Trinity XXI Sermon 2025

 
Except ye see signs and wonders, ye will not believe.
St. John iv. 48
 
          Have you ever noticed how many people live their lives in search of miracles? MOst men want God to prove that He exists. More than that, they want Him to overturn the normal course of human life with supernatural wonders that benefit them. Most men –including no small number of Christians, await the one miracle that they think will confirm their belief or relieve their so-called earthly suffering. And yet how strange it is that no sooner are the miracles performed than their recipients will fall back into practical atheism and ingratitude. The happiness that miracles bring wears off almost as quickly as a new pair of shoes. And it’s not buyer’s remorse but a sign that those who seeks for signs and wonders are intellectually and spiritually lazy.
         
We find this in today’s Gospel. Jesus has just finished rebuking men for being miracle-seekers. We read that Jesus came again into Cana of Galilee, where he made water wine. And there was a certain nobleman whose son was sick at Capernaum… [who]went unto him, and besought him that he would come down and heal his son, who was at the point of death. (St. John iv. 46, 47) Jesus had just finished teaching the heretical Samaritans, who had been much more interested in what he said than in proving anything to them by way of miracles. But now back in Jewish Galilee, where Jesus made water into wine, He is confronted once again by a miracle-seeker. The Jews seem far more interested in ephemeral signs and wonders than with the Word which He longs to save them. So, Jesus is approached by a nobleman who entreats the Lord to come down to heal his son. Jesus rebukes the nobleman, saying Except ye see signs and wonders, ye will not believe. (Ibid, 48) Jesus is clearly annoyed. Would that one Jew might ask Him to heal a soul. Would that the nobleman were concerned about his son’s spiritual state and future destiny. At any rate, the nobleman exclaims Sir come down, lest my child die. (Ibid, 49) Like the Galilean Jews, his hope hangs on extending earthly life. And, because he has no deeper sense of the transcendent and invisible power that can heal a man either from a distance or in a deeper, inward, and spiritual way, he demands that Jesus come down to his house. The end he seeks and the means to it are wholly caught up in the flesh.
         
In short, the man is rebuked for thinking first and foremost of his son’s physical and earthly healing. Signs and wonders are paranormal events sought out by those weak in faith for the relief of physical disease. Because he is so moved and defined by the earthly good, he takes no thought for his son’s spiritual future. If he knew who Christ was and what He was bringing into the world, he would have asked Jesus to come down to heal his son spiritually, so that he might die a good death in anticipation of a better reward in the future. Nevertheless, having rebuked the man, Jesus will not leave him without any hope.
         
Jesus will take the man in that state that he finds him and make him better. He knows that in the future, wherever and whenever this story would be told, there will be ample opportunity to find spiritual truth in it. To earthly problems, Jesus always brings spiritual remedies. Jesus takes this man’s earthly desire and transforms it to his spiritual advantage. The nobleman is not bereft of good intentions or even virtue. He loves his son and is determined to find whatever means necessary to save him from too early an earthly demise. He believes that Jesus alone has the power to heal where the physicians had failed. But he tries to tell Jesus how to heal his son – by coming down to his house. We ought not to tell Jesus how to do his work.

If his son is anything like him, they are both in need of the true spiritual healing that only Jesus can provide. So Jesus says to him, Go thy way, thy son liveth. (St. John iv. 50) Jesus means for the nobleman to trust in His Word and believe it to discover its power. To his credit, the nobleman does not hesitate with doubt or question Jesus any further. And the man began his journey home, putting his trust in the words Jesus had spoken to him. (Ibid, 50)

What is truly miraculous is not so apparent in our casual reading of the text. Notice how the nobleman is trusting in the Word that Jesus speaks. Jesus would not come down to his house and yet would work a miracle. Archbishop Trench reminds us that His confidence in Christ’s word was so great that he proceeded leisurely homewards. It was not till the next day that he approached his house, though the distance between the two cities was not so great that the journey need have occupied many hours; but ‘he that believeth shall not make haste.’ (Trench, Miracles, p. 93). The man is rebuked. Something has begun to stir in our miracle-seeker’s soul at the gravity of Jesus’ command. Christ’s Word has slowed him down and moved him to wonder. When Jesus speaks, he hears, obeys, and trusts. The spoken Word has conquered and subdued his unbelief, fear, and doubt. This hearer’s belief rests in the spoken Word. The real miracle is the birth of the nobleman’s faith in the Word which had transformed his spiritual character and disposition. The nobleman had forgotten that he needed Jesus to come down to his house. Rather, Christ has come down to his soul, intending to heal his heart. With this, all other things will fall into place. As St. John Chrysostom says, The nobleman’s narrow and poor faith is being enlarged and deepened (Trench, Mir’s. 93) as he hastens home slowly under the protection of Christ’s Word.
         
So, as the nobleman returned home, his servants met him saying, thy son liveth. Then inquired he of them the hour that he began to amend. And they said, yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him. (St. John iv. 51, 52) The nobleman’s question confirms his belief that the healing of his son had been instantaneous. The son did not begin to amend, but rather the fever left him completely the day before when Jesus had said thy son liveth. Jesus’ Word brings about two miracles. That Word had cured his son immediately from a distance. That same Word becomes dearer to the man than his son’s life. Its strength and might have subdued and conquered his fear. That selfsame Word traveled two distances. It healed the flesh of the son in an instant. It converted the soul of the father in the steady progress of a longer journey home.
         
St. Thomas Aquinas reminds us that we should prepare our souls through prayer and come to God through our desires. For this is what the [nobleman] did. (Comm. Joh. iv) Prayer is the first movement of the self towards God. Desire is the faculty that seeks out the healing that Christ alone can bring. Of course, our chief prayer should be for spiritual healing. Rather than focusing on earthly miracles, we ought to pray for the spiritual and heavenly purification of our affections. Again, with St. Thomas, as the nobleman desired the healing of his son, so we should desire to be healed from our sins. ‘Heal my soul, for I have sinned against thee.’ (Ps. xl. 5) (Ibid) Next, like the nobleman we ought always to be desperately persistent, since without Christ’s Grace, we cannot help ourselves. The nobleman’s son was close to physical death; we, like his father, are near to spiritual death. So, we must pray to Jesus, Sir, come down, before I die in my sins. We must pray always, and not lose heart. (Idem)
         
Of course, while we must run in haste to find healing from the Lord, with today’s nobleman we must embrace patience as our trust and obedience in Jesus matures. That we desperately need His healing power is one thing. That it takes time is another. Jesus says to the nobleman and us, Go away. Go away, thy son liveth. (Idem) He means for us to go away for our souls still live. We must learn to obey, trust, and believe. If we do, Christ will give us patience. Patience teaches the nobleman that he must put on the whole armour of God to stand against the wiles of the devil because we wrestle [not] against flesh and blood, but against principalities… powers… the rulers of darkness in this world. (Eph. vi. 10,11) What really threatens us is that temptation to evil that would so fill us with fear over earthly  that we forget whether our souls are alive to God for Heaven or dead to God for Hell!
        
Needless to say, Christ will not heal all children on the verge of death. To die young is not a tragedy but part and parcel of a world in which earthly death will get us all. The real tragedy is found in man’s fallen will when he refuses to get right with God. The nobleman’s son might have been saved from earthly death only to die a year later. Or the nobleman himself might have died shortly after his son’s healing. In either case, whatever might have transpired after, we know not. What we do know is that the nobleman believed along with his whole house, (ibid, 54) now prepared to die a good earthly death at whatever time because they were alive to God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.
©wjsmartin