” Unless you people see signs and wonders”, Jesus told him, ” You will never believe ” John 4:48This is another story only John tells. Are you getting the sense that John remembers a different Jesus than the other Gospel writers ? Jesus talks so much more. I think he is more confrontational than Mark’s Jesus. Is it okay to have four different Jesuses, and a really different one in John ? The church in the late 300’s decided to pick the 29 books of the New Testament. It was not democratic. The bishops and the scholars did it. They had no problem with the four different biographies of their Lord and Saviour. They did not try to clean up the differences.
Here in John 4, Jesus does a miracle for a high ranking official. The official’s son had died. Jesus says go home, and you will find him well. He went home, and his servants came out to him to say that his son was alive. The official and all his household believed.
We need to hold two things in tension in the story and our lives of faith. In this story, Jesus says the people will not believe unless there are miracles. I make the interpretation that we need to believe when there are no miracles. Then Jesus goes out and heals the official’s son. It seems to me that there are two things going on. We do not need an answer. Miracles make our faith stronger, and we need more miracles to keep our faith ? Or, faith comes to us with no miracles, and we just believe the message of the Gospel ? But ” signs ” are important to the Jesus of John. There are seven signs in the Gospel.
” This was the second sign that Jesus performed after coming from Judea to Galilee.” John 4:54
Grace and strength in our journey in life.
Fred
Chaos in the winds Scattering my troubled thoughts to land on soft clouds Monica Pieper Landoni 2022
