Discussion questions:
-Tell us about some
“things” that are very real to you but
perhaps you can’t see.
-Are things that you
can see more “real” than things you can’t see? Why or why not?
-Before we read this next story think back to the very
beginning of John. “In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and
the word was God. . . And the Word
became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of
the Father’s only Son, full of grace and truth.”
-What we have here in Jesus is the Word of God (from all
eternity) becoming a man. He has taken on flesh. He is one of us. He came to us
and John wrote this book so that we might believe in Him, put our trust in Him
and have life. He has already given us one sign of his miraculous power by
turning the water into wine. He is about to do many more miraculous
miracles. People love the miraculous.
There is a temptation for people to believe in the miraculous and not the
“Word,” that makes the miraculous happen. Jesus will soon have many people
following him around hoping to see more signs and miracles, but Jesus knows
that faith, life and truth only come from trusting in Him and his word, not the
miracles. Jesus will challenge this man to trust His word without seeing the
miracle.
-Read verses 43-53
-Look at verse 48. Why did Jesus respond this way to this
man’s plea? How would you have responded?
-Why did Jesus perform these signs if he didn’t want people
to follow him for the wrong reasons? –
-What’s the point of Jesus signs?
-Verses 47-50. The official begs Jesus to come with him. His
son is about to die. In his second response Jesus tells him to go home and that
his son is well. What would you have
done if you were the official after hearing these words?
-How is the response of the official in verse 50 and 53 an
example of what Jesus was desiring?
-Consider all of the “things” that Christians believe
(trust, have faith in) that can not be seen. Name some of them.
-Consider this verse about what faith is:
“Now faith is the
assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” –Heb 11:1
Is this easy or
difficult for you to have this faith? Or both? Discuss.
Closing Reflection
The
distinction between believing because we’ve seen something and believing on the
strength of God’s word remains important throughout the gospel. It reaches its
final dramatic statement in Jesus’ gentle rebuke to Thomas in chapter 20. “Have
you believed because you have seen? Blessed are those who haven’t seen and yet
believe!”
This is the
challenge the gospel presents to us today. We are not invited to believe in an
abstract idea, or a nebulous feeling or an indefinable spiritual experience. We
are invited to believe in the Word become flesh. But genuine faith is always
seeking the Word hidden in the flesh, not using the Word simply as a way to get
to the flesh. As John’s story unfolds, we are again and again reminded that, if
on the one hand, ‘God loved this world so much’ this is not because our life
must remain bounded by this present world. When the world is embraced by God in
love, this happens so that we may who live in the present world, dark and
corrupt as it now is, may learn to love in return the God who has loved us.
Let
the clues lead you to the treasure. Let the signs lead you out of the traffic
jam. Let the flesh lead you to the Word. Hear and believe.
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