The Nobleman: What If Your Son's Life Depended On Your Faith?

Good morning and welcome to Our Daily Walk.

Audio version at http://tinyurl.com/2582l4

“I’m sorry, but your son is very sick. I think it is only a matter of time now until he passes.” “No,” said the father. “He can’t die now. He’s too young and has so much to live for. I’ll do anything—whatever it takes to make him well. Just tell me what to do.”

But who can really give any hope in such a situation? In today’s world of medical advancements, many diseases are easily cured and others are cured or contained with more elaborate medical treatments and medicines.

To what lengths would you go to find a cure for your sick son? If the doctor prescribed a pill that cost $1,000 a piece, would you find a way to buy those pills? Of course you would.

And what if the doctor told you that the only way for your son to live was for you to donate a kidney to him? Would you make that sacrifice to save your son’s life? Of course you would.

What if the doctor told you that you would have to take your son to a distant land and have your son undergo therapy there in their climate? Would you go? Of course you would.

We would do anything for our children. We would sacrifice our money, our bodies, our careers everything we have just to see our sick child become well again.

But what if the doctor told you that your son’s life depended not on your money, your body or your career? What if the doctor told you that your son would live or die based on your faith? Now that’s a different twist.

Consider if you will the story found in John 4:46-53. This is the story of the nobleman who had a son that was healed by Jesus. In this reading, notice how this man’s faith in Jesus is seen in two ways. First, it allows him to leave the bedside of his dying son to find the healing. Second, it allowed him to leave Jesus “empty-handed” and return to his son trusting that Jesus would make him well.

So Jesus came again to Cana of Galilee where He had made the water wine. And there was a certain nobleman whose son was sick at Capernaum. When he heard that Jesus had come out of Judea into Galilee, he went to Him and implored Him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death. Then Jesus said to him, “Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will by no means believe.”

The nobleman said to Him, “Sir, come down before my child dies!”

Jesus said to him, “Go your way; your son lives.” So the man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him, and he went his way. And as he was now going down, his servants met him and told him, saying, “Your son lives!”

Then he inquired of them the hour when he got better. And they said to him, “Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him.” So the father knew that it was at the same hour in which Jesus said to him, “Your son lives.” And he himself believed, and his whole household.

We are never told this man’s name nor are we told what happened to him after this event. But this man has a tremendous legacy for us to admire. Imagine the lengths to which you would go to find a cure for your son. Imagine the faith that it would take to trust in a man that you believed to be from God himself.

Thankfully we are not faced with many situations where our sons or daughters are dying before we die. In our world of medical advancements not many people are subjected to having to travel far away or personally bear financial hardship in order to apply a cure. We are blessed.

But friends, would you please consider with me one additional insight? What if your son’s or your daughter’s spiritual life depended on your faith? The whole world would expect you as a parent to cover every option to provide for the physical healing of your child. Can God expect any less of us when it comes to the spiritual healing of our children?

On Our Daily Walk today, may we reflect upon the impact that our faith, or lack of faith, has on our children. May we resolve this hour to make sure that our children, as well as others, clearly see our faith in God and our desire for others to follow after His ways.

Our thought for the day: “Anybody who thinks money is everything has never been sick.”

May God bless you on your daily walk.