Go, and Worry Not
7 minute read
“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 he 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.” John 4:46-54
We have this desire for reassurance all of the time, especially in periods of trouble or hardship. As Christians, we look to God and pray that He will immediately remedy our situations. Now, of course, our God can do that if He wishes, but our experiences show that is not how God works most times. Prayer is not a transaction of instant requests being granted, because God is not a vending machine satisfying our wishes. Prayer is a conversation with our Lord and Savior and sharing our hearts with His. When we pray to God in total desperation, it can be very trying at times to leave prayer and trust God wholeheartedly that everything will be okay or that we will make it through this trial. We are called to not worry, but to surrender it all at the foot of the cross and move forward in complete trust that Christ is victorious and the battle is already won.
The passage above is a wonderful example of this struggle put into motion. The royal official left his dying son and traveled an entire day’s journey in the mere hope that he could talk to Christ and journey back together to heal his son. The royal official was out of options and this was his last-ditch effort to save his son, as he put everything on the line by trekking a complete day’s length away from his family. If he had gotten to Galilee and wasn’t able to find Jesus or wasn’t able to convince Christ to heal his son, he would have lost the boy. It would be too late to travel all the way back and find another solution.
So he makes his way to Galilee and meets up with Jesus to ask him his desperate question, “Will you come down and heal my son, who is near death?” This royal official presumably was at first like us and might have been seeking the instant granting of his request. That Jesus would drop everything and follow him back to his son. That Jesus would give him the feeling he wanted and heal his son, the way he had envisioned it. However, Jesus first said, “Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will not believe.” I picture the royal official’s jaw dropping at this very moment. This must have been a bit jarring to the royal official, expecting to have a miraculous flood of emotional comfort, yet receiving what appears to be a reprimand. The royal official pleads to Jesus saying, “Sir, come down before my child dies.” This was his final plea for Christ to just help him the way he wants or thinks he needs. Like us saying to God, “Please God, just give me that feeling of peace I so badly desire. Please just come in and fix this all now. Please just give me the feeling so I know you are here.” Jesus says to the royal official, “You may go; your son will live.”
The royal official now has to come to an ultimatum in his faith; to walk back home, trusting God enough, that when he got back home his son would be alive, or to have wasted his time and lost his son seeking the wrong solution. This would be an entire day’s journey back to his home wondering if his son would actually be healed or not. The thought of this man traveling back home, alone, for an entire day just thinking about what will happen to his son is simply incredible. What a trying experience for this man. God calls us to a deep level of trust that can only be reached through the testing of the storms. Storms are sometimes without signs and wonders in the midst to reassure us of a positive outcome. We are called to walk with faith and trust that God has a plan for us.
In our lives, we worry about our job, our kids, our cars, our bills, our house, our future, our livelihood, etc. and we go to God on our knees and ask Him to help us, like the royal official. We ask Him to just come with us and fix the issue, to fix our worry, and to make everything alright. Then comes the walk back home when we are alone and there is silence. In that time of silence and waiting we are to push on and trust that in the end there is redemption and there is a solution. It is also key that after praying, we are to never leave feeling discouraged or worse than before we started. Mother Teresa once said to a priest, “never leave prayer feeling discouraged and feel like nothing happened. Give that feeling of nothing to God and know that discouragement never comes from the Lord.” It’s crucial to know that we don’t pray to God because of the feelings we get when we do so. We commit ourselves to God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, not God the Feelings I Get From Time with Him. To take some advice given by Dr. Edward Sri, just like in marriage, we commit ourselves to a person, not the feelings we get from that person. Feelings come and go, but the person is there to stay.
As you continue in your own journeys, take courage in knowing you are not alone and that as Christians, we are not sustained by the feelings we receive from our faith. We hold fast to the person that is Christ, the gift we have that is salvation, and the goal of knowing God, loving God, and serving God to the best of our ability. Don’t be discouraged when God tells you to “Go, it will be okay,” because the long walk back will end with a wondrous celebration.