the church of the
ascension
in the city of
new york
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Tuesday, March 10
Psalm 62 / Jeremiah 2:1-13 / John 4:43-54
In John's story, a father with a dying son asks Jesus to save his son and Jesus obliges. The father goes home and hears that his son has recovered. As if the cure weren't enough, the father asks around and finds out that his son's miraculous recovery happened in the hour when Jesus told him that his son would live. On this corroboration, the man came to believe.
I can't fault this man for needing proof of Jesus' powers. To have faith is one thing. To need proof of Jesus' ability to deliver and to be able to arrive at a place when one can comfortably attribute miracles to Jesus is another. It speaks to a human need for proof: In today's time, it's called evidence; in another time, it was called signs.
I have asked for many signs from Jesus — sometimes signs of Jesus himself. I've asked today for a good job in which I can be gainfully and happily employed. If this job and sign of providence were not to arrive in a timely way, would my faith falter?
My own faith admittedly rests on conditions of a good life — a life composed of elements X, Y, Z, for example. Jesus foresaw it all. I can hear him sighing as he utters this: "Will none of you ever believe without seeing signs and portents?"
— Vinh Do
In John's story, a father with a dying son asks Jesus to save his son and Jesus obliges. The father goes home and hears that his son has recovered. As if the cure weren't enough, the father asks around and finds out that his son's miraculous recovery happened in the hour when Jesus told him that his son would live. On this corroboration, the man came to believe.
I can't fault this man for needing proof of Jesus' powers. To have faith is one thing. To need proof of Jesus' ability to deliver and to be able to arrive at a place when one can comfortably attribute miracles to Jesus is another. It speaks to a human need for proof: In today's time, it's called evidence; in another time, it was called signs.
I have asked for many signs from Jesus — sometimes signs of Jesus himself. I've asked today for a good job in which I can be gainfully and happily employed. If this job and sign of providence were not to arrive in a timely way, would my faith falter?
My own faith admittedly rests on conditions of a good life — a life composed of elements X, Y, Z, for example. Jesus foresaw it all. I can hear him sighing as he utters this: "Will none of you ever believe without seeing signs and portents?"
— Vinh Do
