"Testimony in Community" John 4:46-5:18

Our Scripture Text this morning comes from the 4th chapter of John, starting with verse 46 and goes through chapter 5 verse 18.  Let us listen for how the spirit is speaking to her church.
John 4:46-5:18
46 He returned to Cana in Galilee where he had turned the water into wine. In Capernaum there was a certain royal official whose son was sick. 47 When he heard that Jesus was coming from Judea to Galilee, he went out to meet him and asked Jesus if he would come and heal his son, for his son was about to die. 48 Jesus said to him, “Unless you see miraculous signs and wonders, you won’t believe.”
49 The royal official said to him, “Lord, come before my son dies.”
50 Jesus replied, “Go home. Your son lives.” The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and set out for his home.
51 While he was on his way, his servants were already coming to meet him. They said, “Your son lives!” 52 So he asked them at what time his son had started to get better. And they said, “The fever left him yesterday at about one o’clock in the afternoon.” 53 Then the father realized that this was the hour when Jesus had said to him, “Your son lives.” And he and his entire household believed in Jesus.54 This was the second miraculous sign Jesus did while going from Judea to Galilee.
5 After this there was a Jewish festival, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 2 In Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate in the north city wall is a pool with the Aramaic name Bethsaida. It had five covered porches, 3 and a crowd of people who were sick, blind, lame, and paralyzed sat there.[a] 5 A certain man was there who had been sick for thirty-eight years. 6 When Jesus saw him lying there, knowing that he had already been there a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?”
7 The sick man answered him, “Sir,[b] I don’t have anyone who can put me in the water when it is stirred up. When I’m trying to get to it, someone else has gotten in ahead of me.”
8 Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.”9 Immediately the man was well, and he picked up his mat and walked. Now that day was the Sabbath.
10 The Jewish leaders said to the man who had been healed, “It’s the Sabbath; you aren’t allowed to carry your mat.”
11 He answered, “The man who made me well said to me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’”
12 They inquired, “Who is this man who said to you, ‘Pick it up and walk’?” 13 The man who had been cured didn’t know who it was, because Jesus had slipped away from the crowd gathered there.
14 Later Jesus found him in the temple and said, “See! You have been made well. Don’t sin anymore in case something worse happens to you.” 15 The man went and proclaimed to the Jewish leaders that Jesus was the man who had made him well.
16 As a result, the Jewish leaders were harassing Jesus, since he had done these things on the Sabbath. 17 Jesus replied, “My Father is still working, and I am working too.” 18 For this reason the Jewish leaders wanted even more to kill him—not only because he was doing away with the Sabbath but also because he called God his own Father, thereby making himself equal with God.
 
Sermon
While there are exciting things to explore in each of the stories the narrative lectionary has given us today, I figure no one (including me) wants to hear me talk that long. One thing of note in today’s reading is the tension between how people respond to Jesus when he is in Jerusalem and how people respond to Jesus outside of Jerusalem. Did you notice that the pharisees upon seeing the sick man walk simply say, “You are breaking sabbath by carrying your mat?” There is some interpretation of Jewish law that you could not bring something from outside your house into the public space on the sabbath and the mat the man carries is presumably something from his private space. Regardless, they don’t say to him, “Hooray! You are healed!” “Hooray! You have been made well.” Instead they scold him for carrying his mat and what’s worse it seems they don’t even recognize that he is the man who for his entire life, for 37 years has stood outside the pools to be healed. They don’t see him.

And what this reminds me of is the story in John from last week. Jesus saw the woman at the well. He saw her, he testified to her truth, and he shared the good news with her. He chose her. One who had no standing in society outside of being in relationship with another, for her that meant five husbands and the man she was currently living with. But when Jesus shares the good news with her, he invites her into the community of faith. He invites her to be a bearer of the gospel, to have a spot in the story, to testify to this encounter. Testimony can only happen in community.

And I think today’s first story points to that. 

The certain royal official has a sick son. In John’s gospel we don’t know if the official was gentile or Jew. It seems not to matter to John. What we know is that a royal official is someone who seemingly has power and access to resources. But his son is sick. His son is dying. And verse 47 says “When the royal official heard that Jesus was coming from Judea to Galilee, he went out to meet him and e-ro-ta Jesus if he would come and heal his son, for his son was about to die. 

Erota.
He doesn’t just ask.
Erota means he beseeches.
He begs Jesus to heal his son.

Because when your son is dying, it doesn’t much matter how much power or how much money you have. You are powerless over life and death.

Jesus says, “Unless you see miraculous signs and wonders, you won’t believe.”

Now it’s important, I think, to point out that the "you" here is plural. Jesus isn’t just talking to the royal official, saying, unless you see a sign you won’t believe. He’s talking to all of us. “Unless ya’ll see miraculous signs and wonders, ya’ll won’t believe.” It points us to Thomas who doubts later on in John. And to all of us who just want to see in order to believe.

49 The royal official said to him, “Lord, come before my son dies.”
50 Jesus replied, “Go home. Your son lives.” The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and set out for his home.

Actually, the royal official didn’t have to see to believe. Jesus said it was so and he believed.

But back at home, the servants who are with the dying son notice that he is getting better. So they run out to meet the royal official to tell him the good news. They have no idea of the royal official’s encounter with Jesus. And for all they know, he’s just gotten better on his own. But when the two meet and testify to what has happened, it is only then they understand the true nature of the miracle. Without the other’s testimony, they each only had half the story. 

Remember how in Exodus God provided manna in the dessert? We talked about how miracles are sometimes in the ordinary things of life. And I think today’s scripture is another example of that. There are miracles all around us that we just don’t even know about until we gather together and share or testify to miracle of life. Because life itself is a miracle.

The word witness or testimony appears in John’s gospel 47 times.
Isn’t that astounding?

And I’m convinced that what John is showing us is in his gospel is that whether you are a woman who has almost no standing in society, a powerful royal official with access to all the resources, a sick man who has been cast aside because of a lifetime of illness, Jesus says “you have access to me. Tell the truth about what you see. Testify to the miracles of this life.”

And when we do that, when we share the good news in our communities, people become curious about this Jesus, and want to come to know him on their own.

​So friends, may we be witnesses to the miracles of life. 
In the name of the one who taught us how to live.
Amen.