Please Heal My Son

Then he came again to Cana in Galilee where he had changed the water into wine. Now there was a royal official whose son lay ill in Capernaum. When he heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee, he went and begged him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death. Then Jesus said to him, ‘Unless you see signs and wonders you will not believe.’ The official said to him, ‘Sir, come down before my little boy dies.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Go; your son will live.’ The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and started on his way. As he was going down, his slaves met him and told him that his child was alive. So he asked them the hour when he began to recover, and they said to him, ‘Yesterday at one in the afternoon the fever left him.’ The father realized that this was the hour when Jesus had said to him, ‘Your son will live.’ So he himself believed, along with his whole household. Now this was the second sign that Jesus did after coming from Judea to Galilee.
- John 4:46-54

Jesus has returned to Galilee after having been in Judea at the Passover. This time, upon his return, many Galileans have seen or heard about the signs he did in Judea. He also performed a previous miracle, a sign, in Cana itself: that of turning water to wine at a wedding. But as we have seen already, mere belief in miraculous signs is not true faith, it is not the depth of soil required for the faith that Jesus wants.

A royal official comes to Jesus claiming his son is ill, and asking Jesus to come and heal him. Once again, Jesus encounters in Galilee a faith based on signs alone. So he admonishes, "Unless you see signs and wonders you will not believe." But the father is adamant, what he truly cares about is the healing of his son. "Sir, come down before my little boy dies." Jesus tells the official to go, that his son will live. And so, the official follows Jesus' advice (we are told the man believed Jesus' word), and is met by his slaves who inform him that the child is alive. He takes care to ask the hour at which the child began to recover, and is told that it was at the time the official spoke with Jesus.

It's often that we are tempted to feel love or relationship by virtue of the gifts we get from that connection, from that relation or friendship. We may find a person dazzling or impressive in some sense. But love makes deeper connections than simply what one gets from something or someone. Love and faith involve a deeper sort of connection of trust. Jesus knows that faith based on the signs he can perform is not the faith he's looking for. It's not the deep soil of real faith. This story we encounter today is a story about love. The father is not merely looking for a sign. He loves his son, he desperately desires that his son be well. He has faith in Christ's word without the sign, because love has prompted him to ask, and in faith he goes back home.

What do we require of our own faith? Is it a faith that lasts as long as it seems to prosper us, or to give us good signs and wonders? Faith is a different level of being, a different sort of connection. That faith is something that has to last us also through difficulties, but its road comes from love that transcends the surface. As we know, faith will lead through crucifixion in this story, through death and to something beyond. But this story is rooted in love, as in the deep care of a father for his child, and the compassion of the Christ in that connection of love. The depth of mystery for me is in that love. Where does it lead us, and who does it teach us to be? In whom does it teach us to have faith and trust? And who responds to that love?