Coffee With God

Reflection: Jn 4:43-54

The Evangelist John had a definite purpose for writing his Gospel – to reveal the true identity of Jesus as the Son Of God. Thus, throughout his Gospel we find John introducing numerous people who would make their Profession of Faith and believing in Jesus. In the First Chapter he introduces John the Baptist and we hear his testimony. “There is the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.” Later we will hear Philip telling Nathanael that “We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and the prophets as well…” And towards the end of the first Chapter, we also have the profession of faith of Nathanael: “Master, you are the son of God, you are the king of Israel…” Chapter two narrates the story of the Wedding at Cana and the evangelist would tell us at the end of the narration that, “In this way, he showed his glory and his disciples believed in him.” Chapter two also would tell us the story of Jesus cleansing the temple where Jesus would tell, “Destroy this temple and in three days I would raise it up.” And the author would say, “Only after he had risen from the dead, his disciples remembered these words, then they believed …” Chapter three has the story of Nicodemus who came to meet Jesus in the night… We know, he was the one at the end of the Gospel who accompanied Joseph of Arimathea to bury Jesus after his crucifixion. Then we come to Chapter four: we have the story of the Samaritan Woman at the well. After the long description of the conversation between Jesus and the woman, we find her telling her villagers – “Come and see a man who told me everything I did! Could he not be the Christ?” And Jesus would stay with the Samaritans for two days and when he was leaving, the Samaritans would tell the woman, “Now we believe not because what you have told us; we have heard for ourselves and we know that this is the Saviour of the World”. And now we come to today’s Gospel passage: the healing of the son of a court official. The whole story speaks of the great faith, this official had in Jesus. He had to travel a long distance to come to Jesus; and in spite of the initial rejection of his petition, he is insistent. A Word from Jesus was enough for him and he goes! And the result – he and his entire household believed in Jesus. The Gospel of Jesus continues: Jesus comes to us in our varied life situations. How often do we profess our faith in him?