Ephesians 6.10–17 + John 4.46-54
Twenty-First Sunday after Trinity
“Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will be no means believe.” This was not the answer the nobleman had expected. He came to Jesus and implored him to come down to his house and heal his son who was at the point of death. He had heard of Jesus’ divine power and His willingness to help those who came to Him. He expected—he needed—Jesus to come down to his house and heal his son. For this faith, Jesus rebuffs him. Not because the nobleman’s faith was false or hypocritical, but because his faith was weak. His faith is based on sight and experience. His faith needs Jesus to come into his house. His faith needs to see Jesus lay His hand on his son and heal him. Jesus sees the nobleman’s weak faith, that his faith is based on sight and experience, so He chastises him so that that He might strengthen his faith so that it is not based on, or looking for, signs and wonders, but on Jesus’ word.
The nobleman implores Him, “Sir, come down before my child dies!” And Jesus gives him all He is going to give him: a promise. “Go your way, your son lives.” Jesus exercises the nobleman with this promise. The nobleman had a choice. He could have remained in his weak faith that needed the visible presence of Jesus in his home, or he could go home with only Jesus’ promise. The nobleman rises to the occasion. The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him, and he went his way. He understood Jesus’ rebuff. Belief—faith—is not about seeing signs and wonders. When faith relies upon signs and wonders and needs to see them, that faith is quickly rocked when it does not see the signs and wonders it wants. It may imagine it sees signs and wonders because if it does not, it might cease to exist at all. The nobleman understands. It is not about signs and wonders. It is about the word of Jesus, regardless of what one sees and hears, experiences, and feels. He turns around and goes back home, without Jesus, but with Jesus because He has Jesus’ promise.
The next day his servants meet him on the way and tell him, “Your son lives!” When he asks them when his son got better, they tell him, “Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him.” The nobleman knew that was the same hour at which Jesus had said, “Go your way, your son lives.” John writes, “And he himself believed, and his whole household.” The nobleman had already believed. That faith drove him to Jesus in the first place. The nobleman believed Jesus’ word the day before and made his way back home. He knew that His son lived. Jesus told him. Now, however, that his servants have confirmed Jesus’ word, he believes that no matter what happens in the future, Christ would help him, sustain him, and bring him through it. Jesus answered his prayer by healing his son, but He gave him much more. He strengthened his faith so that it did not need signs and wonders. His faith now rested solely upon the mercy and promise of Jesus.
This is how Christ treats all who believe in Him. Where their faith is weak, He strengthens it. Where their faith is misdirected towards what it sees and experiences, He redirects it. His will for us is not only that we believe in Him, but that we continually believe in Him and that we grow in faith towards Him. He does not want our faith to be based on signs and wonders. He does not want us to rely upon what we see and experience, but on His Word alone. This is even more important because Jesus tells us, “False christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect” (Matt 24:24). He wants to strengthen our faith so that it relies solely on His word so that we are not driven back and forth by every sign and wonder we see, or think we see! For the devil and the false prophets easily capitalize on the weak faith of many who seek signs and wonders. By mighty works that lead countless souls away from God’s word to their own imaginations. So that we do not fall prey to false christs and false prophets, Jesus wants to strengthen our faith.
And He strengthens our faith in the same way He did for the nobleman. The nobleman experienced great need. His son was at the point of death. Jesus’ only answer for this was a word, “Go your way, your son lives.” Against everything the nobleman felt in his heart—his fear, his anxiety, his grief—he held tightly to Jesus’ word and went back home. This is how Jesus so often exercises our faith. He allows crosses—which are hardships that come specifically because we confess Christ. He allows us to be tempted by the devil, by the influence of the world, and by our own sinful flesh. He allows trials and afflictions to come upon us. He allows these to come upon us so that we exercise ourselves by clinging to the word that He has already given us.
When God lays the cross upon us, so that we must suffer in this life because we confess Christ, or that we must be put at a disadvantage because of the name ‘Christian,’ we pray that God removes the cross when it is best for us. Until then, we steel ourselves with His word, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it” (Mat 16:24-25). When we are persecuted and poked by others because we live differently than the world, we cling to the Spirit’s word to Timothy through St. Paul, “All who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution” (2 Tim 3:12). God tells us to expect crosses—though not to go looking for them—and He commands us to bear them even as our Lord Jesus bore His cross as He paid for all our sins. If we look for signs and wonders that God will make this world a better place or give us an easier time, we look for things God has not promised. He wants us to bear our crosses and look forward to our heavenly country, our eternal inheritance.
When life goes poorly, when things do not turn out as we wanted them to, when God allows affliction, or when the devil and wicked men prevail and bring us harm, Christ is exercising us so that we trust even more confidently in His word. St. Paul says, “We know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose” (Rom 8:28). While many look to God for a sign or wonder so that they might understand why God is sending the affliction, faith looks to His Word, accepts the affliction, and knows that God who sent it knows how best to end it, and endures the affliction in that faith.
When temptation to sin comes—and it must come—we are not to complain within ourselves that God has abandoned us or imagine that we are weak because we are tempted. Christ Himself was tempted in the days of His humiliation, not once but continually. Temptations—like our crosses—are signs that we are Christians, and that God wants to exercise us so that we trust even more in His word and not what we see and feel. The Holy Spirit tells us through St. Paul that He will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it (1 Cor 10:13). How do you bear the temptation? How to do endure it until it is removed? Not by sign, wonder, or miracle, but by the using of the word as an armor. Gird your waist with truth—knowing God’s truth rather than the lies which tempt you to sin. Put on the breastplate of righteousness—knowing that you are righteous in God’s sight by faith in Christ, and therefore the temptation has no power over you. Put the gospel of peace on your feet, so that in temptation you run quickly to the peace of Jesus, who Himself was tempted. Take the shield of faith, for faith is the defense against all temptations. Faith says, “God has forbidden this that tempts me, and has given me far better.” Wear the knowledge of your salvation like a helmet, protecting your thoughts, and use the word of God as sword, to slay the temptation as Christ Himself did in the wilderness, telling the devil, “It is written.”
Christ does not us to look for, wait for, expect, or need signs and wonders so believe. He wants something stronger than that. So, He gives you His Word. He gives you faith in His Word, so that in every exercise you may grow to learn more the truth of what St. Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 5:7, “We Walk by faith, not by sight.” There is no need for signs and wonders. We have the word. And having the word, we have Christ Himself with us through all things. Amen.
May the peace of God which surpasses all understanding guard your hearts and minds Christ Jesus. Amen.
