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. (John 4:49-50)
Jesus was in Cana of Galilee, mind
you the same area where He performed His first miracle (the turning of water to
wine). As Jesus is going through a royal
official comes to Him and asks for help with his son, apparently on the verge
of death. Jesus just simply looks at him
and responds “go, your son will live”.
The official has a decision here: am I going to just simply take Him at
His word, or do I need more.
I hear of times past where one could
take someone simply at their word, their word was their bond. Sometimes a firm handshake would follow,
regardless both parties would leave with the assurance that the other would
follow through. I don’t really know
these times. If you are like me, life is
full of broken promises, empty words, and failed reassurances. Now don’t get me wrong, there are a few that
their word is their bond, but they are just a FEW. Most don’t intentionally break promises. There are some that just forget, some that
mean well and just overload themselves, and some that make promises just to get
you to do what they want. Every
situation is different. When someone
breaks a promise, it affects you, and when it keeps happening you lose hope in
people. Maybe you are there, maybe you
are close, or maybe you still believe in the word and handshake. However, if you are like me, most promises
that someone has made to me have been broken and it leaves me as a
skeptic. The very moment someone says to
me now, “I will do it, I promise”, in the back of my mind I am already
thinking, “yeah, right”.
Then comes Jesus. We don’t know if the man’s life was full of empty
promises or fulfilled ones. Here is the
one thing He knew, Jesus had told him that he may go, and His son will
live. The official wanted Jesus to come
to his home, Jesus had made it apparent that He didn’t need to and the miracle
was already done. I wonder when he
walked away how he felt, I wonder if he thought “man this guy Jesus is too busy
for me, He totally blew me off”. Now
imagine how he felt when he got home to find his son totally healed. Sometimes we think we need to direct Jesus to
do things the way we want Him to.
Sometimes we think that the world is just full of empty promises and
broken words. Jesus however has promised
that He will never leave us or forsake us, He has promised to be with always,
and He has promised to walk with us through every aspect of life, and all He is
asking is for us to do as the official did and take Him at His word, even if
you do not understand it.
Chris
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