for us, no matter if you hold a title of power in society or if you were a poor man begging on the street. But there is something else in this passage that needs to be talked about. Trust.

Trust is something that is earned but is easily lost. But put God in the mix and it becomes a different story. We know we should trust God in everything, but we humans struggle with that at times. It’s easy to lose trust in things when times get tough, especially when a loved one is sick. I could only imagine how the father was feeling knowing his son was about to die. Knowing that nothing had worked up to this point. But not all hope was lost. You see, in this story Jesus comes back to Cana after being in Samaria. The father knows about these miracles that Jesus has performed.

I like to think that some sort of hope started to swell back up in the royal official because this was a chance for his son to be saved. He goes to Jesus and asks him to heal his son. And then Jesus responds by saying, “Unless you see signs and wonders you will not believe” (John 4:48). However, the father does not stop there. He asks Him again to come heal his son. Jesus then tells him to go back to his son because he will live.

When you start think about this story, you see that the father had so much trust in what Jesus had told him that he did not need to worry about it or even to go see if it really happened. He had such a high level of trust in Jesus that he was satisfied at His word.

That is the type of trust that we should have in Jesus every day. It is easy to forget that and doubt God, but we need to remember to have faith, trust God, and take Jesus at His word.

Chase Mayne