Faith
John 4:39-54
Many Samaritans and a Noble man's household Believe
39 Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I ever did.” 40 So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days. 41 And because of his words many more became believers. 42 They said to the woman, “We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world.”
43 After the two days he left for Galilee, 44(Now Jesus himself had pointed out that a prophet has no honor in his own country.) 45 When he arrived in Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him. They had seen all that he had done in Jerusalem at the Passover Festival, for they also had been there.
48 “Unless you people see signs and wonders,” Jesus told him, “you will never believe.” 49 The royal official said, “Sir, come down before my child dies.” 50 “Go,” Jesus replied, “your son will live.” The man took Jesus at his word and departed. 51 While he was still on the way, his servants met him with the news that his boy was living. 52 When he inquired as to the time when his son got better, they said to him, “Yesterday, at one in the afternoon, the fever left him.” 53 Then the father realized that this was the exact time at which Jesus had said to him, “Your son will live.” So he and his whole household believed.
When I was a child, I used to watch a magic show on TV. Whenever I saw a scene of cutting a beautiful woman into two body parts, it looked so real and thrilling that I couldn't believe that, though it was incredible. Later, I knew that it was a fake and a kind of trick of the magicians made. Anyway, these kinds of performances catch the eyes' of people, and they are interesting and even exciting. Likewise, when all the people who saw and heard of Jesus' kind of performances or miraculous signs, they got interested and even believed Him as a Messiah or Christ.
Ironically, Jesus did not seem to do show the signs, according to verse 48. He said, “Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will never believe.” However, He performed the miracles as a helper or healer toward those who are in need and sickness. He must have done these kinds of acts unwillingly, as He knew that they couldn't make them believe in Him. Then, what makes us believe? Many Samaritans first heard from a woman who had met Him and believed in Jesus after meeting Him for themselves, and many more people in Galilee believed Him as they saw the miraculous signs.
He commented on the faith very often, praising someone who had a good faith or rebuking someone, esp. disciples, saying, "You of little faith!" He even told them. "If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, " 'Move from here to there, ' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you."(Matthew 17:20) Now as a grown up, I don't believe any magic shows longer, but I believe that a little faith could be more real and more thrilling and has power to change my life.
