Today we see the end of the story from yesterday, the woman at the well, and she spreads that news throughout town about Jesus.  And, of course, it makes a ruckus and people come to see Jesus and others come to believe in Him as well.  And then we get a funny instance of where Jesus is teaching the disciples and they apparently don’t understand Him...I can almost sense John writing this as a comedic insert.  Here, let’s read this little bit (4:31-35).  I find this to be kind of funny...again, this shows me that John is writing and reflecting at the same time.  And he had the humility to be honest about how he and his compadres were seeing things in the moment...that they were often missing the point on things Jesus was teaching.  Its a great lesson for us too...we miss the point quite often as well.

And then we get to the main portion of today’s passage, this story about Jesus coming back to Galilee, where He’d turned the water into wine, and now an official, probably a centurion in service to Herod Antipas, comes up to Him and asks for help in healing his son who was on his death bed.  Jesus announces to this man and to those around that He understands that they need signs, they need some ‘proof’ of who He is...and so He does something for this man’s benefit.  But don’t miss this...as is often the case, there is something the man did as well, and I think we miss this so often...Jesus healed the boy, but the text also slips this little snippet in there, in v50, “...The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and went on his way.”  Is it possible that Jesus knew that this man believed before He even lifted a finger?  Well, we are talking about God, so of course He did.  But it is obvious that this guy believed Jesus could do what He wanted...and I think that belief impressed Jesus.  I think that belief compelled Jesus.  I don’t want to delve into prosperity gospel here, but I think it is fair, considering the entire text of the New Testament, that belief is impressive to God.  Jesus, several times, is recorded as being moved by a person’s belief.  I think this is one of those times.  This man asked and believed in concert, and I think that moved Jesus; it compelled Him to action.

And that’s a great lesson for us.  Not that we would ask for things from Jesus, but that we would ask at the same time believing in Jesus’ ability and willingness to respond.  That we would ask and move forward “as if”...as if we trusted God’s decision with the outcome, and we were single-minded in our determination to do what we know we ought to do, leaving the outcome to God.  I think that is an awesome place to be.  That’s the way God wants it...that’s giving our hearts over to God.  Today I will look for a small opportunity to do that...to trust, ask, trust some more, and to move “as if”.