When the Miracle Doesn't Come

Welcome to today's conversation with God! Let's enter into the story recorded in John 4:43-54 of a royal official's encounter with Jesus. He has something to say to us, as well. What do you want me to hear, to get, Lord?

I can totally relate to the man in the story and the anxiety he is feeling. His son is dying of some illness and the man is playing the role of the desperate parent searching for something or someone to help. He has seen the headlines about this miracle-worker and rabbi named Jesus. Maybe he could help. And he's come to the region! So he goes and makes his request.

Of course he desperately wants his son to live and be healed--who wouldn't? And he's gone to the right person. Jesus heals the boy with a word from twenty miles away! And you've got to be impressed with the man's faith to believe the testimony he had heard about Jesus and to simply take Jesus at his word. His faith is rewarded in an amazing way and he and his family celebrate.

But what jumps out at me today is what Jesus said before he healed the boy:

Unless you people see miraculous signs and wonders," Jesus told him, "you will never believe." (v. 48)

I have prayed for miracles. Have you? And I've been stunned, at times, with the way God powerfully granted my prayer. It's the touch of God brushing against me! But then there were the other times. The most urgent, heart-wrenching prayers I've ever prayed were for the healing of my wife, Cathy, and for my Mom's husband, Kees. I prayed and waited and believed God for a miracle. But the miracle never came. And there were other prayers I've prayed, other miracles I needed that never materialized. Been there?

Why did Jesus say what he did to this man and the bystanders before he agreed to heal the man's son? Is he doing the miracle begrudgingly? That wouldn't be likely. Perhaps it's that he is saying this for the benefit of us all when the miracle doesn't come. He knows that it is not in God's will to heal every sick person in this present life. He knows that it will not be in the the good plans of God to always work the miracle we want. In fact, miracles are special and amazing precisely because they are unusual. What happens to my faith when the miracle doesn't come? Will I stop believing?

That doesn't mean we shouldn't pray for miracles and expect them to come. But Jesus' words here tell us something important. My faith in him can't be dependent on seeing the miracles. I need to believe in God and in miracles and put my hope in him even when the miracle I'm praying for doesn't fit into his bigger purposes. I need to be like this father in the story who "took Jesus at his word." My faith has to rest more in the Word of Christ than in the miracles he works for me, always realizing that the greatest miracle of all is God's grace to redeem a sinner like me.

Be a witness for Christ. Share this post with your Facebook friends (click the Facebook logo "f" below). And please enter the conversation. How did God speak to you through this holy text? Comment below.