The Adventures of Jesus Christ
Episodes from the Life of Jesus for Young Readers
by Vincent Cheung
[ Contents ]

Chapter 12. Jesus Healed from a Distance
I WILL BELIEVE IT BEFORE I SEE IT

After the celebration at the wedding in Cana, where Jesus first showed his glory and power, he continued to travel through the towns and villages, teaching and performing miracles. Many people were starting to know about Jesus, and they were eager to hear his teachings and see his power for themselves.

Jesus made teaching a very important part of his ministry. Never think that teaching is boring or less important. In fact, teaching is important even if a ministry does not do anything else. But if the teaching is done diligently and correctly, then many other wonderful things can happen.

Teaching is the foundation for miracles. It is the starting point for healing and prophecy. It explains the truth about God. If you know the truth about God, then your beliefs will be correct. If your beliefs are correct, then you have a good foundation for faith, including faith for miracles. You will know how to pray. You will be hard to deceive. You will know what to think and what to do much more often.

By this time, Jesus already had a reputation for healing the sick. One day, an official from a nearby town named Capernaum came to Jesus. Capernaum was a town located on the northern shore of the Sea of Galilee. His son was very sick and close to death. He had heard about the amazing things Jesus could do, and he believed that Jesus was his only hope.

When the official received news that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee, he found Jesus and begged him to come and heal his son. He said to Jesus, “Sir, please come before my child dies!” He had faith that if Jesus came to his house, he could heal his son.

Jesus answered, “Go, your son will live.” When people asked Jesus to come with them and heal the sick, he would often go with them. But his power was greater than what was asked of him. Jesus did not need to go with the official. He did not even need to see the child or touch him. He only spoke the words, and that was enough to cause a miracle, even at a distance.

When Jesus said, “Your son will live,” the official believed Jesus and started to return home. Slow down and think about this. Jesus was the one who could heal his son, and the official had found him to ask for help. He had expected Jesus to return home with him to heal his son. But now Jesus told him to go home without first seeing his son recover. It required real trust for the official to go home like this without bringing Jesus with him.

You will not see this kind of faith in many people who have been Christians for a long time. You will not see this kind of faith even in most pastors. But they will often tell you that they have faith, and they will also want you to admire them and to think like them. They do not have faith, but they do not want you to know that, and so they will try to convince you that faith is something else, or that faith does not believe God will do miracles today.

They pretend to have faith, and they want you to pretend with them. If you follow them, you will miss out on all the things that God can do for you and the things that God can do together with you. Do not follow faithless people. Do not agree with faithless people.

When God tells you that a miracle will happen, believe it. When God promises to do a thing for you, accept that he will do it. God speaks to you in the Bible. Read it, and find out what God says to you. Some people will read it and say, “Well, he will do it if he wants to. He will do what he said, if it is his will.” But this is an excuse for not believing God at all.

Imagine if I say to you, “I promise to help you study for the exam” or “I promise to bring you to the park.” And then you say, “Well, you will do it if you want to.” That would not make sense, would it? I just promised you I would do it, and if you answer this way, it would be like I have not said anything. In fact, it is like you are calling me a liar.

But it is even worse than this. The Bible says many things that are more than promises, but it tells you that something is already done. Imagine if I say to you, “I have put a present in your room.” And you answer, “Well, you will do it if you want to.” Would that not be silly? I told you that I have already done it, and that the present is already in your room, but you answer as if it is not yet done, and that you are not sure if it would happen at all. Again, it is like you think I have not said anything. It is like you are calling me a liar.

When someone treats God this way, they are pretending to respect him, because they are saying God can do whatever he wants. But the truth is that they refuse to believe what God has said and what God has done. Jesus was usually gentle to people, but he reacted with great anger when people behaved this way. He scolded such people with harsh tones and strong words.

If you call Jesus a liar, how can he accept someone like you? But if you admit that you need help to grow stronger in faith, and if you are willing to learn, then he will help you.

The official was better than many disciples and preachers. He believed what Jesus said before he saw the miracle he wanted. When Jesus said, “Go, your son will live,” the official accepted that and started to go home.

On the way, he met some of his servants who were rushing to tell him the good news. They told him that his son was alive and that he was recovering. The official asked them what hour his son started to get better, and his servants told him the time.

Then the official realized that his son started to get better at the same time that Jesus said, “Go, your son will live.” After this, not only did this man believed in Jesus, but his whole household also believed.

A miracle of healing is a good thing even if it does not produce any other effect. After all, if a person is sick, suffering, or even dying, it is much better for the sickness to leave him and for him to recover.

But a miracle of healing can do even more than that. In this case, the official’s entire family believed in Jesus because a miracle of healing happened. Jesus considered healing the sick by miracle power one of the most important things he did in his ministry, and he spent a lot of time doing it.