John 4:49

The royal official can only utter in response, “Please, Sir, come to my house before my child dies.”  John 4:49 EFP

Try to imagine you are there when this exchange is taking place. I did, and it almost broke my heart.  Do you sense the anguish coming from this father’s lips?  Can you hear his brokenness as he responds to Jesus’ words with a simple, “Don’t let my child die!”?

The man does not defend himself in the face of Jesus’ indictment.  Perhaps he is one of those who does not give Jesus’ a second thought…until this moment.  Perhaps he hears plenty of news about Jesus and his miracles, but chooses not to believe.  He has no need for Jesus…at least, not until today.  But now…his child is slipping away and he is powerless to stop the advance of death’s cold grip on his weakened child.  “Sir, please come…before my child dies!” He is not ashamed to beg.  He is pressing in spite of the apparent rebuff by the Master.  He is not going to quit; his child’s life depends on his success in eliciting a miracle from the Man.

Not going to quit.  I have been struggling with my prayer life for some time now.  I have yet to tap into the next level of prayer’s power.  I believe in it.  I have seen prayer work.  But I want more!  I know that God hears, and I know he wants to give me good gifts.  But I want to be a prayer warrior who does not give up even when heaven seems closed for business.  I want to pray harder and longer and with a simple passion that I see in this man.  I want to learn to pray in such a way that I leave everything there.  I don’t know where that passion comes from—it is not in me.  I am an emotional cripple, I need to be healed.  Lord, give me passion for prayer.  I’m standing next to the man in the story, begging, “Please come to my house….”  It’s me who’s dying.

John 4:48

“All you people want is to see me perform miracles and demonstrate supernatural power,” is Jesus’ initial surprising response to his request. “If I don’t do this for you, you simply won’t believe.” John 4:48 EFP

  

What a strange way to open a dialogue.  Does it not sound a bit harsh to you as it does to me at first reading?  All the man does is approach Jesus with a request for his son.   It was not the first time, and it would certainly not be the last.  So why the sharp response to what appears to be a genuine request? 

Can it be that this reply is the end result of Jesus having to put up with the Galilean entourage that had come to “welcome” him home from his successful Palestinian miracle-making tour?  Does Jesus see beneath their welcoming veneer and discern nothing more than a mob in search of a “performance” from the Rabbi of Nazareth.  He comes home and all he finds is what he left behind in Jerusalem—people wanting to see a miracle for no other reason than to use it as the sole basis for believing in him or ammunition to accuse him further.  They don’t want what he has to offer in terms of genuine change in their lives; they just want a show!  But even if this were the case, why take it out on this man who is clueless to the continuous harassment to which Jesus is subjected.

Can it be that Jesus is simply expressing what his human side was feeling?  Had he simply had it with shallow people looking for a magic show?  Is this Jesus being human?  Or is there something I am missing?  What does Jesus see in this particular man that he finds it necessary to turn the tables on him as he did after Nicodemus’ opening salvo in chapter 3?  I have discovered over time that I take my chances any time I approach God with a request.  I may come thinking I can ask anything of Him, because he says I should, but God at times will impress me with a notion “out of left field” that cuts and hurts.  He sees things in me that I don’t see.  And he does not hesitate to point them out if He feels that I will be better off in the long run.  I’m curious to see where Jesus is going with this.

John 4:47

When this gentleman hears that Jesus returned from Judea and is now back in Galilee, he finds him and begs him to come with him to his house in Capernaum to heal his son, who is on the brink of death.  John 4:47 EFP

I don’t know if this man anticipates Jesus’ arrival in Cana; I am unclear whether he ran the twenty miles to Cana upon hearing he is back from his jaunt to Judea; in fact, I am uncertain if he meets him in Cana at all, although the passage seems to imply to me this is where the encounter takes place.  When I process the request, it really doesn’t matter how or where it takes place, the request is bold on face value.

The official has to have done his homework.  He probably has people on the lookout for Jesus.  Once he knows that Jesus is in the area, he has to anticipate where he is going to be at a certain time.  He has to find him.  Once he finds him, he has to ask, literally beg, Jesus to come back to his house and heal his son who is about to die.  They have never met, as far as I know.  The royal official is a man of stature in the community due to his connection to the royal family.  This may have been good for his pocketbook, but not to his reputation.  The royal families are not known for their high moral standards (e.g. Herod and Herodias).  That does not stop him from approaching the “holy man” to beseech him to save his son.  He sets aside his stature, any decorum, and pleads for his son’s life.  Nothing will impede his determination to ask.

I think more often than not I suffer from a lack of boldness when it comes to my requests of God.  Perhaps it’s timidity.  Maybe I don’t know how to approach the Almighty.  Perhaps it’s just a simple matter of lack of faith, but regardless, I struggle to act upon the invitation to approach and ask.  I need to be reminded that God, as revealed in Jesus, is totally approachable and open to the encroachments by the likes of me. Perhaps the reason some of my requests are not answered is because they are not bold enough.  Can it be that God wants to stretch me? —certainly my requests can’t stretch him!   Boy do I feel faithless in moments like this….  “Lord, help my unbelief!” (Mark 9:24)

John 4:46

Jesus also visits Cana in Galilee, the place where we turned water into wine.  A certain official of the king comes to town during his stay.  His son is very sick in the neighboring city of Capernaum (about 20 miles away). John 4:46 EFP

How interesting that Jesus returns to Cana, the site of his first miracle, only to be confronted with another opportunity to meet a need.  We are left to wonder if Jesus did any miracles in the days preceding his arrival in Cana.  There must have been an underlying expectation for him to “perform” some sort of feat, since many of the people who welcomed him back to his homeland had seen him do some amazing things in Jerusalem.

Knowing Jesus’ resistance to “performing” for anyone, perhaps he simply moves on to a city that brings back good memories of simpler times before the weight of being the Chosen One fell upon him like a lead yoke.  He is in the midst of defining his ministry with pressures mounting from all sides.  On the one side he is pushed to assert himself to the Romans.  On the other side he is pressed to be more compliant to the will of the religious authorities.  Perform!  Back off!  Who are you?  Even his siblings think him crazy!  Perhaps he returns to Cana in order to visit ground zero, and to be reminded of the reason he answered the call to cross the great divide and enter the human experience.

But even as he leaves behind his Galilean gawkers, for all we know, groaning in disappointment at his unwillingness to show off, he makes his way to an encounter pre-arranged by His Father.  This is no common man.  He is a royal official, although we do not know for whom he works.  All we know is that he journeys the 20 miles between the cities to be in Cana at the same time as Jesus.  How does he know Jesus is going to be there?  Who knows; anyone could have told him.  Jesus was on a lot of people’s lips in Palestine those days.  The curious masses did not need him however.  He was not auditioning.  He was seeking for the lost sheep of Israel…and beyond.  

John 4:45

When he arrives in Galilee, all his countrymen roll out the “red carpet” for him.  Many of them had been in Jerusalem for Passover and had been witness to the things Jesus did while he was there.  John 4:45 EFP

Well, let’s see…what events in Jerusalem could have elicited such positive feelings towards Jesus, if previously these same Galileans—at least the ones from Nazareth, had tried to kill him?  Other than a cryptic reference in John, chapter 2 that reads, “Now while he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, many people saw the miraculous signs he was doing and believed in his name.” (Verse 23)   The problem is I cannot find a reference to any specific miracles Jesus performed in Jerusalem prior to this statement being made.

Yet here they are, his fellow Galileans, almost giddy with pride over Jesus renown due to his deeds in the big city. I notice there is no mention to any miracles performed in this passage of Scripture.  Of all the translations I compared, only the NLT translates the verse using the term “miraculous signs,” which is a stretch considering the original Greek text is “πάντα ἑωρακότες,” which literally means “all things they having seen.”  “Things”—what “things”?  Even John 2:23 is not clear in reference to the “miraculous signs” he is performing.  The only event clearly noted is the cleansing of the temple court of all the merchants and his standing up to the temple administration regarding his right to clean up the temple.  There isn’t even mention of the water to wine miracle in Cana—and that miracle took place in Galilee!

Can it be that Jesus, by standing up to the “higher-ups” in Jerusalem tugged on their Galilean heart strings?  Jesus literally ran ram shod over the lot of them by cleansing the temple and by doing so he defended the underdogs who were routinely oppressed not only by the Romans, but by their very own religious leaders.  Galileans were not the purebred stock.  They were the half-breeds in the eyes of the “true-blue” Judeans.  They may not have been comfortable with Jesus as the fulfillment of the Messianic prophecy, but they could handle Jesus the upstart voice of the people.  Let the Messiah throw out the Roman tyrants; they needed a voice to defend them against their snooty religious “hoity-toities” in Jerusalem—Jesus could fit that bill quite nicely.  Boy, that’s a sobering thought.  I am comfortable with Jesus, as long as he fits into my expectations.  I wonder how often I do that.  Perhaps it’s time for an attitude adjustment. They were in for one.

John 4:44

I should mention that Jesus had once made the statement, “A prophet is not respected as a prophet in his homeland.” John 4:44 EFP

The reference is interestingly enough not taken from John’s narrative.  The words are found in the three other Gospels, the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew 13:17; Mark 6:4; Luke 4:24).  A second interesting insight is that only John places these words before Jesus returns to his homeland, while the other three books mention Jesus making this statement concurrent or immediately after having gone to visit his family in Nazareth.  Are these two distinct references?  Does it matter?

Well, it seems to me there is a second reference.  Unlike the others which were made in response to the unbelief of his countrymen, this verse in the Gospel of John, appears to be a parenthetical statement made by the author himself referencing a prior time when Jesus had in fact made the comment after encountering resistance from his fellow Nazarenes.  Why John chooses this particular moment to make this allusion is unclear until we go on in the story line.

Jesus is returning to his homeland—Galilee.  That much we know.  Can it be that John remembers the previous time they had come when Jesus had barely survived a near-death experience? (Read Luke 4)  What is it about home that draws Jesus back for solace (Matthew 4:12) or relaxation (John 2:12), while at the same time bringing to mind the reality that “familiarity breeds contempt” even for a prophet?  If this is true for Jesus, the Sinless One, how much more difficult is it for me, with a litany of transgressions to my credit?  Why does God entrust the task of revealing the Heavenly Father to the likes of me with such a checkered past?  Yet he does.  It’s got to be all about the message, not the messenger. I am nothing but a “wounded healer” called to share the wonders of a God who uses brokenness as an asset and frailty as a strength. To God be the glory!

John 4:43

Jesus stays in Sychar for two days total and then leaves for Galilee. John 4:43 EFP

Two days.  That is what it took to change an entire city.  Two days.  What once was a city defined by its past now stands at the gateway to a whole new beginning.  The Messianic age has already begun in this small Samaritan hamlet.  Jerusalem is still in the dark, but Sychar is soaking in the glory of the Light of the World.

The entire conversation between Jesus and the Samaritan woman is summed up in 19 verses.  The woman is changed forever by this encounter and as a result her entire town in transformed.  Jacob’s Well is now the second-most famous source for water in town.  The Messiah has brought living water.  Hope is rekindled.  Genuineness is restored.  True worship is reestablished.  All this takes place in two days.  What an amazing two days in Samaria.  I would have immensely enjoyed being part of those unforgettable two days.

But now what?  The two days are up, and Jesus is leaving town.  What happens now?  The town eventually fades away as so many other towns in Palestine.  All that remains today is an earth-laden pile of rubble.  The well remains as a relic inside a Greek church.  Eternity will alone tell the results of those two days in Sychar.  All we know for certain is that the party town (Sychar sounds a lot like the Hebrew word for drunkard) becomes a proper town after their lone known encounter with the Christ.  Their story is still repeated long after the life-cycle of the town ends.  I want to meet the woman with a checkered past turned evangelist when I get to heaven.  I have some questions for her.

John 4:42

The townspeople approach the woman and say, “You know, at first we came because you told us about this amazing man you’d met; but now we believe he is truly the Messiah, the Savior of the world, because we have heard his words for ourselves.” John 4:42 EFP

This verse sums up what the previous verse leaves unstated.  Many of the woman’s neighbors are now believers in Jesus as the Messiah and Savior of the world.  The net result of the woman’s testimony is a generous harvest of souls for the Kingdom of God.  So how does this happen?

It begins with a Messianic initiative.  Jesus makes the first move, and then some.  He comes to town and finds a convenient spot by the well where he knows a special woman is about to make an appearance.  He initiates the conversation.  She is reluctant at first, but that reluctance turns to curiosity and morphs into interest that taps into a deep-seeded longing in her soul.  In the end she believes and immediately leaves her business aside and goes in search of her friends and acquaintances to invite them to meet this amazing man who she believes is the Messiah. 

That sequence is then duplicated in the people whom she invites.  Their reluctance or even initial rejection becomes curiosity in light of this woman’s passion.  Their curiosity becomes interest after initially hearing him; he awakens in them a desire to search deeper.  They invite him to stay longer.  He does, and in the end they experience the same conviction and passion of the woman.  What is the equivalent today?  What is the parallel in my life experience?  It is not enough for me to hear about Jesus from someone else.  It is not enough to be curious.  It is not even enough to sit and hear the words of Jesus.  The process is not complete until I acknowledge Jesus as my Messiah and my Savior.  But this cannot happen in me without my discovering, hearing, searching, and acknowledging the Gospel.  And what is the evidence that the Good News has taken hold in my life?  It is a burning desire to share the Good News with others.  I want more and more of that boldness in my life.  I want to experience the joy of that Samaritan woman when she sees her friends and family meet the Master.

John 4:41

As a result many more townspeople put their faith in Jesus Christ, because of the things he shared with them. John 4:41 EFP

What a perfect way to wind up this story.  Two days prior a solitary woman walks under the hot sun to draw water from the city well.  She is alone in more ways than one.  She is marginalized by the community and ostracized by the local women as a result some poor life choices.  Her life is as barren and parched as the Palestinian hills that surround her, with a horizon that looks desolate and offers little hope of change.

Now, two days later, she stands in the midst of the greatest revival in the history of Samaria.  The hamlet known best for the well dug by Jacob millennia past, now can lay claim to a visit from the Messiah as its greatest moment.  The least likely becomes the most fruitful evangelist.  The life-loser becomes the channel for life to her entire community.  She is the messenger—an angel to her people, and in spite of her checkered past she is emboldened by the words she hears from the stranger, who she now believes is the Messiah.

Now, two days later, her initial words of passionate appeal to “come see the man who told me everything” have faded and given way to an even stronger chorus of faith and fidelity by the townspeople who have come to believe in the one who sent her and who in turn sent them to meet the Master.  What a transformation.  The embattled becomes emboldened.  The fringe player becomes a fighter for the cause of Christ.  She drank the water—Living water from the author of life.  I need and want to be where the woman was when she felt the compelling desire to seek out her people.  I pray my words, personal or from the pulpit, cause many others to seek out Jesus and come to believe in the Jesus who has done everything possible to seek and save me.

John 4:40

The Samaritan townspeople come to Jesus; and after spending some time him they ask him to stay in town longer. He does just that.  In fact Jesus stays in town for two days.  John 4:40 EFP

A couple things strike me as I consider this text.  After the initial curiosity factor—after the people meet this mysterious man, the people stay longer.  In fact, it seems the people grow fond of Jesus pretty quickly.  I don’t know what they do for the remainder of the day.  Perhaps they just listen to him teach them things they have never heard before.  Perhaps they ask questions they have wanted to ask for years, but have been afraid of asking their religious leaders.  They spend the remainder of the daylight hours with Jesus, and when the day is done, they ask him to spend the night and talk some more the next day.

The townspeople fall in love with Jesus simply by spending time with Him.  It happens.  There is something about Jesus that elicits affinity the longer we spend time with him.  The townspeople were simply trying to understand the attraction to Jesus through the eyes of the woman who told them about him.  But now they wanted him to spend the night so they could hear more from Jesus the next day.

And the surprising thing (perhaps not too surprising) is that he accepts the invitation and spends the night and the next day in Sychar, with the colorful woman and her townspeople friends.  This must have been a colorful bunch of people.  The stuffy ones probably thought it below them to run outside of town to meet some wannabe-prophet.  Most likely not everyone came out, but those that did never regretted it. There is no record of what the disciples did all night.  But those that spent the time with Jesus discovered a truth about him, you come as you are but you never leave the same after you’ve had an encounter with the Messiah.  I wonder if I would have stopped what I was doing and run out of the city to meet this Man.  I am not even sure I do that often enough nowadays.  I bet if I ask him today to stay longer with me so we can talk some more he would in a second.  He does it every day.