When an official comes to Jesus pleading for his son’s healing Jesus appears to give the man a curt answer. “Unless you see signs and wonders you will not believe,” Jesus said. This reply is sobering, and leaves me wondering how many times, in the midst of a crisis, I’ve bombarded the Lord with requests that demand He show His power. Certainly when calamity hits my Mongolian friends’ lives they turn and cry out to God, the shaman or the lama (depending on their beliefs) with the hope that they will receive relief.

The official in John chapter 4 evidently knows about Jesus. He’s heard the stories, knows that Jesus is a miracle worker, but he doesn’t know who Jesus is.

Giving Jesus’ initial reply closer thought, I wonder whether His words served as a provocation to the official. Perhaps Jesus was seeking to push him beyond his request for help to consider who Jesus was. Clearly Jesus’ reply did not deter him as he asked Jesus to accompany him home. But Jesus did not; which is interesting since most so-called workers of miracles here need to be physically present in order to be effective. But not Jesus; instead He sends the official on his way with the words that the official’s son would live.

Jesus’ words had, and have, power and authority to speak things into being.

The official took Jesus at His word and went home. I wonder what that journey was like. Was he scared or worried about his son’s condition? Jesus hadn’t asked him to do anything daring or dynamic, He just told him to go home. It was simple but it did require that the official step out in trust. I wonder if he prayed as he walked, crying out to God in his powerlessness, letting his cries connect him to God. It didn’t matter that the strength of his faith was small; this was not the priority, the priority. The priority was the focus of the official’s faith because it was not his faith that saved his son but Jesus’ power.

On the road the official was met with the wonderful news that his son was recovering. No doubt this filled his heart with overflowing joy and thanksgiving. The text concludes by telling us that this man and his whole house believed.

Jesus pushed this official: pushed him past the point of knowing about Jesus to knowing Him; beyond believing about Jesus to believing in Jesus. John tells us that Jesus’ miracles were signs to help us believe that Jesus is the Son of God. Jesus pressed this man forward so that he moved beyond a mere knowledge of a worker of miracles to a place of personal trust in the Saviour.

Jesus is provoking us to have faith in Him and to entrust our lives to Him completely. When we have a problem we go to Jesus. But with simple trust we learn to allow Him to answer our prayers on His own terms and not ours. And as we get to know him better, we realise that He does know best and that He will answer us in His way, and that way far exceeds our expectations. Jesus healed the official’s son, but the whole household also came to believe in Jesus too.