23-Mar-20

Gospel JN 4:43-54

At that time Jesus left [Samaria] for Galilee.

For Jesus himself testified

that a prophet has no honor in his native place.

When he came into Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him,

since they had seen all he had done in Jerusalem at the feast;

for they themselves had gone to the feast.

Then he returned to Cana in Galilee,

where he had made the water wine.

Now there was a royal official whose son was ill in Capernaum.

When he heard that Jesus had arrived in Galilee from Judea,

he went to him and asked him to come down

and heal his son, who was near death.

Jesus said to him,

“Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will not believe.”

The royal official said to him,

“Sir, come down before my child dies.”

Jesus said to him, “You may go; your son will live.”

The man believed what Jesus said to him and left.

While the man was on his way back,

his slaves met him and told him that his boy would live.

He asked them when he began to recover.

They told him,

“The fever left him yesterday, about one in the afternoon.”

The father realized that just at that time Jesus had said to him,

“Your son will live,”

and he and his whole household came to believe.

Now this was the second sign Jesus did

when he came to Galilee from Judea.

Reflection

“Sir, come down before my child dies.”

Jesus said to him, “You may go; your son will live.”

At times I need to remember that, although Jesus is the Son of God, He is also “One with the Father.” (John 10-20) He knows how it feels to be a parent.

Like any parent, He was sometimes frustrated by His children’s choices but He always helped them. The royal official’s son was dying and Jesus “could feel” the father’s agony.

To Jesus, no person was a stranger; they were His brothers and sisters, the children of His Father. So, He healed the man’s son.

He asks us to do the same.

Every person who sleeps on the street, every person who stands on a corner with their hand out, every person desperately trying to reach My Brother’s Keeper for a bed or food is a child of Our Father.

If your child were lost and desperate and you couldn’t help them, would you hope that I would go?

Would you go for my child?

Can we, like Jesus, be a Savior to another’s child?

“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”  John 13:34-35 (ESV)