Jesus Heals the Official’s Son – What Is Faith? (John 4:43-54)

Jesus Heals the Official’s Son – What Is Faith?

 

John 4:43-54

 

Christianity is “a religion of faith.” In order to be a right believer, therefore, we need to know the true meaning of “faith” taught in the Bible. In order to explain faith, I often use the image of a tunnel. Faith is “a secret tunnel” connecting two persons. Through the tunnel, the two exchange love and share all kinds of good things. In Jerusalem, the old capital city of Israel, there is a tunnel called “Hezekiah’s Tunnel.” This is a manmade tunnel dug through solid bedrock during the reign of Hezekiah, the king of Judah. Jerusalem was constructed on the top of Mt. Zion. Thus, it does not have a large river as in other big cities. The only source of water in Jerusalem is the spring called Gihon. The problem is that this spring is outside the city wall. In order to draw water, people had to go out of the city. During the days of King Hezekiah, the city was attacked by Sennacherib, the king of Assyria, which was the superpower in those days. If the city was surrounded by the enemy, those inside the wall were not able to access the spring while the enemy could drink the water freely. So, King Hezekiah blocked the spring and dug a tunnel so that the spring water would flow into the inside of the city wall. For us, God is like the Gihon Spring. We are connected to the Spring through the tunnel called “faith” and we are supplied with the water of life welling up ceaselessly from the spring. This is why Christians, though seemingly surrounded by many enemies and adversities, lead a life of fullness, happiness, and liveliness.

 

Hezekiah’s Tunnel is a over 1600-feet long passage bored through hard bedrock. We cannot imagine how difficult it was to dig such a long channel without tools we have today. In fact, it is also an extremely tough job to open the tunnel of faith toward God. It is because our unbelief is as stubborn as a rock. In today’s passage, Jesus heals the son of a royal official. Through this event, Jesus constructs “a tunnel of faith” in his heart. Furthermore, Jesus gives us important lessons on “What is faith?” They are about “the nature of faith,” about “the contents of faith,” and about “the object or objective of faith.” Think about this. You bored a long tunnel throughout your entire lifetime only to find that there was not a spring of water. What a waste of life! Therefore, we need to listen to Jesus carefully and have true faith acceptable to God.

 

First, with regard to the nature of faith, faith is believing what is unseen. Jesus, after having visited Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, returned to his home country Galilee and came to the village Cana in the country. According to verse 45, Galileans welcomed Jesus and it was because they had seen all the signs and miracles that Jesus performed in Jerusalem during the Passover Feast. In Cana, a royal official came from Capernaum and he begged Jesus to come and heal his son, who was close to death. Upon this request, Jesus gave a somewhat irrelevant answer. “Unless you people see miraculous signs and wonders, you will never believe.” Whatever Jesus was saying, the official kept begging, “Sir, come down before my child dies.”

 

Seeing that the hometown people welcomed Jesus and the royal official came to Jesus for his dying son, certainly these people believed that Jesus was “a man of God.” Nevertheless, Jesus says, “Unless you see, you will never believe!” This problem was mentioned twice (v. 45 and 48) in the passage, and this suggests that it was a very serious problem to Jesus. That is, believing after seeing is not true faith, and genuine faith is believing without seeing. In fact, the word “believe” itself implies “without concrete visible evidence or proof.” Faith is a kind of ‘examination.’ You have to give correct answers without seeing the answers. If you are given the answers before taking an examination, your ability cannot be proved by the test. God, without showing anything, wants us to believe him about what he is doing now or will do in the future. This nature of faith is confirmed by several words in the Bible. For example, Romans 8:24 says, “For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have?” Hebrews 11:1 also declares, “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” As evidenced by these words, faith is “hoping and believing what we do not see.”

 

“Faith based on seeing” makes our life and thought extremely narrow. It is because we cannot turn our attention away from what is happening “here and now.” Faith based on seeing does not learn from the past, and does not have a hope for the future. one with such faith is always anxious about what is going on before his eyes, and suffers from many worries. It is a one-dimensional life. In case of the royal official in today’s story as well, his mind was arrested by “the dying son.” Thus, he could not see who Jesus was, and could not hear what Jesus was saying. His only desire was bringing Jesus back to his home as soon as possible. In this way, faith based on seeing is not true faith, and with such faith, we cannot live a spiritual life led by God. With faith based on seeing, rather, we are easily trapped by Satan’s temptations. The following is 2Thessalonians 2:9-10. “The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with the work of Satan displayed in all kinds of counterfeit miracles, signs, and wonders, and in every sort of evil that deceives those who are perishing. They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved.” This word warns us that if we insist on seeing signs and miracles, we may be deceived by Satan and, after all, perish. When we cannot see anything, we should know that it’s time to believe God. Even when we see something, we should rather rely on God instead of what we see. By doing so, we should make it our habit deeply rooted into our life and thought to belief without seeing. As a matter of course, then, our life and mind will be guided by God, and will be expanded to the eternal and glorious Kingdom of God. Faith without seeing is true faith.

 

Second, with regard to the contents of faith, faith is believing the Words. To the official’s desperate request that Jesus would go down and heal the son before he died, Jesus just said “a word” instead of going with him. “Go. Your son will live.” Surprisingly, the man believed Jesus’ word and went home by himself. He failed to take Jesus to his home. However, he received Jesus’ word and believed it. That was enough. And exactly as Jesus said and exactly when Jesus said so, the boy was healed. This shows clearly who Jesus was. Jesus is “the King of kings, and the Lord of lords.” Jesus himself is the God who created the world and all things in it, hold them, and rule them by his mighty words. The king does not work by moving his body. The king works just by saying “words.” Things are done as he says. When a word is uttered from the king’s mouth, “the word” is regarded as the king himself. Those who listen to the word must treat it wholeheartedly as if they are serving the king. Whether the king is present before them or not, they should trust and obey the word. “God’s word” is no less then “God living in me now.”

 

Faith is believing Jesus’ word. We often think vaguely that it will be all right, or expect that things will go as I desire, and call it “faith.” However, this is not genuine faith. At the core of faith should be God’s word. Like a peach has the solid stone and the seed at its core, our faith must have God’s word solidly seated at its core. Then, day and night, we think, speak, and behave out of this word. The royal official in today’s passage shows us two different faces. one is when he was coming to Jesus with the problem of the “dying son” in his heart, and the other  is when he was going back home with Jesus’ word “Your son will live.” When he was coming to Jesus, he had the dying son at the core of his heart. His heart was extremely dark, heavy, and fearful. Then, Jesus gave him the word “Your son will live.” on his way back home, his heart was occupied by the Lord’s word “Your son will live” instead of “the dying son.” His feet were much lighter and brighter. He walked as if walking on the cloud. It was because God’s word came into his soul, his life, and his thought. Whatever fearful and difficult problem we have, it doesn’t matter at all. We must have in our heart “the word of Living God” rather than “the problem.” And we should believe in our whole heart that the word has been fulfilled. This is our life and our power.

 

Third, with regard to the object and objective of faith, faith is believing God. When the royal official took Jesus’ word and was going home, he met his servants on the way. They brought the good news, “Your son is living.” The man asked the servants when the boy got better. This suggests that the official had been pondering over Jesus’ word “Your son will live” on his way. Verse 53 says, “Then 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.” Here, “he and all his household believed” means that the official and all the people belonging to his household came to receive and believe Jesus as their Lord. This is the conclusion of this story. The ending of this event is not “The son was healed” but “He and all his household believed.” What the royal official gained after all was not “the healthy son” but “the Living God.” They came to believe God. This is true blessing upon his family.

 

Faith is basically a term describing “the relationship” between two persons. And Christian faith is trusting and following God as “my Father” and Jesus as “my Savior and Shepherd.” This is the ultimate purpose of faith. Salvation taught in the Bible always consists of two parts. one is “salvation from OO” and the other is “salvation into OO.” According to Exodus in the Old Testaments, Jehovah God says to Moses to tell this to Egyptian King Pharaoh. “This is what the Lord says, ‘Let my people go, so that they may worship me.’” (Exodus 7:16, 8:1, 8:20, 9:1, 9:13, 10:3). For the Israelites, that is, salvation is “from” the slavery under Pharaoh, and, going further, “into” the Lord God. In fact, the latter is a much more difficult part. It is because we easily forget God’s grace and our nature is disobedient to God. Therefore, many people are content with imperfect salvation, wandering around in the wilderness or even going back to Egypt. When God helps us have faith in Him, his greatest purpose is establishing a loving relationship between us and our Father in Heaven. When we call God “Daddy!” from our deep heart, we are now already in heaven. This is true faith, which is “living faith” that doesn’t have to be called “faith” because it is so real.

 

The Bible says, “The righteous will live by faith” (Habakkuk 2:4, Romans 1:17). This means that faith is the foundation of our life. We may lose everything but must not lose faith. Faith is like “Hezekiah’s tunnel” connecting us to God. Thus, if we don’t believe, we are not living even if we live. If we believe, on the contrary, we are living even if we die. I pray that every day we keep breaking the solid rock of unbelief and digging the tunnel of faith toward God. I pray that, through the tunnel of faith, the water of grace and the light of life may come from God and upon us abundantly.