We Need to Go Where God Is For Us

Twenty-first Sunday after Trinity

October 16, 2016

John 4:50

We Need to Go Where God Is For Us

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The good thoughts in this sermon come from Pastor David Petersen. Fantastic insights! Thank you! Listen to him directly here: issuesetc.org/2016/10/10/2832-looking-forward-to-sunday-morning-1-year-lectionary-jesus-heals-an-officials-son-pr-david-petersen-101016/

In the name

of the Father and of the ☩ Son

and of the Holy Spirit. Amen!

It's true that God is everywhere, but that doesn't do you much good. If you stick your hand into a campfire, God is everywhere doesn't do you much good. If you jump into a pit of tarantulas, you won't die, but God is everywhere won't do you much good.

The point of today's lesson is you need to go where God has promised to be for you. That means you need to go to Jesus and you find Jesus in His Word. So that's why you came here. Jesus promised to be for you at church. If you try to get Jesus in another way, you will die.

So Jesus is visiting Cana again. Earlier He had come to a wedding in Cana and turned water into wine. A local nobleman has a very sick son, and when he heard that Jesus was in the area, about 25 miles away, he went to see Jesus. He begged Jesus to heal his son.

Jesus is blunt with this rich man.

“Unless you people see miraculous signs and wonders, you will never believe.” (John 4:48)

Jesus is telling this man, in effect, “Okay, you're looking in the right place, but you've come for the wrong thing.” The nobleman wants signs and wonders, but he isn't seeking the kingdom of God because he's made an idol out of life, specifically the life of his son.

We do this all the time, too. We want the good things that God gives, but we want them by themselves apart from God.

So at home we want the pleasures of married life, but we don't want to the responsibilities of being married: we don't want to take out the trash, we don't want to listen to our spouses, we don't want to be limited to one spouse. In the church we want unity in the church, but we don't want church discipline and right doctrine and practice.

So we want the good things, but we take them out of the context of God's mercy and goodness. We want good things on our own terms. We make them idols. And your idols are not made out of stone and wood; they look like you.

So back to Cana. So the Devil is tempting this nobleman with the idol of his son's life. Idols are the things we can't live without and the nobleman couldn't live without his son. He fears, loves, and trusts in his son's life above all things, above God. So he comes to God and tells Jesus what Jesus to do. And if God doesn't do this miracle, then the nobleman has no use for God.

We can't see the nobleman's heart, but the faith we will assume was there was imperfect because of his trust in his idol. It's as if he saying, “Look, Jesus, You can lecture me about doctrine later. Right now we have an emergency! All that matters is that my child lives!” Life and fatherhood, what good things! But they don't get to trump God, who gives life and fathers.

The nobleman thinks that as long as his boy lives, there's hope. But if his son dies, then all hope will be lost. This man's idol, worshiping the life of his son, was this man. This is true for all good things. Life is no good apart from God. Marriage is no good apart from God. Family is no good apart from God.

We might think that the Devil is the one making this child sick and near death; but that would have been the last thing he wanted. The Devil was happy to keep this father trusting in his idols and spiritually sleepy.

Instead God used this sickness to expose this man's idol to save him. We call this the theology of the cross. God is shouting at the nobleman through the sickness of his son to wake up and the nobleman cannot ignore Him.

And Jesus simply says,

“You may go. Your son lives.” (John 4:50)

It's unfortunate that the NIV translates this Greek present tense verb as “Your son will live.” This makes it seem that Jesus is promising a miracle. But all Jesus says is that the nobleman's son lives at that moment. So there are two miracles: the son is healed, but the greater miracle is that

The man took Jesus at His word and departed. (John 4:50)

He believes Jesus' promise that his son is alive and will stay alive forever, even though he dies. This is the greater miracle of trusting Jesus where He wants to be found. Jesus gave this man just want he needed, not a miracle, but faith.

The miracle wine that Jesus created in Cana at the wedding is long gone, but the nobleman from Capernaum and his son still live, even though they died long ago.

You are on the same road as the nobleman. You have only Jesus' word, given to you here at church, and you go home. And you pray at home, “Jesus, don't let my friend die, don't let my wife die, don't let my children die.” And God says to you in His Word:

“I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me will live, even though he dies” (John 11:25)

He is saying, “I know them and I love them more than you do. I baptized them into My name and they live, even when they die.” So we live in hope, we mourn in hope, we wait in hope, taking Jesus at His word.

God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us,

so that in Him

we might become the righteousness of God.

Alleluia! Amen!