Bible Text: John 4:46-54 | Preacher: Pastor Christian Preus
Unless you see signs and wonders you will by no means believe. This is simply a fact. Jesus puts it in the plural you, y’all, he’s not just addressing the official, he’s addressing everyone who will listen. You won’t believe unless you see signs and wonders. This is the only time Jesus says something like this to believers. Other times he says it to people who are opposing him and then he refuses to give them a sign. So in Matthew 16 the Pharisees demand a sign from heaven and Jesus says No, the only sign you’re going to get is the sign of Jonah, which is Jesus’ death and resurrection. He gives that sign to the entire world and He does it on His terms, not those dictated by unbelievers.
The fact is Jesus did signs and wonders in front of everyone, believers and unbelievers. But the way people react is different. Faith sees one thing. Unbelief sees another. When Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, Mary and Martha learned that Jesus is the resurrection and the life and whoever believes in Him will live even though he dies. They saw the sign and the wonder proving just that. Lazarus was dead, now he lives. But Jesus’ enemies looked at the same thing and plotted against him to kill him. Signs and wonders drive believers to trust in Jesus, to listen to His Word, and expect good things from Him. They drive the wicked to suppress the truth.
You see this very clearly with Pharoah and Moses. God does signs and wonders – that’s actually where this phrase “signs and wonders” comes from, where Jesus gets the words, when God says, “And though I multiply my signs and wonders in the land of Egypt Pharoah will not listen to you.” The signs and wonders, the frogs and the gnats and the hail and the darkness, they only harden Pharoah; he just gets angry and stubborn and refuses to acknowledge the Lord as the only God or to stop persecuting His people. But the same signs and wonders are what the faithful sing about, remind themselves of constantly, especially when they are hurting and bearing a cross. So Psalm 105, “Remember the wonders He has done, his miracles, and the judgments he uttered. He sent Moses His servant, and Aaron whom He had chosen. They performed His signs among them, and wonders in the land of Ham.” This is what Luther does too in that awesome hymn, “Proclaim the wonders God has done, how His right arm the vict’ry won. Right dearly it hath cost Him.”
The official in our Gospel already had faith in Jesus. He came to Jesus. He expected help from Him. That’s what faith does. He’s asking for a wonder from Jesus because he knows Jesus can and wants to give it. So when Jesus says unless you see signs and wonders you won’t believe, he’s not scolding, he’s saying faith, Christian faith, depends on seeing signs and wonders from God.
We don’t demand signs from God, tell Him show me a sign or I won’t believe, that’s what unbelief does. You don’t say, God cure the cancer or I won’t believe. But you do say, Lord, cure the cancer out of your great mercy, which I know you are and you have, because of the blood you poured out for me. You don’t say, God, show me you exist by some sign from heaven. But you do say, Lord, show me you exist by opening my eyes to your creation. You don’t test God. God tests you. You don’t demand wonders, but you do ask for them, expect them, and see them all around you constantly.
Look at creation. You just heard the creation account. What do you see when you look at an ultrasound? You see a baby created by God, a gift from Him who gives life because He is life. The unbeliever looks at the same thing and sees a clump of cells. And science, real science, shouts “No! This is a baby with fingerprints, a beating heart, a little mind that can already recognize the voice of his mother – absolutely beautiful, a wonder of God.” “I will praise you for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.” But the Pharoahs will always harden their heart and refuse to see the wonders of God. They’re looking at the same thing, they just can’t see what it is. This is what Jesus says, “Seeing they don’t see, and hearing they don’t understand.”
What do you see when you look at the moon and the stars? I just spent a couple nights camping in the mountains – the moon was out all night, lighting up the sky, you didn’t need a flashlight – you look at that and you see what the Psalm says, “The heavens declare the glory of God.” Obviously. The power and might and wisdom of the God who created this all for us. But unbelief looks at the same thing and won’t give God the credit but comes up with fairytales about metaverses.
Faith looks at the fossil record and the variation of species and sees exactly what God tells us in Genesis, that He created every living being according to its kind – a dog remains a dog, a cat a cat, a lizard a lizard, according to their kind, big ones, smalls ones, amazing variety. Unbelief looks at the same thing and irrationally claims missing links that stubbornly remain missing. God’s signs and wonders surround us all, but its faith that sees them.
Hebrews 11, that beautiful chapter on faith, which we should all read often, begins the talk of faith with creation. Because this is how God exercises our faith daily in making us see the signs and wonders all around us, “By faith we understand the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible.” God spoke it and it was and we see and it is wonderful.
The doctrine of creation teaches us about the God who created life, who cares for it, preserves it, loves it. But the great problem this official has is that his son is dying. He’s being robbed of life. He sees what we all see. God’s creation is filled with wonders and signs of God’s power and might, but it is also thoroughly corrupted with sin and corruption and disease and death. Death and corruption hits us all personally, those we love, ourselves, and there is nothing wondrous about it. It’s a sign for sure, but not of anything good, only of God’s judgment. A sign God gives of His wrath and anger against our sin. Cursed is the ground because of us. Dust you are and to dust you shall return.
And this makes us seek a different kind of sign and wonder from our God. The official says “Lord, come down before my child dies.” Your translation says “Sir.” That’s annoying. He doesn’t call Jesus, sir, he calls Him Lord. The Greek is Kyrie, Lord, and you could translate that Sir only if you assume this guy is an unbeliever. He’s not. He just came to Jesus asking for Him to give life from the dead. That’s what Christian faith does. It recognizes Jesus, this Lord whom we worship, our Creator who wears our human flesh and blood because He will not have sin and death steal us away from Him. He will give us life. And so we beg Him for signs and wonders. Lord, have mercy on my child who is sick. Lord, take the pain away, the cancer, the depression, the corruption, take it all away.
And Jesus says to this man, “Your son lives.” He doesn’t say, “Your son will get better.” He chooses His words carefully. Your son lives. Because this is a sign, and a sign points to something else, doesn’t it. This was now the second sign that Jesus performed. And this word “life” is the entire theme, the entire point of who Jesus is and what He does. The God who spoke life into existence at creation, now comes to give life to us who were dead in our sins. So Jesus says, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” He says, “I am the resurrection and the life.” He says, “God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” John, to open his Gospel, defines Jesus this way, “in Him was life and the life was the light of men.” And to sum up the entire purpose of his Gospel, John ends with these words, “Many other signs Jesus performed, but these signs were written down that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and by believing you may have life in His name.”
So first of all, these words of Jesus, “your son lives” are an invitation to you to look at all your life and see how God has answered your prayers for mercy. How many times have you prayed to him and he has healed your sicknesses, relieved you of pain, cared for you in your distress, and though He makes you bear a cross and wait – like this man, who had to wait to see his son live, wait that long fourteen mile walk home to Capernaum from Cana – and though He answers in His own time and way, He has answered you, and He has given you sign after sign that He cares for you.
But these are signs. And signs point to something else. The life Jesus gives is not simply to keep answering your prayers for health, for recovery in this world. Jesus giving life to this boy was a sign of something greater, and His care for you throughout your life is a sign of greater things. You don’t want to live life forever a sinner on this earth. That’s not true life, still sinning againt God, subject to corruption and death. The true life Jesus gives is life with God, who cannot be angry at your sin, because Jesus bore it all away, who refuses to let corruption and death take you, because His Son has already conquered it all on the cross, suffered it in great love for you. He has crushed sin and death and the devil under His feet. And you reign with Him.
When He gives you His body and blood He gives you life, not a sign of life, but life, life as sons of God. And that life is forever, as He himself is forever. You in me and I in you, Jesus says. The eternal Son of God has joined Himself to you and now joins you to Himself. He lives and so you live. He is the vine. You are the branches. Take His body, drink His blood. His life flows to you. The word of forgiveness He speaks is not a sign, it speaks your righteousness before God into existence, the word of your Baptism, is not a sign, it calls you children of God and so you are. And children live in the house of the Father forever, and in that house, in His Kingdom, we see signs and wonders our whole life through, God working everything in all creation to our good, until we see Life face to face in the Paradise He has prepared for us. In the name of Jesus. Amen.