Reverend Jonathan Waits
Seeing Through the Fog (John 4:46-54)
March 9, 2025
Do you remember the first time you realized your teachers were real people too? When you are young, teachers feel like these strange creatures who exist and inhabit the world of school, but don’t ever leave. After all, they’re there every time you are. They leave the world of their classroom behind every now and then, but only to accompany you to somewhere else in the maze that is the school building. Or maybe outside to recess. And if you’re young enough, your teacher is always old. She could be barely into her 20s, but she seems old all the same. But then it happens. You see your teacher somewhere other than school doing normal-people things rather than teacher-people things. And it completely blows your mind. It’s like your entire worldview framework gets shattered into a million pieces that will never be put back together again.
Of course, you recover from this devastating blow to your psyche eventually. And sometimes you even go on to have great and personal relationships with your teachers whether that is through church or because they are family friends or simply because you develop a friendship bond that goes beyond the classroom.
That happened with me and my grade school principal, Don Ross. From kindergarten through fifth grade, he was just my principal. I was always a little closer to him than most of the students because Don had known my family for decades. He was from my dad’s old neighborhood, and had known my dad since he was little. But he was still Mr. Ross, the principal at Glendale Elementary. Then I graduated on to junior high and high school, and Don stayed in touch. He became a mentor and a friend and a bonus great-grandfather to my boys who never had a great-grandfather otherwise. When I began to see Don and not just the things that he did, our relationship became much better and stronger than it ever was before.
It’s easy to associate people only with what they do rather than seeing them for who they actually are. As a pastor, I can tell you this happens exceedingly easily. In the minds of lots of folks—especially kids—I’m just “the pastor” and not very often a person too. It’s actually really funny to do something or show up somewhere people don’t expect every now and then just to prompt a reaction. The split second of panic on someone’s face when they feel caught doing something normal, but then realize that I’m just doing something normal too is hysterical. And from the other side of that equation, it always feels kind of special to get to know someone personally who most people only know as a position. Indeed, if we associate someone only with what they do, we’ll never really get to know them; we’ll never actually have a relationship with them.
This morning we are in the second part of our new teaching series leading us to Easter called, All Signs Point to Jesus. Over the course of these couple of months, we are going on a journey through John’s Gospel and taking a look at what he identified as seven signs or miracles Jesus performed that collectively help us to better understand just exactly who Jesus is. We’re doing this because for as often as I encourage you to follow Jesus, we don’t talk quite as often about who Jesus is so that you know who exactly you are following. I want you to know what you are in for. And if you’re here each week and you’re not yet officially following Jesus, I want you to know who He is so that you can make an informed (and right!) decision to make things official.
Last week, we looked at the first sign John identifies in his Gospel. This was when Jesus turned water into wine at a wedding in Cana. This is one of Jesus’ most famous miracles, but at the time, even though it was His first public miracle, almost no one realized it had happened. It would have been entirely lost to history had John not brought some attention to it. As we talked about, though, the real purpose to Jesus’ actions was not simply helping out a friend (although He certainly did that). This sign was about helping His disciples see who He really was. This one thing didn’t get them all the way to what we know as an orthodox understanding of Jesus, but it opened their eyes to see more of who He is than they could before. Jesus reveals His glory, we said, so we can see who He is.
But Jesus doesn’t just want us to see Him. Like with teachers growing up, we can see people without really knowing them. We can see them casually, and merely through the lens of what they do. If we only look casually at Jesus, we’ll see some pretty wild things. The miracles He’s reported as doing are incredible. The healings are impressive enough by themselves, but the things He did went way beyond that. It’s easy for us to get all hung up on those, and miss the actual person of Jesus for the wild and the extravagant. Jesus loves doing the wild and extravagant things for us, but like you and I do, He wants to be really seen. In the next sign John presents for us, Jesus challenges a man to actually see Him.
If you have a copy of the Scriptures handy this morning, find your way with me to John 4. The chapter starts with Jesus’ traveling through Samaria—something no self-respecting Jew would have done in that day, especially a rabbi—and having an interaction with a Samaritan woman outside the city of Sychar. Jesus’ conversation with this woman has echoed down through history and has had an incredible impact on our understanding of who God’s kingdom is for as well as elevating the station and respect afforded to women anywhere faithful believers have had a hand in shaping their culture. After this episode, Jesus traveled back home to Galilee, but soon found Himself yet again in Cana, the very same town where He performed the miracle at the wedding.
We don’t know what took Him back to Cana, but word spread that He was there. And, at this point in Jesus’ ministry, His reputation was growing such that folks were willing to travel a bit to see Him. They were especially willing to travel when they were desperate for a miracle of their own. That’s what we find happening here. Check this out with me starting at John 4:46.
“He went again to Cana of Galilee, where he had turned the water into wine. There was a certain royal official whose son was ill at Capernaum. When this man heard that Jesus had come from Judea into Galilee, he went to him and pleaded with him to come down and heal his son, since he was about to die.”
A couple of notes on context here will help bring this scene to life for you. John probably mentions Jesus’ previous miracle in Cana for the sake of his readers. I don’t think this is meant for us to think that this royal official had heard about the wedding miracle, and that’s why he came seeking Jesus out for the sake of his son. Turning water into wine and healing a sick person are not the same thing. By this time, Jesus was already established as a healer. That’s what the royal official was seeking. I suspect that even now no one knew about His previous miracle in Cana.
The identity of the royal official is a mystery to us. He could have been a military officer of some sort. He could have also been a servant in Herod Antipas’s administration. The possibility of his being a military officer—perhaps a Centurion—leads some folks to conclude that this is the same episode that Matthew and Luke report in their Gospels when Jesus heals the servant of a Roman Centurion. Yet while there are some similarities between the respective episodes, on balance, this was most likely a separate incident. It happened at a different time in Jesus’ ministry and in a different city. It’s not at all hard to imagine that more than one person with a sick child or relative traveled to Jesus in hopes of receiving a miracle for their loved one.
One last thing, if you look at a map, Capernaum is north and west of where Nazareth and Cana were. This makes it seem odd that the man pleaded with Jesus to “come down” to a location further north than He currently was. John’s word choice, though, refers to elevation, not cardinal direction.
So, we have this Roman official coming to Jesus to seek healing for his dying son. For us who have been shaped pretty thoroughly by the Gospel narrative and the Christian worldview’s introduction of the equal dignity of all people to the world, we feel badly for the guy. Maybe you’ve had a sick kid who you would have done anything to help feel better. We can understand his mindset without really trying very hard. In the culture of the day, this is not how most folks would have reacted to this story. They would have seen a Roman coming to a Jewish rabbi for help. No one would have expected Jesus to actually help this man. He was part of the system that had been abusing and persecuting the Jews for generations. He didn’t deserve mercy like this. And his kid was only going to grow up to be a part of the problem himself one day. Letting this kid die could save who knows how many future Jewish lives. And it would remind this official in the present of just how much he and his people were the enemies of God.
And, for a moment, it looks like Jesus might take this path. Look with me at v. 48 now. “Jesus told him, ‘Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will not believe.’” Now, again, through the lens of our culture that has been shaped by the mercy and compassion of the Gospel in ways that are still hard for us to fully grasp, this reaction from Jesus seems unnecessarily hard. I mean, this guy was just seeking healing for his son. This was independent of anything he might have done to cause any trouble for the Jewish people. This guy may have been a moral monster—we don’t know—but his son wasn’t guilty of his dad’s crimes. If Jesus was going to heal the boy, then just heal the boy. Don’t give the dad a hard time out of spite.
For now, we’re just going to let that tension simmer for a bit. Indeed, the start of the next verse seems almost to double down on the challenge. This father desperate to save his son can’t even muster up a response to Jesus’ exclamation. He can only repeat his plea: “‘Sir,’ the official said to him, ‘come down before my boy dies.’” But Jesus refuses to go with him. Instead, Jesus tells him to go. This was not merely a dismissal, though, but a promise of healing that was structured in such a way as to invite the man to see more than merely what Jesus could do. Namely, Jesus didn’t come along and do anything obvious with or for him. He simply told the man to, “Go,” and that, “your son will live.”
Here, then, the man faced a choice. Was He willing to see past the things Jesus could do, the things that drew him to Jesus in the first place, and take His word for it that his son was healed, or was he going to try to keep pushing Jesus to fit within the box he thought Jesus had to occupy. We often face this same decision point in our lives. Are we going to trust Jesus based on what we know, or are we going to insist that He operates only on our terms, refusing to accept anything less? We can try this tack, but Jesus’ isn’t at all beholden to us, so we’re likely to wind up pretty disappointed with the outcome of our efforts. Happily, this Gentile, pagan man was willing to take the former path—something no one on Jesus’ side of the cultural divide would have expected.“The man believed what Jesus said to him and departed.” He saw something in Jesus that said He was more than just a healer. He had real authority; an authority that was something worth trusting. So he did.
And when he did, he found that Jesus was indeed more than he first thought. “While he was still going down, his servants met him saying that his boy was alive. He asked them at what time he got better. ‘Yesterday at one in the afternoon the fever left him,’ they answered. The father realized this was the very hour at which Jesus had told him, ‘Your son will live.’ So he himself believed, along with his whole household. Now this was also the second sign Jesus performed after he came from Judea to Galilee.”
Again, then, like last week, that’s the story. But what does this actually tell us about Jesus? Well, think about this with me for a second because this one can be a bit tricky. For starters, its placement is awkward. It sits on the back side of a really well known story which means it gets pretty easily overlooked. Also, it bears some marks of similarity with an episode featured in a couple of the other Gospel narratives. If you’re doing a straight read-through of the Gospels, this is apparently the third time you’ve encountered this story. By this time it’s easy for us to simply assume we know what’s going on and not give it much attention. Finally, there’s the part in the middle where Jesus seemingly gives this desperate dad a hard time before pronouncing his son well.
What gives? Look at this a little closer with me. Things aren’t quite what they appear at first glance. First, if you notice, Jesus doesn’t scold this man at all. Did you catch that? Jesus doesn’t say, “you,” but rather, “you people.” Well, who are “you people”? When you take in the context of the passage, the “you people” here seems to be Galileans more generally. Listen to the couple of verses that precede this story: “After two days he left [Samaria] for Galilee.” His stop in Sychar came while He was on His way back home from a rather eventful trip to Jerusalem.
Next, John adds this little parenthetical observation about how things had gone the last time He was in Galilee. “Jesus himself had testified that a prophet has no honor in his own country.” When Jesus first started to pull back the curtain a bit on His real identity the last time He was in town, things didn’t go so well. One group ran Him out of town. Another tried to throw Him off a cliff. But coming home this time, the people were rather more receptive. “When they entered Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him because they had seen everything he did in Jerusalem during the festival. For they also had gone to the festival.” In other words, now that He was famous for having done some incredible things, the people were suddenly interested. When He was just one of them apparently putting on airs, they hated Him for it. Now that He was a minor celebrity, they were glad to claim Him as their own. To add one more important layer to that, they weren’t seeing Him at all. They were only seeing the things they thought He could do for them.
This royal officer pleading for his son’s life had likely come to Jesus for help because of the things he had heard about Him. Jesus was going to help him because He was Jesus and unleashing the compassion and mercy of God’s kingdom was what He did. But at the same time, He wanted to call and invite this man to see beyond merely what He could do to who He was. This is why Jesus refused to go with him. Working miracles then was generally understood to be a tactile, hands-on affair. A healer had to be there with a person if he was going to do anything for him. Part of this was because so much of the “healing” that was taking place then was nothing more than the work of charlatans. But even in the cases of known healers, they could only do so much. They only had so much power.
Jesus didn’t have any such limitations. He was something more than just a healer. He was someone more than just a healer. But in order to help this desperate father see that, He was going to have to challenge him just a bit. He had to challenge him to see Him and not just the things He could do. You see, simply seeing Jesus is good, but it’s not enough. If all we see is what Jesus did or can do and not who He is, we’ll never really follow Him. We’ll never really have a relationship with Him. And Jesus wants a relationship with us. He wants a relationship with you. Thus this sign. Jesus wants us to see Him, not merely the things He does.
So, how do we do that? Well, it starts by asking and answering some potentially uncomfortable questions. Here’s the first: why are you following Jesus? Why do you call yourself a Christian? Is it because you have thoughtfully considered the various other worldview options, found them wanting on a theological, moral, ethical, and philosophical level, found that Christianity best accounts for and explains the way the world actually works, tasted and seen that God is good, and committed your life accordingly? Or did a parent prod you a bit into baptism when you were little, you grew up with the church as your primary social network, and you never really tried to pursue or connect with a different one? Did you hear a sermon one time that put a literal fear of Hell into your heart and mind, and embraced Christianity as your “fire insurance”?
We often start following Jesus because of what we are told He can and will do for us. He will make your life better. He will make you better at life. He will help you solve your problems. Perhaps you heard He will just solve them for you. He will save you from your sins. Here’s the thing: none of those are bad reasons to follow Jesus. But if we aren’t careful, we can easily fall into a pattern of following Jesus only because of the things we expect Him to do for us. Our goal, like Jesus invited this royal official to embrace, is to arrive at a place in which we are following Jesus because of who He is. We worship Him not because it’s what we do, or because it makes us feel good, but because we have come to understand that He is worthy of our worship. We don’t seek Him for mere utilitarian reasons, but because we have entered into a deep and meaningful relationship with Him. We don’t believe in Him just because of some signs and wonders, but because He is worth believing in. This is the place Jesus wants all of us to be. Jesus wants us to see Him, not merely the things He does.
This, of course, just raises another very practical question: How do we do that? Well, there are a lot of good options here, but let me set before you one path that is both simple to walk and has a really high rate of success. If you want to be able to see Jesus and not merely the things He does, the first and best thing to do is to commit yourself to engaging with the Scriptures on a regular and intentional basis. When you spend time each day reading and studying the Scriptures—and especially the Gospels—learning to take them on their own terms rather than terms you artificially impose on them because of some bias on your part, you are going to more and more come to see Jesus for who He really is. And the more you come to see Jesus for who He really is, the more you are going to come to respect Him and appreciate Him and even love Him. Jesus wants us to see Him, not merely the things He does. When we do, loving Him becomes easy.
The second thing you can do to see Jesus more clearly is to commit yourself to the practice of prayer. Now, this sounds scary at first, but this may be because you are trying or expecting to get something out of prayer that it was never intended to produce. Prayer is simply the means by which we communicate with God. We talk to Him, and He listens. He talks to us—often through the Scriptures, which is why pairing these two disciplines together is a really good idea—and we listen. The first part there is easier than the second, but the second is arguably more important. Prayer doesn’t have to be fancy and formal. It’s literally just talking to God and letting Him speak in the various ways He will. It’s not about getting this or that from Him. It’s simply about building a relationship with Him. It’s about learning to really see Him, not just the things He does. Everything else is bonus. Jesus wants us to see Him, not merely the things He does.
One last thing. Commit to engaging regularly and intentionally with the church. I know that may sound a little funny to say to a bunch of people who are gathered in the church, but I say that both as encouragement and invitation. Being a part of the church really does matter. A lot. It won’t save you, but you won’t grow properly in your relationship with Jesus without it. You won’t come to really see Him for who He is without it. Making the decision we celebrated Alec and Jon-Michael’s making this morning really does matter. Whether you are joining by profession of faith and baptism, baptism, moving a letter, statement of faith, making official your relationship with the church is a really big deal. When you are fully engaged with the church, you are going to experience the love of Jesus through the Gospel community around you on a regular basis. You’ll have the opportunity to help others experience it as well. And the more we experience that love, the more we’ll see Him for who He really is; the more we’ll fall in love with Him. Jesus wants us to see Him, not merely the things He does.
So, what are you waiting for? Are you seeing Jesus, or just what He does? Are you intentionally putting yourself in the place where you are actively going to be able to see better? Are you living in obedience with the things you are seeing? Are you helping others do the same? Jesus wants us to see Him, not merely the things He does. He invites all of us to that. And when you see—really see—you’ll never be the same again.