What Kind of Belief?

...he went to Him and was imploring Him to come down and heal his son.... The royal official said to Him, "Sir, come down before my child dies." Jesus said to him, "Go; your son lives." The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and started off. (John 4:47-50)

I just noticed this. I had seen before the sharp contrast between the willing, embracing kind of belief by the Samaritans based simply on the words and presence of Jesus compared with the stubborn resistance of the Jews who always wanted signs and miracles before they would consider believing. But I just noticed that this man finally switched sides when he realized that his own resistance might cost the life of his own son.

It says twice in here that the official was asking Jesus to come to his place to heal his son. Yet very clearly Jesus refused to comply with this man's request. I have overlooked that point before but I find it pregnant with meaning. If Jesus had accommodated this man's ideas of what needed to be done He would have in fact been reinforcing this man's unbelief. That sounds a bit strange at first but that is what I am starting to see now.

This issue of having the right quality of belief is very important to John I think. That is why he focused this whole book on what it really means to believe and what that looks like in real-life situations. Much of what we call faith and belief in God is really a counterfeit that is powerless to transform the life and heart as heaven desires for us. This is becoming clearer in this story.

This official must have had some level of belief that Jesus could heal his son or he would never have come with this request for Jesus in the first place. But apparently the kind of belief that he held was not of the quality that would bring honor to God. Jesus obviously saw a problem with what was going on in his heart or He would never have challenged him with this strong statement about wanting signs and wonders to induce belief.

Because of the deficiency in the kind of belief expressed by this official, Jesus needed to clarify to everyone involved that the belief we need to connect with God's true power is of a different nature altogether than what we often think of as belief. Jesus had just come from a whole city of people who had entered into the right kind of belief, a belief based on who Jesus was and acceptance of His words to them without questioning and haggling and disputing and doubting. Now He was among people who already had far more evidence of the presence and power of God in the life of Jesus than had the Samaritans and yet could not bring themselves to put aside their resistance and just embrace Him fully with their hearts and trust Him without demanding external exhibitions of supernatural power.

It is the classic tension between an external religion and the true internal spirituality that connects us with the heart of the Father. Both of these use similar language; both of them claim to bring salvation, to get a person into heaven; both of these talk about belief, but from heaven's perspective there is a radical difference between what we typically think of as belief and what Jesus was looking for in the hearts of those He was seeking to help and save.

This official came to Jesus full of fear, of consternation and of doubt. Fear is the breeding ground for doubt but doubt is incompatible with true belief. Real belief, faith that makes a difference in our lives is something that originates far deeper in the heart than the kind of belief most religious people deal in. Counterfeit belief puts the emphasis on the qualifications and credentials and the external demonstrations of power that entice us to invest our trust in someone. But real belief like that of which John writes comes from a completely different place internally. This kind of belief looks past the externals and chooses to believe in the motives, intentions and the loving concern that is found in the heart of the One we are trusting. True belief is choosing to believe, without outward evidence, that God cares about us and desires to bless us.

This kind of belief actually liberates the hands of God to do for us what He is severely limited from doing otherwise. This kind of belief, a belief that chooses to turn away from our natural doubts and emotions and fears and choses to trust His heart – this kind of belief gives God permission to unleash His saving power into situations that from our perspective are hopeless and terrifying. This is the kind of belief and faith that brings with it inner peace, power and bonding with the heart of our loving, caring Father.

This man experienced this transition of belief. When he saw that his doubting and fears could become the obstacles that could block the healing of his own son, he suddenly realized how his imitation unbelief might be viewed from the eyes of a caring, loving father. In his mind his own love for his son was greater in comparison than the love he was choosing to believe that Jesus had for him, and the shock of that revelation woke him up to the fatal dangers inherent in such belief. For in reality, that kind of belief is nothing but unbelief in disguise. When he realized this he was humbled and threw himself on the mercy of Jesus, and immediately the heart of Jesus responded with the compassion that He wanted this man to see all along.