.jpg)
John Message 7
Signs of Life for the Hurting
John 4:43-5:18
We live in a world full of signs (series of slides). Sometimes we suspect that it’s not just occasional drivers who are under the influence of something … but sign-makers as well. Sometimes it’s a serious flaw in assumptions … like expecting illiterate people to read the signs. Sometimes we can find a logical and humorous connection in seemingly unrelated items (celebrating a “shotgun wedding” seems logical to me). Sometimes there is a bit of biting humor in the signs. And then finally some signs make perfect sense even though on the surface they are nonsense.
This last McDonald’s sign (Parking for Drive-Thru Service Only) is a great example of the importance of perspective in reading signs. Most of us who have had the experience of waiting for an order in our car outside a fast-food restaurant, understand fully what this sign means. I suspect though, that for some international visitors to America, it would seem oddly contradictory. You need the right perspective to understand the signs.
We’ll discover that same thing regarding the miraculous signs of Jesus. In his Gospel, John provides what he calls seven “signs” of Jesus’ power … seven examples which give evidence of Jesus’ divinity and Messianic mission. Do any of you remember the first one from a few chapters ago? It was turning water into wine at the wedding in Cana. In John 4, beginning with verse 46, Jesus was back in Cana and as John tells us explicitly in verse 54, Jesus performs there a second miraculous sign. This one involves the son of a royal official. The father would have been part of Herod Antipas’ regime and as such, would have been despised by the religious faithful of Jesus’ day … for they believed that the Herodians had allowed Greek ways of thinking and living to pollute Jewish society. But remember from last week, Jesus was always willing to cross over lines and meet needs. He would show compassion to this official and his family.
Jesus begins with a challenge to this leader, “Unless you people see miraculous signs and wonders you will never believe.” The man was undeterred, “Sir, come down before my child dies.” Jesus replied, ““You may go. Your son will live.” (and get this) The man took Jesus at his word and departed.” [John 4:48-50 (NIV)] All of which is to say that the man took Jesus’ challenge and trusted him without first seeing a miracle. He simply believed Jesus’ word and went home. What happened next? … look at verse 52 … his servants meet him and say that his son is well. “When he inquired as to the time when his son got better, they said to him, “The fever left him yesterday at the seventh hour.” Then the father realized that this was the exact time at which Jesus had said to him, “Your son will live.” So he and all his household believed.” [John 4:52-53 (NIV)] The whole event could have been viewed as a happy coincidence; after all, the official didn’t actually see a miracle with his own eyes. But seeing it with the eyes of faith, he believed even more deeply and his whole household came to faith.
The third sign shared by John follows in chapter 5 and it took place in Jerusalem. This one involved a man who had been an invalid for 38 years. Now such folks were often looked down on in ancient societies as people who somehow deserved their fate … that God or the gods were punishing them with illness or crippling conditions for good reason (a “karma-like” view that was widespread). Jesus however, wasn’t into karma and with compassion simply asked the man if he wanted to be healed. Perhaps after being sick for that long, it may been hard for the man to imagine any other kind of life than that. The man essentially told Jesus that he had unsuccessfully sought healing in the pool of Bethesda, so “yes” he wanted healing. Jesus then told him to get up and the man got up!
Now you would have thought everyone learning of this miraculous sign would have celebrated the man’s healing and worshipped Jesus. Hardly. A whole group of religious folks were more concerned that Jesus’ healing was done on the Sabbath day which violated Sabbath rules than they were that the man was well. They missed the divine meaning of the sign.
Amazing, but as noted earlier, not everyone reads the signs in the same way. Perspective was and is crucial. Craig Koester writes, “People do not merely see signs, they interpret them. Their responses are not governed by seeing alone. The question is what they see in the sign, that is, what they think the sign means.” For people of faith, the signs in John’s Gospel are a clear demonstration of Jesus’ divinity and of God’s great compassion upon all people, even despised royalty and rejected invalids. For others, they are violations of the Sabbath or as in Matthew’s Gospel, that Jesus is using satanic power. Same signs, interpreted far differently.
Throughout the Gospels, the most crucial factor in interpreting Jesus’ signs was whether or not those observing had already come to trust in him. You see signs could lead to faith, but more often, they strengthened the faith of those who already believed. And I believe that the same principle holds today … if you are trusting in Jesus, you will see signs around every day of his presence and power. If you don’t, you probably won’t. If you are trusting in Jesus, you will look around at the beauty of creation, you will learn from science about the wonders of the natural world, and you will have your faith deepened that your Savior is a masterful Creator. If you don’t have such a faith perspective, you will attribute it all to impersonal and natural processes. If you are trusting in Jesus, you will see healings enabled and explained by medical science and those unexplained by medicine both as signs of the Great Physician’s work. Without such faith, healings are either a result of medical treatment or just good fortune. With faith, you will see the compassionate efforts of Christians in places like Juarez and Haiti as clear signs of Jesus’ love at work in people’s lives leading them to serve sacrificially. With no faith perspective, it’s just a bunch of do-gooders.
Jesus’ invites you into a faith relationship with him … based on the ultimate signs of his love and power … his cross and empty tomb. He offers you forgiveness and new life with God. Put your trust in him and then you will see signs every day that he is very much at work bringing life to the world.
Comments
Leave a Reply
