Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost
by the Revd Dr Robert Wilson PhD (Cantab), Old Roman Apostolate UK
Unless you see signs and wonders, you believe not
In today’s Gospel from St. John we hear the story of a ruler whose son was sick at Capernaum. When he heard that Jesus had come from Judea into Galilee he went to him and prayed that Jesus would come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death. Jesus therefore said that “unless you see signs and wonders, you believe not”. The ruler then pleaded with him to come down before his son died. Jesus told him to go on his way for his son now lived. The man believed him and went his way. As he was travelling down his servants met him and brought him word saying that his son now lived. When he asked them the hour at which the fever left him they said that it was the previous day at the seventh hour. He then remembered that it was at that same hour that Jesus had said to him that his son now lived. He then believed and his whole household.
This miracle has many parallels to the story of the healing of the centurion’s servant at Capernaum in St. Matthew’s Gospel which we hear on the Third Sunday after Epiphany. It is often supposed that this is a different version of the same event. The main difference is that in St. Matthew’s Gospel the faith of the centurion is specifically praised as a Gentile and is contrasted with the lack of faith of many in Israel. By contrast, in St. John’s Gospel there is no suggestion that the ruler is a Gentile and there is no contrast drawn between Jews and Gentiles in the story. It would seem more reasonable to assume from the context that the ruler is a Herodian, one of the entourage of the client king of Galilee, Herod Antipas. Hence, it may be that the account in St. John is not another version of the same event as St. Matthew, but a different event altogether.
Of greater significance is the meaning that this healing miracle has in the context of the rest of St. John’s Gospel. In the early chapters of the Gospel we hear of how Jesus’ first disciples were called from being followers of John the Baptist to follow him (John 1). The Gospel then tells us of Jesus’ early ministry in Jerusalem in which he followed the example of John the Baptist in laying the axe at the root of the tree and proclaiming judgement on the Jewish nation by cleansing the temple (John 2). He would be the one, as he told Nicodemus, would would fulfil the promise of the Baptist in bringing regeneration by water and the spirit (John 3). He briefly carries out a ministry of baptism in Judea (though the Gospel makes clear that it was not Jesus who baptised but his disciples), before moving into Galilee. On the way he encounters the Samaritan woman at the well (John 4). Unlike John the Baptist who had summoned people out of the world into the wilderness to repent, Jesus now went into the world to seek and to save the lost, in words and mighty works. Unlike the Baptist, who performed no miracles, Jesus performed miracles (or “signs” as St. John calls them) which were acted parables of his proclamation of the coming of the Kingdom of God in his own person and ministry. The healing of the ruler at Capernaum in today’s Gospel was one such example.
When a perplexed John the Baptist later asked from prison whether Jesus was really the coming one he had proclaimed, Jesus replied that the eyes of the blind were now being opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped and the good news was being preached to the poor (Luke 7). The time for the separation of the wheat and the chaff which the Baptist had looked forward to was not yet. Rather Jesus was the anointed liberator of Isaiah who was gathering the outcasts of Israel in words and works. He was indeed the coming one of John’s preaching, but he sought to reach out to the lost in the towns and villages of Galilee rather than simply wait in the wilderness for people to come to him as John had done. The miracles were signs of the coming of the Kingdom of God and that they were already living in the days of fulfilment.
But although Jesus pointed to his miracles as living proof of the truth of his proclamation he strongly dissociated himself from being seen as a mere wonder worker. Whereas today people usually think of Jesus as primarily a teacher at the time it is clear that most people saw him principally as a miracle worker. But Jesus said that it was a wicked and adulterous nation that looked for a miraculous sign and refused to draw attention to himself in this way. He made the same point in today’s Gospel that unless the people see signs and wonders they would not believe.
What St. John’s Gospel is making clear is that Jesus’ miracles were more than simply evidence of the Kingdom of God in action, at a deeper level they were signs that revealed the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Many witnessed Jesus’ miracles, but few grasped their deeper meaning. He came to his own and his own did not receive him because they were too blinded by their preconceptions. Some saw him as a dangerous deceiver who was leading the people astray. Others saw that God was with him because he wrought great miracles and recognised that a great prophet had arisen among them. But their faith was too superficial, it relied on miraculous signs and wonders and did not penetrate to their deeper meaning. The ruler in today’s Gospel was one who did penetrate further to the deeper meaning of Jesus’ miracles as signs that revealed his true nature. At first Jesus appears to disparage his request that he would heal his son as a merely superficial reliance on signs and wonders. But the ruler persisted in his request that Jesus come down and heal his son. He believed Jesus’ word that his son now lived and went his way. He walked by faith and not by sight and the following day discovered that his son had been healed at the hour that Jesus had uttered these words. He then believed with all his household. His was not the superficial craving for signs and wonders, but a genuine faith that penetrated into Jesus’ true nature.
St. John tells us that Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples that were not recorded in the gospel, but those that were written down were done so that people may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God and that through believing may have life in his name. Let us pray that our faith will not be based on a superficial craving for signs and wonders, but rather be like that of the ruler who trusted in Jesus’ word that his son would be healed and then believed with all his household.
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