Evening Prayer 2-13-11

Reading:

John 4:46-54

"Go, your son will live."

In today's reading Jesus is confronted with an official whose son was ready to die.  This is such a tragic time and having two children of my own, I still not sure that I  can imagine the flood of emotions that this man was feeling.  So he reaches out to Jesus to heal the child before he dies.  You can picture this man begging Jesus to please come to my house before my child dies and heal him.  All Jesus does is respond with the words, "Go; your son will live."  (John 4:50)  The man believes and then finds out that his son was healed at the very hour that Jesus spoke these words. 

You see Jesus does not have to be physically there to bring about the healing.  He is the Word of God, the second person of the Holy Blessed and Glorious Trinity that has come into the flesh.  When He speaks it acts and does what He says.  So when He stated that the official's son would live, it was as good as Him standing next to the child.  The Word does what it says.  We just have to receive it.

The same is true today for us.  We are dead in our trespasses and sins.  We are so disordered because of the fall of Adam and Eve that we can not begin to make the first move towards to God.  So we bring our children into the Church, good as dead because of the sin that separates them from their heavenly Father.  It is in the Church that our God comes to the child through the proclamation of the Gospel and the administration of the Sacraments.  Jesus Christ comes to them in them in the water of Holy Baptism and forgives them of their sins and gives them new life.  They die, but rise again to newness of life in Christ in this mighty Sacrament.  You no longer need to fear death because you have been baptized and are made an heir of everlasting salvation on account of your life in Christ.  Jesus' perfect life is applied to you in that Sacrament by grace through faith.  You take God at His Word, just as the official did in today's reading.

It is here in the Church that we hear that our child will live.  Not because of some good that they may do, but because God has declared this child righteous because of the work of Jesus Christ.  Jesus says to you and I today,"Go; your son will live."