Just Words

DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL OF JOHN

JUST WORDS

John 4:46-54

46 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. 47 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. 48 "Unless you people see miraculous signs and wonders," Jesus told him, "you will never believe."  49 The royal official said, "Sir, come down before my child dies." 50 Jesus replied, "You may go. Your son will live." The man took Jesus at his word and departed. 51 While he was still on the way, his servants met him with the news that his boy was living. 52 When he inquired as to the time when his son got better, they said to him, "The fever left him yesterday at the seventh hour." 53 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. 54 This was the second miraculous sign that Jesus performed, having come from Judea to Galilee.

NIV

We could think Jesus said what he did with a bit of indignity, or we could see it as he said it out of compassion, but in reality we do not know the tone of his voice, but just the words. Maybe that is true of all of us, in that unless we see a miracle we will not truly believe. We might say we do, but we also have that certain amount of doubt as well, because we have never witnessed or experienced a real miracle from the words of Jesus. That is not to say that some of us have actually experienced a miracle and perhaps more than one, which of course does give us an unwavering faith in Jesus. Some might say that it would have been great to live in the time of Jesus so as to actually see him preform the miracles, but this man lived in that time and only heard the words of Jesus, as he was not with his son when his son experienced the miracle. Although it is true others in the household were and after this man returned home everyone shared their experience of this miracle and the timing of it which resulted in the entire household believed. We may not have Jesus in the physical but we still have Jesus, and we have his word, and we have the Holy Spirit dwelling with us to confirm the words of Jesus. If we need a miracle in order to believe, Jesus will do it in order for us to believe. If we need a miracle in order to bring others to believe, it will be done. We need only believe in the words of Jesus. Those of us who have experienced miracles from the words of Jesus need to share those with others, we cannot keep a miracle from them, and we must give testimony about Jesus. We need to share miracles of healing and miracles in material blessings or whatever other kind of miracle Jesus did for, in or through us. We only need the words of Jesus, just words.