The Man Believed

Then Jesus told him, “Go back home. Your son will live!” And the man believed what Jesus said and started home. [Luke 4.50]

Now, what exactly did the man believe? Did he, like Mary and Martha concerning Lazarus, believe that the child would be alive in eternity? Did the man console himself that he had peace in his soul although his son would probably die? Did the man concede that God's ways were above his ways and therefore he would accept whatever happened?

Apparently not. When Jesus told the man to go back home, it was enough. The man believed Jesus. His willingness to turn and go home was a stark contrast to the intensity with which he had first come and addressed Jesus. And what's more, Jesus did not do what the man requested... COME and heal the boy. Instead, Jesus simply told the man to go home, the boy would live.

So what's the lesson here? Or is there even a lesson? Is there anything we might glean for our own faith found in this account? Or has faith and believing Jesus somehow morphed into something else today?

I am becoming increasingly more discontent with my own level of faith. I am seeing repeated instances of overcoming faith - faith that actually made a tangible difference - in the Bible... And yet, I find myself buying in to all the modern theology that says something is different now than what it was in Jesus' day - that faith is more of an "intangible" today - that as long as we have peace in our hearts, the miraculous life that Jesus demonstrated is not necessary.

Why is it that we are to look to the Bible as a guide for how to live... except in the realm of the miraculous? Is that not just a little bit ridiculous? Who chooses what part of Jesus' life and ministry we are and are not to emulate?

If we know that faith alone is what pleases God, why in the world would we accept anything less than reckless abandon to obedience to it? Why would we not copy Jesus in every possible opportunity and circumstance?

Father, I want a life of faith. I know nothing (repeat, nothing) else pleases You.