The Twenty-First Sunday after Trinity, A D 2015
John 4:46-54
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
When Jesus returned to Cana, certainly people remembered Him. And word about Him spread quickly. “The miracle worker, the one who gave us wine from the stone water jars, the one who does great signs and wonders, He has come back to Cana!” So the official from Capernaum made the 20 mile journey to Cana to see if he might get this Jesus to do a miracle for his dying son. He believes Jesus can do miracles, to be sure, or at least he hopes so. But Jesus is for this official as any other servant, a means to an end. When he has a need, Jesus is convenient. So he came and asked Jesus to come to his house to heal his son.
Is that how you treat Jesus, as well? As a miracle worker to be ordered around when you have need of Him and allowed to go His own way when you see no pressing need? Do you call on him only when you have an illness, a family crisis, an errand you could use some help with? Is Jesus just a means to an end, little more than a genie to be invoked with half-hearted prayers? Believing Jesus is a miracle worker will do you no good. Even the demons believe that and shudder. Repent.
Jesus gives this official a stinging rebuke. “Unless you see signs and wonders, you will not believe.” The nobleman’s son is not the only one whose life in in peril. So is the nobleman’s, but more gravely. Where the boy is at risk of temporal death, the nobleman has put himself at risk of eternal death. He lacks faith. He has made the life of his son into an idol. But who among you is unlike him? Who hasn’t made the answer to your prayers more important than the One to whom those prayers are addressed? Who hasn’t been discouraged when you only have the Word of God, not any visible relief or answer, to cling to? What the nobleman thought was good was killing him. The good things you receive from God likewise threaten to destroy you eternally if you put more trust in them, find more joy in them, cling more tightly to them than to the Lord who has given them. Repent.
This is not faith. This is no way to treat the Incarnate Lord. But faith is not what can be seen or proved. No, faith is, according to the writer of Hebrews, the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. Even if the official could have signs and wonders, he still would not believe. How many people witnessed the miracles of Jesus and still remained obstinately without faith? In fact, the signs and wonders Jesus performed were what drove the crowds to conspire to have Him crucified. But the official persisted, refusing to let Jesus have the final word. Where before St. John records the man asked Jesus to come to his house, now he’s done asking. “Come down [to my house] before my child dies.”
But Jesus will not. He will not be ordered around, no matter how much power or influence this official supposes to have. Instead Jesus answers with this terse response. “Go, your son lives.” He puts on no impressive show; He does not treat the man with gentle words; He does not preach at length until the man feels his heart strangely warmed. He speaks just a word to him. Go; your son lives.
The man should have responded in outrage at this disrespect. He should have laughed at the foolishness of what Jesus spoke. He should have been insulted that Jesus would not come to his house. Any of those would be a normal reaction. Here is the greater miracle in the account. Where the nobleman prior to Jesus’ rebuke probably would have stormed off in a huff, now he has received the gift of faith. His priorities have been reordered. But what does St. John say the man did? He believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and went on his way. He’s no longer even “the nobleman from Capernaum,” just “the man.” According to Martin Franzmann, the author of the hymn with which the service closes, Jesus sent him with only a word in his pocket. But what a word! The word of Jesus evoked repentance and faith in this hard-hearted man. The word that made wine from water now makes life from death, even in a town miles away. The son of the man received his health from the very moment of Jesus’ word. The man believed and so made believers out of his entire household. What a word!
The word of Jesus is the word that cleaves darkness from light. The Word of God is the word with the power to create something from nothing, with the power to create the entire world in six short days. It is the eternal Word. In the beginning was the Word. The Word was God, and the Word was with God. By Him all things were created. And then the Word became flesh and dwelled on earth. Jesus is the Word of God, the eternal Second Person of the Holy Trinity. What a Word! The same word that pronounced “let there be light” commanded the dying boy to live.
The Word of God who took human flesh in the womb of His virgin Mother did more than signs and wonders. Signs and wonders would have been for Him to overthrow the soldiers who came to seize Him in the Garden. Sure, they fell down at His word, but He allowed Himself to be arrested. Signs and wonders would have been the way to demonstrate to Pilate and the crowd assembled that He is indeed the King of the Jews. Signs and wonders would have been for Him to call down angels to deliver Him from the cross. Signs and wonders would have been for Him to escape from the cross and destroy His captors in a powerful coup de force. But there, on the cross, the Divine Word of God, the Word through whom all things were created, the Word that cleaves light from dark, died.
But the Son lives. Not the son of the official. He was raised, of course, but not on his own. But the Son who commanded His Mother, “Woman, behold your Son,” He lives. Though He died, He rose. Your Son lives. Yes, your Son. He, the Son of God, is yours. He gives Himself to you in His Word.
What a word! He gives Himself to you in the water and word of Holy Baptism. It is not just plain water, but it is the water included in God’s command and combined with God’s word (LSC). What a word! In the word of Holy Baptism, you died. Your sinful self was drowned to death in the waters of Holy Baptism. And the Word of God, Jesus Christ, took your sin and gave you His sinless life. You died and rose in those ordinary waters by the power of the Word of God.
What a word! The Son of God gives you Himself in Holy Absolution. The Word of God, through which everything was created, still creates. It creates a new reality. In the word of absolution, you were made a saint, a sinless child of God. At His Holy Supper, the powerful Word of God creates the presence of the true Body and Blood of Jesus where there was none before. And then, the Word made Flesh, Jesus, the Son who lives, gives you Himself. He gives you His Body and His Blood to eat and to drink. He gives you the very forgiveness of sins in this precious meal.
Cling to this Word. This Word is the sword St. Paul exhorts you to wield, the powerful light-from-dark-cleaving, demon-driving-out, does-what-it-says Word of God is the sword of the Spirit. we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. This Word is yours everyday, to receive, to study, to believe, to wield.
Jesus has gathered you to deliver Himself, His Word to you today. And He sends you forth, back to your own Capernaums, where you don’t know whether your son lives or dies, whether the prognosis is better or worse, but that God has made you an irrevocable promise. Death is a farse. It has come undone in the One who died and who rose for you. And His Word is stronger than the demons. He baptized you. He absolves you. He feeds you with His Body and Blood. Jesus sends you on your way with His word in your hands, in your heart, on your lips. Go in peace. The Son lives.
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Soli Deo Gloria
Pastor Jeff Hemmer