Teacher Healer

Did Jesus think people would believe in him without signs?

When the two days were over, he 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

Jesus appears to get angry with the royal official.  The man was super lucky to have Jesus come to Cana after the festival in Jerusalem.

What would he have done?  He had heard of Jesus and then heard that Jesus was nearby, so he came as a last hope for his son's life.

Wouldn't you do the same?  Wouldn't you have even gone anywhere to help him?

But the man only had to find Jesus and ask him for help.  And the boy lived.

What about all the people in Jesus' own hometown, for whom he could do nothing?  

I wonder if Jesus wanted to perform signs. John makes them hear of his Gospel, proof that Jesus was divine, but what if Jesus wanted to teach people about God, about forgiveness, about loving one another?

What if that is the way he wanted to heal people?

His teaching was hard.  He lost many disciples over it, so maybe he wouldn't have had a huge following if he did not signs of healing.

Maybe they would not come out to see him if he didn't feed so many with so little.

Maybe we would not know about him at all.

So, why do we follow Jesus?  What are we wanting to see?  

Can we be content with doing as he said, loving one another and loving God completely?  Or do we want him to perform signs for us when we need healing?

More to come...