Loving Humanity Again
John 4:43–54
Did Jesus come to heal the sick?
Photo by 1MilliDollars on Unsplash
When the two days were over, Jesus went from that place to Galilee (for Jesus himself had testified that a prophet has no honor in the prophet’s own country). When he came to Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him, since they had seen all that he had done in Jerusalem at the festival; for they too had gone to the festival. Then he came again to Cana in Galilee where he had changed the water into wine. Now there was a royal official whose son lay ill in Capernaum. When he heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee, he went and begged him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death. Then Jesus said to him, “Unless you see signs and wonders you will not believe.” The official said to him, “Sir, come down before my little boy dies.” Jesus said to him, “Go; your son will live.” The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and started on his way. As he was going down, his slaves met him and told him that his child was alive. So he asked them the hour when he began to recover, and they said to him, “Yesterday at one in the afternoon the fever left him.” The father realized that this was the hour when Jesus had said to him, “Your son will live.” So he himself believed, along with his whole household. Now this was the second sign that Jesus did after coming from Judea to Galilee. - John 4:43–54
Sometimes, I wonder if God needed to remind himself why he cares so much about us humans.
There is a point in the previous chapter of John's Gospel where Jesus compares himself to the snake Moses held up in the desert.
If you remember, God had sent the serpents, and then Moses pleaded with him, so he showed Moses how to save the people.
Jesus compares himself to that bronze serpent. Was God about to let people die before Jesus came?
They are three persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. What if God needed to send himself in the form of his son to revisit humanity because he had lost his compassion?
I know that sounds terrible, but think about it for a moment.
Look at us. We are a sorry lot, we humans. We say we love and praise God, but we don't. We are inconsistent. We run to God when we need his help, but ignore him most other times.
So, maybe he was a bit fed up with us.
Maybe Jesus convinced him to let him become one of us so God would love humanity again.
When Jesus grew up among us, he couldn't help but have compassion for us. He saw us suffering and wanted to ease our pain. He reminded God why God loves us so much.
We say that God sent Jesus to be a sacrifice for our sins, but I think that is backwards.
Jesus, who could do nothing on his own, did this one thing for us to redeem us with the Father.
And the people said, "Surely this was God's son."
More to come...