A sign can be a wonderful thing.  It is also possible to get so caught up in and enamoured by the sign that we lose sight of that toward which the sign points.  Imagine a town such as Niagara-on-the-Lake here in Ontario.  Beautiful, historic, quaint town with lots to see.  Imagine the town commissioning an artist to make signs to point people towards the town’s attractions (Festival Theatre, The Fort, Historic Town Hall, The Irish Shop).  This artist makes beautiful wrought iron antique-looking signs.   Visitors to the town get so into the signs that they become their main topic of conversation about their visit.  “You should have seen these signs!”  Visitors start to take pictures of the signs and of themselves posing with the signs.  All of this happens to the point that they neglect the very attractions to which the signs point.

It’s all about the one toward whom the signs point.  Let us not get too caught up in the signs, as significant as they are in people’s lives.  The first sign was not simply about water being turned into wine.  The second sign is not simply about a son recovering from an illness that had brought him to the point of death, significant though this is.  There’s a song we used to sing called “The Heart of Worship,” and there was a line in the chorus that went “It’s all about you, it’s all about you, Jesus.”  It really is!  Primarily, foundationally, it really is all about Jesus.  This means, of course, that it is primarily and foundationally not all about us.  “What’s in this for me?” has no place here, as prone as we may be to ask this question.

Are we ready to hear Jesus’ questions to us?  “What are you looking for?”  “Do you want to be made well?”  Are we ready for Jesus to ask us questions like “Why did you doubt, you little faith person?” as he is holding on to us.  Remember always that we’re not being beaten up here, especially by Jesus.  Are we ready to hear Jesus say things to us like “Unless you see signs and wonders, you will not believe”?  We, too, may get so caught up in the signs (or the “what’s in this for me”) that we forget the one toward which the signs point.

This was a revelation to me this week, I must tell you.  We’re looking at the seven signs of Jesus in John’s Gospel.  They are water into wine, healing of the official’s son, healing of a paralyzed man, feeding 5,000, walking on water, healing a man born blind, and raising Lazarus from the dead.  I thought, “How is this going to go when so many of these signs are about healing?  How much can one preach on healing?”  The answer, of course, is that these stories of Jesus are not primarily about the signs.  They are about the Word made flesh, without whom not one thing came into being, and what has come into being in him was life, and this life was the light of all people.  The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.  The story of the wedding at Cana is not a lesson in God providing at every party when our supplies run out.  The story of the official’s son is not that every request for recovery from illness will be granted.  If recovery does not come, it’s because we lacked faith, or it’s because God is not worthy of our trust.

Underlying all these stories is John’s declaration – And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.  Grace upon grace.  Truth upon truth, calling for faith upon faith; trust upon trust.  Trust in Jesus is life.  Listen to how John puts it toward the end of his Gospel – “Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book.  But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.”  (20:30-31)

This is serious stuff, and we want to be serious about our trust. We want a trust in Jesus that is not dependent on our circumstances or the questions that we have.  We’re going to have questions after all.  It’s a matter of life and death in our story, so let’s get right to that.  I’m sure many people are asking the question, “How do dozens of children from a Christian summer camp drown in a flash flood?”  That’s like something from Job.  How are two babies born at 5 months, the edge of viability, and one lives and one dies?  Why does my loved one have terminal cancer?   A shallow-soil faith is not going to survive the scorching sun.  “A prophet has no honour in the prophet’s own country,” Jesus used to say.  What are we in the church if not Jesus’ country?  We want Jesus to be honoured here among us, don’t we?  If we thought following Jesus was mainly for our own gain, or that we get from God what we deserve,  we could only think the events at Camp Mystic were some sort of sick joke on God’s part or an act of judgement. We won’t, though, because we want to honour Jesus.  This story, like all our stories, is a matter of life and death.  “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.”

This is a well-off man.  Official in King Herod Agrippa’s apparatus.  Jesus is for everyone.  We’ve seen Jesus call fishermen.  We’ve seen Jesus approach a shunned woman of Samaria.  Next week, we’ll see Jesus approach a sick man lying by a pool in Jerusalem.  This man was well off materially.  The Word of Life is for everyone.  The wine will run out, remember, no matter our financial situation.  His son is at the point of death.  This is no “Well, she lived a good, long life” situation.  The grief of an untimely death.  Life is ebbing away.  Jesus’ answer may surprise us.  Are we ready for that?  Do we only want Jesus to tell us what we want to hear?  Then Jesus said to him, “Unless you see signs and wonders, you will not believe.”

Do we think so much of ourselves and our faith that we’re not ready to hear Jesus question our faith?  Do we freely acknowledge that we daily need to be coming to a deeper trust in Jesus?  Do we freely acknowledge that we need to be coming to Jesus daily with the plea, “Lord, I believe, help my unbelief.”  Lord Jesus, I trust, help my lack of trust.  Is our trust mainly dependent on what we see?  Is God worthy of my trust only when things are going the way I think they should?  Only when the people of God are acting the way I think they should act?  Only when I am getting the results for which I am asking? 

Are we ok with Jesus saying to us, “You are setting your heart not on heavenly things but on earthly things”?  Are we ok with Jesus telling us our faith is weak, or is this whole Jesus-following thing simply so we can feel good about ourselves?

The invitation that is before us today, and it is before us every day (no matter if it’s the first time we’re responding or the 15,000^th time), is to respond to Jesus in the same way this royal official does.  What an example, and we don’t even know his name!  I like to think this is so we can put ourselves right in the story.  This man doesn’t say, “How dare you question my faith!”  He doesn’t go away in anger.  The man shows persistent trust that Jesus is life. 

“Sir, come down before my little boy dies.”

I love John’s description of Jesus in chapter 1.  You’ve no doubt gathered this because I keep coming back to it.  We have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.  From his fullness we have all received grace upon grace.  Look at the grace that Jesus shows here.  He doesn’t send the man away after speaking of his (and everyone’s) sign-seeking faith.  Martin Luther said this about Jesus in a sermon from 1526 - “If [Jesus] were as impatient as we are, he would at once say to us [in a situation like the officer’s]: ‘Depart from me. I will have nothing to do with you; for you do not believe as you ought.’ Who could ever receive help from him? But the great art of Christ is to know how to deal gently with the weak, not to knock them about and impatiently drive them away.”

Jesus said to him, “Go, your son shall live.”  In him was life, and the life was the light of all people.  This wonderful man, whose story John preserved for us, responds in the good and fitting and proper way in which we are invited to share – The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and started on his way.  The man took Jesus at Jesus' word.  The man believed that what Jesus spoke was true.  What the man believed was not dependent on what he saw.  He didn’t need to see.  The man did not say, “Well, let me check and see how he is and get back to you.”  The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and started on his way.

This royal official’s faith/trust was such that he believed that what Jesus spoke was true.  This man persisted in the face of a question from Jesus just as Mary persisted in the face of a question from Jesus.  “Do whatever he tells you,” said Mary, and we’re listening.  We’re remembering what Jesus tells us in John’s Gospel.  Believe in the Father, believe also in me.  Trust in the Father, trust also in me.  Abide in me as I abide in you.  Love one another as I have loved you.  Here we are invited into the trust of this royal official who trusted in what Jesus said without having to see any sign.  What does Jesus say about himself in John’s Gospel?  Let us keep those great “I am” statements close to our hearts. 

I am the bread of life.  I am the light of the world.  I am the gate.  I am the good shepherd.  I am the resurrection and the life.  I am the way, the truth, and the life.  I am the vine.  We hear life a lot there, and we face matters of life and death, and we face them trusting that in him we know life.

Ask me how I’m doing.  I’m alive and well. His Spirit is within me.  This is a truth that goes beyond any circumstance I may be in from now to the end of my time on this earth and beyond.  I’m alive and well. His Spirit is within me, because he died and rose again.

So, life.  “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 said to him, ‘Your son shall live.’ So he himself  believed, along with his whole household.” (52-53)

When we hear Jesus ask if we’re only trusting because of signs or what might be in it for us, may we say, “You say it, I trust it.”  All I need is your word.  May we say, “Though the fig tree does not blossom and no fruit is on the vine.  Though the produce of the olive fails, and the fields yield no fruit.  Though the flock is cut off from the fold and no herd is in the stalls.  Yet I will rejoice in the Lord.  I will exult in the God of my salvation.”  The one in whom I know life lived the way we were created to live it, in loving company with God.

This kind of trust is contagious.  The man himself believed (he was already trusting, but his trust got deeper) along with his whole household.  I want this for all our households.  Let’s ask God to deepen our trust and let it spread through our households; spread through our circles of love and care.  May this be true for all who hear these words about this, the second sign Jesus did after coming from Judea to Galilee.  We have 5 more to go!  May God continue to speak to our hearts.    Amen