Seeing is Believing? (John 4:43-5:18)
Have you been scammed before? I have gotten calls and emails claiming to be from the bank, the police, or the government. Once, someone called claiming to be my friend and asked if I recognised him. After several minutes of me insisting on my ignorance, “I don’t know. Who are you?”, he finally got fed up and hung up. I suppose scammers do not like to waste time.
Nowadays, scams are becoming more and more common. In just the first half of last year, Singapore lost almost $400 million to scams across 27,000 reported cases. Some of us may have been victims of scams, or we know family or friends who have fallen prey. Some have had to learn the hard way that if something sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Scams have made us more suspicious and sceptical. We have become less trusting. As the saying goes, “seeing is believing” — so we will not believe something we cannot see with our own eyes.
Maybe we have also taken a “seeing is believing” approach in spiritual matters. Some will believe in God only if He shows himself in dramatic ways, perhaps through a healing or a windfall. Some of us may be struggling to believe in God amid suffering, sickness or sorrow. If God is good and if He cares, wouldn’t we see our life circumstances get easier? What do we expect to see before we will believe? What terms and conditions must God meet before we will trust in Him? Is seeing really believing?
It is an important question because John’s Gospel is focused on who we are to believe in and why. That we might believe in Jesus — this is the reason why the apostle John wrote his Gospel. Believing is vital because it is only by believing in the name of Jesus that we can have life. So far in John’s Gospel, we have heard that Jesus is the one and only Son of God. He came in the flesh to reveal the glory of God the Father. Jesus is the one promised in the Old Testament, who reconciles sinners to God and makes all things new. We are born again through Jesus. Whoever believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life. Everyone, everywhere needs salvation. Jesus is the Saviour of the world, who takes away our guilt and shame if we trust in Him. Jesus transforms us to become worshipers of God, worshiping Him in Spirit and truth.
Jesus did many miracles, but John records only seven of them. He calls these miracles signs. We are not meant to focus on the signs themselves, but on the One to whom they point. “Seven” is the number of perfection. John might be saying that these signs taken together present a complete testimony of Jesus. Therefore, to believe in Him, we do not need to see any more signs.
Believing in Jesus means believing His word.
In fact, seeing a sign does not necessarily lead to faith. Our passage records two signs and two different responses. Looking at both of these side-by-side helps us understand what it means to believe in Jesus. This is the big idea: Believing in Jesus means believing His word. We will unpack this in two points: (1) Believing without seeing; and (2) Seeing without believing.
Believing without seeing (Jn 4:43-54)
Right before our passage, Jesus has spent two fruitful days in Samaria. As we heard last week, Jews have no dealings with Samaritans. The Jews would rather take a long detour around Samaria than travel through it to get from Judea in the south to Galilee in the north. The Samaritans were despised outsiders, yet Jesus deliberately planned to stay with them. His ministry among them bore much fruit. Besides the woman at the well, many other Samaritans believed in Him. But now, it was time for Jesus to return to where He was from. Look at John 4:43: “After the two days he departed for Galilee.” Although Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, He had grown up in the town of Nazareth in Galilee.
Why did He go to Galilee? John 4:44 tells us: “For (because) Jesus himself had testified that a prophet has no honour in his own hometown.” Isn’t this striking? Jesus knew He would be rejected in Galilee, yet He decided to go there. This fulfils what John 1:11 says about Jesus’ ministry: “He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.” Having seen Jesus grow up and live among them, the Galileans probably thought they knew everything about Him. It is possible to become over-familiar with Jesus. We may have grown up listening to Bible stories about Jesus or we may be long-time churchgoers. We may think we know everything about Jesus. Perhaps we have stopped paying attention to His word because we think we have heard it all before. But do we really know Jesus for who He truly is? Knowing a lot about Jesus is one thing; do we actually trust and obey Him?
In light of this, John 4:45 sounds strange. If Jesus has no honour in His own hometown, then why did the Galileans welcome Him? The second half of the verse tells us why: It was because they had seen all that he had done in Jerusalem at the feast. For they too had gone to the feast. This refers to John 2:23-24: “Now when (Jesus) was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, many believed in his name when they saw the signs that he was doing.” Many saw Jesus’ miracles and believed in him. So, seeing must be believing, right? Not quite. The very next verse says: “But Jesus on his part did not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people.” Jesus could distinguish genuine from fake faith.
When I was a teenager, I supported Everton football club in the English Premier League.(Apologies to the Liverpool supporters among us.) They were one of the top clubs then, up there with their fierce rivals Liverpool. But ever since their last major trophy in 1995, Everton has been on a decline. I have also stopped supporting them. I have since started supporting Liverpool. (Apologies to the Everton supporters among us.) Like me, these Galileans are fair-weather supporters. They had been among the crowds in Jerusalem. They had seen Jesus’ signs and believed, but only in a shallow way. It was not because they understood who Jesus truly is, but because they were impressed by His miracles. To them, Jesus was a hometown boy made good. How exciting to have a miracle-performing celebrity return home! The Galileans welcomed Jesus, as long as He lived up to their ideas and expectations.
What a stark contrast with the Samaritans! At first, some of them believed because of the woman’s testimony that Jesus knew all about her and her past (Jn 4:39). But as the Samaritans heard from Jesus themselves, many more believed not because they had seen a sign, but simply because of Jesus’ word (Jn 4:41). How ironic that Jesus’ own people rejected Him, while these despised Samaritan “outsiders” believed in Him. Indeed, Jesus is the Saviour of the world! Whoever believes in Him will be saved, regardless of ethnicity, social status, or background. No matter how broken our past or present, Jesus is able and willing to save all who trust in Him.
Look at John 4:46. Jesus comes again to Cana in Galilee, where He had made the water wine. Jesus had performed a sign here before, yet the Galileans still did not believe in Him. Meanwhile, at Capernaum, which was more than 30km northeast of Cana, there was an official whose son was ill. He may have been a Gentile who worked for King Herod. Like others in Galilee, he had also heard of Jesus’ miracles.
We read in John 4:47, “When this man heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee, he went to him and asked him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death.” The life of this man’s son hangs by a thread. The man is desperate for Jesus’ help. He wants Jesus to accompany him back to Capernaum to heal his son. But Jesus’ reply in John 4:48 is a hard one: “So Jesus said to him, ‘Unless you see signs and wonders you will not believe.’ (Jn 4:48)” The “you” is plural. Jesus’ words were not just for the man but addressed to the Galileans in general. Jesus was rebuking their superficial, “seeing is believing” sort of faith. Jesus calls out our desire for signs before we believe.
Jesus’ mission is not to make us successful, healthy or wealthy in this life. Do not miss the point of who Jesus truly is and what He has come to do.
Why did Jesus respond in this way? The man must realise Jesus is not just some miracle-worker. Jesus is not trying to gain popularity by wowing the crowds with His signs and wonders. Merely being interested in Jesus’ signs for their own sake is spiritually dangerous. Our hearts are naturally bent towards the signs and wonders promised by the prosperity gospel, because we are naturally self-interested. But such “faith” does not save. Jesus’ mission is not to make us successful, healthy or wealthy in this life. Do not miss the point of who Jesus truly is and what He has come to do.
Recall the words of John the Baptist: Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world (Jn 1:29). Our felt needs and wants can distract us from our greatest and most desperate need. God made every one of us for His glory. We were created to worship our Creator. It is in knowing Him and living for Him that we find our deepest joy. But we have rebelliously turned away from God to live for ourselves. Instead of giving God praise and thanks, we have made ourselves the centre of everything. The Bible calls this sin. We have all sinned against God and deserve His judgement. But God, in His grace and mercy, did not leave us to our sin. He loved us while we were still sinners by sending Hs Son, Jesus, to save guilty rebels like us. This is why Jesus came: to live a perfect life, to die on the cross in the place of sinners, and to rise from the dead, so that whoever repents and believes in Him will be saved from God’s wrath. Have we acknowledged our sin and believed in Jesus to save us?
Look at John 4:49. The man is persistent. He asks again: “Sir, come down before my child dies.” God often uses trouble and trials to show us our need for Jesus. The man must realise that he needs Jesus even more than he needs his son to be healed. As precious as the boy’s life is, there is something even greater at stake — knowing God and His Son. Beloved, do not be overly discouraged by suffering. Our loving Heavenly Father wisely works through difficult circumstances to draw us towards Christ.
Jesus still refuses to go with the man. Instead, he says in John 4:50: “Go; your son will live.” Again, Jesus’ reply is unexpected. Why promise a long-distance healing? Jesus is teaching the man — and us — what it means to believe in Him. Jesus works in His way, on His terms, for His purposes — not ours. True faith does not depend on seeing Jesus’ miracles. True faith means taking Jesus at His word and trusting Him. We believe Jesus because we know Him as He truly is. He is the Christ — God’s promised King and Saviour. He is the eternal Son of God, who was with God in the beginning and through whom all things were made. Jesus is the Word become flesh. Since God has spoken to us through His Son, should we not believe His word? You might remember the account in the other Gospels of the Roman centurion’s words to Jesus, when he asks Jesus to heal his servant: “Lord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof, but only say the word, and my servant will be healed. (Matt 8:8)” Is Jesus enough for us? Do we trust His word because we trust Him?
How does the man respond? The second half of John 4:50 says: The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and went on his way. The man has come to learn that simply hearing and obeying the word of Jesus is enough. As Jesus said to Thomas near the end of John’s Gospel: “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” (Jn 20:29b). Do we wish we could see Jesus’ signs and wonders for ourselves? Maybe we think our faith would be stronger if we could only experience a miracle. Beloved, we already have a firm foundation for our faith — God’s word, which testifies to Jesus. So, be encouraged to trust in Him. Believing in Jesus means believing His word.
Believing is seeing. Jesus’ signs point to Him and encourage us to trust in Him. But the signs themselves are not the foundation of our faith; Jesus is.
Sure enough, Jesus keeps His word (Jn 4:51-53). The man’s son is healed exactly when Jesus spoke the word. The son’s recovery is not a coincidence; it is just as Jesus had said. This was now the second sign that Jesus did when he had come from Judea to Galilee (Jn 4:54). We are told in John 4:53 that the man and His household believed. This does not mean that the man did not believe before. This would contradict John 4:50. What it means is that the sign confirmed for the man what he had come to believe about Jesus. The man could see because he believed. Believing is seeing. Jesus’ signs point to Him and encourage us to trust in Him. But the signs themselves are not the foundation of our faith; Jesus is.
Notice how the man’s household believes as well? It is like the Philippian jailer in Acts 16 who received the gospel, and his household likewise believed and was saved along with him. Brothers — husbands and fathers — we have an amazing privilege and responsibility to set the spiritual tone of our households. While we cannot guarantee the salvation of our family members, we can be a faithful example of what it looks like to believe in Jesus. God may use our faith in Christ to pave the way for others to follow Him as well. Single men: You do not have to wait till you are married. Even now, you can be a be a faithful witness for Jesus, wherever He has placed you.
Believing in Jesus means believing His word. The man believed without seeing. What about the reverse? Will seeing always lead to believing?
Seeing without believing (Jn 5:1-18)
After this, John 5:1 tells us, there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Jesus leaves Galilee and heads south to Jerusalem for a festival. The events of chapters 5 to 10 in John’s Gospel mainly revolve around several major Jewish festivals. In these chapters, Jesus will face growing opposition from the Jewish authorities. This worsening hostility will culminate in Jesus’ arrest and crucifixion.
While Jesus is in Jerusalem, He visits a pool which was popular with people hoping for healing. The water was believed to have special healing properties when it was stirred up. Look at John 5:2-3. Among the crowd, was a man who had been an invalid for 38 years (Jn 5:5). When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time, he said to him. “Do you want to be healed?” (Jn 5:6). We are not told why Jesus singles out this man, out of all the others there. But what is clear is that Jesus is the one who takes the initiative. In His grace and mercy, Jesus seeks the lost. His question is aimed at prompting the man to consider where healing can come from.
The man’s reply, however, shows some impatience with the question. He said: “Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, and while I am going another steps down before me. (Jn 5:7)” The man has no idea who Jesus is. He’s not asking Jesus to heal him. He is still trusting in the pool’s healing power. But despite the man’s dullness, Jesus said to him, “Get up, take up your bed, and walk. (Jn 5:8)”
Many of us know from experience that recovering from a long-term injury takes time. Regular physiotherapy is needed to strengthen damaged ligaments, muscles and joints. Consider how weak and wasted this man’s legs must have been after almost four decades of being an invalid. It would be foolish and dangerous for him to suddenly stand up. But John 5:9 tells us that at once the man was healed, and he took up his bed and walked. The healing is instant and complete. Notice the power of Jesus’ word. He speaks and it is done. Just as God spoke the universe into existence, so Jesus speaks life into the man’s “dead” limbs. The Creator of the heavens and the earth can make a lame man walk again. We can believe Jesus’ word, which is strong to save.
Now that day was the Sabbath (Jn 5:9b). The Jews observed the Sabbath as a reminder of God’s work of creation and redemption. Jesus Himself is the Lord of the Sabbath. He is the promised Saviour who works so that we can enter into his rest. All who believe in Jesus can look forward to enjoying eternal rest with God in the new heavens and new earth. Jesus is making all things new. This healing is only a small foretaste of the glorious new creation. When Jesus returns, disease and death will be no more. Sin will be no more. There will only be perfect peace as we enjoy God forever.
Make no mistake, this is an indisputable miracle — visible and verifiable. The sign can be seen by all. Surely, all who see will believe, right? But, the opposite occurs. Look at John 5:10-13. Instead of praising God for the miraculous healing, the Jewish religious leaders accuse the man of breaking the Sabbath. Their self-righteous fixation on their religious traditions blinded them to what Jesus had done. Beware of obscuring the word and ways of God with our traditions. A legalistic insistence on man-made traditions blinds us to how God is working through the gospel.
Accused of Sabbath-breaking, the man is quick to blame his benefactor. Like him, how might we fail to give thanks to God for all we have received from Him?Worse, do we even blame God for not giving us what we want? The man has no idea it was Jesus who had healed him; neither does he try to find out. It is Jesus who later looks for the man. See John 5:14 — “Afterward Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, ‘See, you are well! Sin no more, that nothing worse may happen to you.’”
Friends, there is something worse than being an invalid for 38 years. We have all sinned against the holy God, whose judgement is coming. His wrath is far worse than any suffering we might experience in this lifetime. Unless we repent, we will perish. But the good news is that Jesus has come to save sinners. By turning from our sins and believing in Jesus, we can be saved from the wrath to come. Jesus calls this man to repent and return to God. Having seen for himself such a miraculous healing, surely he will believe, right?
Look at John 5:5-16. The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had healed him. And this was why the Jews were persecuting Jesus, because he was doing these things on the Sabbath. Instead of turning to Jesus, the man turns against Him. This is unlike the man born blind, whom Jesus heals in John 9. That man believed in the Lord and worshiped him. But this man fails to trust in Jesus. Having freely received the gift of healing, he spurns the Giver. As a result, opposition to Jesus grows.
Thinking seeing is believing underestimates the depth of human sinfulness. It also overestimates our ability to see truly and rightly. Simply seeing a sign on its own will not produce faith, unless we look to Jesus, to whom the sign is pointing.
This man is a tragic example of seeing without believing. He is representative of the Jews who refused to believe unless they saw signs. And, even when they did see a sign, they stubbornly remained in their unbelief. Thinking seeing is believing underestimates the depth of human sinfulness. It also overestimates our ability to see truly and rightly. Simply seeing a sign on its own will not produce faith, unless we look to Jesus, to whom the sign is pointing. Physical healing in itself is no guarantee of spiritual healing. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.
Why is it better to believe without seeing? Because it shows that we trust the One whose word promises us salvation and eternal life. And, we trust Him because of who He is. In John 5:17, Jesus reveals His relationship with God: “My Father is working until now, and I am working.” Jesus isn’t guilty of breaking the Sabbath because He is the Son of God who is working with His Father to accomplish the Father’s plan to save sinners. Because He is the Son, Jesus reveals the Father’s glory to us. The religious leaders understood what Jesus was claiming for Himself in John 5:18: This was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.
Will we believe Jesus’ word concerning himself? It is impossible to hear Jesus’ claim to be the Son of God and remain neutral. As C. S. Lewis famously said, “You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God; or else a madman or something worse. You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon; or you can fall at this feet and call him Lord and God.”
The Son offers us forgiveness of sins and eternal life if we believe Him, not because of any good that we have done to earn it but because of what Jesus has done for sinners like us. Is this a scam? It sounds too good to be true, but it is true. Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. Therefore, we can believe His word. So, doubt no more. We do not have to see in order to believe. Believing in Jesus means believing His word. But this is not blind faith, for He has revealed who He is to us. He is Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Believe in Him.