Homily
21st Sunday After Trinity
Text: John 4:46-54
X In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost,
one God. Amen.
The lesson
of the Holy Gospel which you have just now heard, brethren, needs no
explanation. But that we may not appear
to pass over it in silence, we shall say something with regard to it more by
way of exhortation than explanation. The
only point in it that I see needs to be explained is why he who had come to
pray for the restoration to health of his son should hear the words: Unless you see signs and wonders, you will
not believe?
Put yourself
in the place of this nobleman. You are
one of the King’s officers. You have
wealth, prestige, and honor among all those who know you. You hear that in the town of
At last you
find yourself standing before him and instead of receiving a nice handshake and
pat on the back and hearing Jesus tell you, “Don’t worry, be happy;” you get this harsh response; “Unless you people see signs and wonders,
you’re just not going to believe.” That’s
not exactly the answer you were expecting to hear. But remember what he asked and you will see
clearly that his faith was doubtful, at best.
For he asked that Jesus should return with him and heal his son. He was asking, therefore, for the bodily Presence of the Lord Who in spirit is present in all places; and so had little faith in Him Who, he believed, could not heal unless He was physically present with the sick. Had his faith been mature, he would have known beyond doubt that there is no place where God is not. And so to a great degree, he was unbelieving because he was not honoring Christ’s divine majesty, but His bodily presence. This was to be the same reaction that Mary and Martha were to have later on in the ministry of Jesus. Remember, they complained that if Jesus had only been present then their brother Lazarus would not have died.
So, the nobleman is begging for his son’s healing, and at the same time his faith is weak: for he believes that He to Whom he has come has power to heal; but believes also that unless Jesus comes to him, his son will die. But the Lord, when asked to come, shows that he is not absent from where He is asked to come; and by His sole word He restores health. It was His sole command that all things were created.
Here is where we must carefully call to mind what we learned last week from the Evangelist Matthew who wrote about a certain centurion who came to the Lord and said: Lord, my servant lieth at home sick of the palsy, and is grievously tormented. And do you remember that Jesus immediately answered, “I will come and heal him.” (Matt. 8:6-7) Why is it that when the ruler asks Him to come to his son He refuses to go there bodily, while, though not asked to come to the servant of the centurion, He offers to go there at once? Why did Jesus think it was not fitting to go to the ruler’s son but He did think it was fitting to hurry to the centurion’s servant?
Why am I asking why?
What is this but a rebuking of our pride, which leads us to honor in men, not their nature, in which they are made in the image of God, but we honor their dignity and wealth? We get drawn to the glitter and glitz of people’s stuff and forget about who they are as a person. It’s easy to manipulate situations to be around those who have nicer clothes, bigger cars, houses, etc. than you, in order to have others think more highly of you. Pride thinks only of the things that surround men, and has no thought for their natures. Pride will not acknowledge the dignity of God in man.
See how the Son of God will not come down to the son of the ruler, yet He is ready to come at once to heal a slave. And in fact, should someone’s slave ask us to come and see him, I know the unspoken thought of our pride will answer, “You better not go there. You will lose your dignity and reputation, because that is a bad neighborhood. What will people think of you if you’re seen there?” Behold the contrast! He Who came down from heaven does not refuse to come at once to a servant on earth; while we, who are of the earth, think it beneath us to be humble and serve others.
In this encounter, the ruler is indeed rebuked for his pride, but at the same time is given great grace by the Master to shed his pride and grow in his faith. Yes, it was rather a harsh way to be addressed by Jesus, who said, “Unless you people see signs and wonders you will by no means believe.”
In other words, he was saying “No, I’m not coming to your house. I am going to make you walk home in faith, depending on nothing but My Word.” But what a great Word it was that Jesus then gave! He said, “Go your way, your son lives.” Jesus sent the nobleman home with a great promise ringing in his ears, but he had to walk 20 miles in faith, not yet seeing the “proof” of Jesus’ Word.
This incident is a mirror image of how it is for us who struggle to live the life of faith. We have nothing but God’s Word, and this Word is often at odds with the circumstances and “realities” we are facing in the world. If you judge by outward signs, God often seems weak, absent, uncaring, or even angry. Circumstances are masks that hide the true face of God. Man must trust that behind that mask, God is, in fact, full of mercy, and strength. God has revealed this in His Word.
Unbelievers will only praise God when things are well. Ironically, God’s good gifts can have an undesirable effect: they may feed your pride and self confidence and make you complacent toward the Word and Sacraments by which you have true life. Therefore, God often allows His children to remain in difficulty for a time, to help them develop and keep a humble spirit. Children of the Triune God are called to live above and beyond circumstances, with nothing but God’s Word and Promise. It’s what I call God’s way of learning faith by “The Peek-a-Boo” method. Now you see me, now you don’t….but I’m always Present to you, in you and around you.
This is God’s way for you in this short, difficult journey through the valley of the shadow of death. The Rev. Prof. George Stoeckhardt said,
“In affliction, faith is practiced. If a person does not see, taste and experience the help and grace of the Lord, then that person learns to trust the Word and nothing but the Word. That is the true faith, trusting the Word for its own sake. Such faith comes not from flesh and blood. It’s the Word to which faith clings; that Almighty Word works faith.”
Through the Word, God the Holy Spirit gives faith in the Word. Jesus told the nobleman: “Go your way, your son lives.” And it says in our Gospel: “So the man believed the Word that Jesus spoke to him and went his way. Arriving at home, he learned that his son’s fever left him the very hour that Jesus had spoken His promise.”
The miraculous healing that Jesus gave to that officer’s son was a sign of this healing that He gives to you. The rescue of that boy from death was a sign of the greater rescue that the Word brings you and me: rescue from eternal death.
As
great as the Word is, this rescue required more than God’s Word. It required
God’s death. God poured out His own life on the cross to pay for the sins of
all His creatures. That is why
You come here for that Word. Do you believe that Word? Today, your faith may just be like that of the nobleman in our Gospel lesson. But rest assured that our Lord wants to help your faith grow from that of demanding a sign in order to believe, to receiving the Word as Our Lady humbly responded to the Archangel Gabriel, when she said, “Be it unto me, according to your word.”
And that Word directs you to this altar where the very body and blood of Jesus, the Word made flesh, is given for you to eat and drink. “In the beginning”, in Jesus, you are made new. That Perfect Life, who was in the beginning, is now in you, and will be forever. Therefore, He gives you one final, steadfast Word to believe and act upon: “Depart in peace, according to My Word. Go your way, my son, go your way, my daughter; for you will live.”
X In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, one God. Amen.
Fr. Mark Wallace
St. Andrew Orthodox Church
Oklahoma City, OK
FrMark@StAndrewOrthodox.info