Can You Take Jesus At His Word? - John 4

Sometimes when someone asks us to believe something they have said though we might be skeptical we often say, "I will take your word for it!" When you take someone at their word, you are basically trusting them and then acting accordingly.  Today a royal official's son is dying so he goes to Jesus to help him.  

46 Once more he visited Cana in Galilee, where he had turned the water into wine. And there was a certain royal official whose son lay sick at Capernaum. 47 When this man heard that Jesus had arrived in Galilee from Judea, he went to him and begged him to come and heal his son, who was close to death.48 “Unless you people see signs and wonders,” Jesus told him, “you will never believe.” 49 The royal official said, “Sir, come down before my child dies.” 50 “Go,” Jesus replied, “your son will live.” The man took Jesus at his word and departed. 51 While he was still on the way, his servants met him with the news that his boy was living. 52 When he inquired as to the time when his son got better, they said to him, “Yesterday, at one in the afternoon, the fever left him.” 53 Then the father realized that this was the exact time at which Jesus had said to him, “Your son will live.” So he and his whole household believed. 54 This was the second sign Jesus performed after coming from Judea to Galilee.

The royal official had apparently either seen or heard about Jesus turning the water into wine at the wedding in Cana.  So when his son was dying, he did everything he could to get an audience with Jesus. The scripture says he "begged" Jesus to come and heal his son.  Who wouldn't?  We can learn several things about what it means to trust Jesus in this story. 

1. The man took Jesus at his word.  Jesus told the man to simply go home to his boy.  For some people that might not have been good enough. They might have demanded Jesus to physically visit their sick son.  But the royal official was just "gullable" enough to believe Jesus at his word.  Jesus promised the man that if he went his son would live.  The man took Jesus at his word and departed.  

2. Jesus healed in many different ways.  Sometimes Jesus laid hands on the person being healed, sometimes Jesus commanded the healing, sometimes he used things around him to aid in the healing (like the man whose face was washed with mud). Finally, sometimes Jesus healed while not being in proximity to the person being healed like in today's story.  Jesus teaches us that there is no formula for healing.  What heals people is Jesus saying the word and our trust in him.  

3. When the man got home and saw his son was healed it was exactly the same moment Jesus told him to "go".  The boy was healed instantaneously at Jesus' word.  Sometimes healing is a process, sometimes it only takes one word from Jesus.  The bottom line is that Jesus is all powerful. 

This was the second sign Jesus did in the gospel of John.  When the man took Jesus at his word the sign was revealed. Where do you need to take God at his word for healing in your life?  When he calls you to go will you go?