Healing Miracles -- A Message for February 8, 2026

        The first portion of the book of John focuses on Signs that prove Jesus is the Messiah. There are 7 signs that John highlights. We focused on the first “sign” a few weeks ago when we read about Jesus’ first miracle: turning water into wine at the wedding in Cana. This week, we will focus on two more of the signs - two occasions when Jesus miraculously healed people who were ill.

So, let’s turn to the Gospel of John and read these two stories of miraculous healings…starting at John chapter four verse forty-six:

The Scripture John 4:46-54 & 5:1-18

Once more he visited Cana in Galilee, where he had turned the water into wine. And there was a certain royal official whose son lay sick at Capernaum. 

When this man heard that Jesus had arrived in Galilee from Judea, he went to him and begged him to come and heal his son, who was close to death.

“Unless you people see signs and wonders,” Jesus told him, “you will never believe.”

The royal official said, “Sir, come down before my child dies.”

“Go,” Jesus replied, “your son will live.”

The man took Jesus at his word and departed. 

While he was still on the way, his servants met him with the news that his boy was living. 

When he inquired as to the time when his son got better, they said to him, “Yesterday, at one in the afternoon, the fever left him.”

Then the father realized that this was the exact time at which Jesus had said to him, “Your son will live.” So he and his whole household believed.

This was the second sign Jesus performed after coming from Judea to Galilee.

Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish festivals. 

Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. 

Here a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. 

One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. 

When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?”

“Sir,” the invalid replied, “I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.”

Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” 

At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked.

The day on which this took place was a Sabbath, 

and so the Jewish leaders said to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath; the law forbids you to carry your mat.”

But he replied, “The man who made me well said to me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’ ”

So they asked him, “Who is this fellow who told you to pick it up and walk?”

The man who was healed had no idea who it was, for Jesus had slipped away into the crowd that was there.

Later Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, “See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.” 

The man went away and told the Jewish leaders that it was Jesus who had made him well.

So, because Jesus was doing these things on the Sabbath, the Jewish leaders began to persecute him. 

In his defense Jesus said to them, “My Father is always at his work to this very day, and I too am working.” 

For this reason they tried all the more to kill him; not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God.

Here ends this reading of the word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God. Amen.

Let us pray…

The Message Healing Miracles

The stories we read today focus on healing – Jesus healed a sick child and Jesus healed a disabled man….one of the people healed was probably a Gentile and one was probably Jewish. Both formerly ill people received miracles from God – and yet, both incidents of healing led to religious leaders feeling disturbed and troubled about Jesus – if he could do this, these miracles, what else would he do?

In the first story, a desperate father approached Jesus. When the father asked Jesus to come to Capernaum, a 20-mile distance from where they were, Jesus said something critical about people needing evidence to believe in him. Jesus’ words were more for the gathered crowd than for the father.  But, the father’s next statement was so direct that Jesus immediately responded. The dad told Jesus that unless he acted the man's son would die….so Jesus told him that his son was healed. On Jesus’  word, the father began the journey back to Capernaum. And, he found out when his servants reached him the next day that the son was healed at the exact same moment Jesus told the father the son was well. 

Scholars assume the man and his family were Gentiles. They weren’t steeped in the Jewish faith and didn’t understand how Jesus was the fulfillment of hundreds of years of prophecies about the Messiah. Instead, the father was a desperate man on a mission – he would do anything to make his son better. He would do anything to keep his son alive. He heard that Jesus was a powerful healer, so the father rushed to seek Jesus’ help. When Jesus told the man his son was healed, the father trusted Jesus’ word. And, when the father returned and reunited with his son and his family, they all believed. They all believed in Jesus and our God. In our story from last week, the story of the Samaritan woman at the well, a whole community of Samaritans converted to the Christian faith after they met Jesus. After today’s event, a household of Gentiles believed after Jesus’ word healed one of their own. Jesus came to earth to save us, all of us, whether we are Jewish or Samaritan or Gentiles.

Our second healing story is about a disabled Jewish man. He laid next to the Pool of Bethesda for thirty-eight years….thirty-eight years. That is a long, long time. We don’t know what type of disability the man had – our scripture just calls him an invalid. In the first century,  Jewish believed that whenever the waters of the pool were disturbed, the first person who entered the water afterwards would be healed. But, in the thirty-eight years the man laid next to the pool, he was never the first person to enter the water. He was never fast enough. And, he apparently had no support – no one helped him get into the water.

When this healing took place, Jesus had returned to Jerusalem for a festival. He saw the invalid man and learned that he was laying next to the pool for thirty-eight years….an eternity! Yet, when Jesus asked the man if he wanted to be healed, the man was non-committal ... ..he was apathetic…he explained that no one would help him get into the pool and in the man’s mind, getting into the pool was the only way he could be healed. We can understand why the man was so hopeless…thirty-eight years is a long time to experience a disability….thirty-eight years is a long time to wait for healing.

Jesus told the man: “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” And the man was healed at once….he picked up his mat and walked. Finally, after thirty-eight years, the man was healed.

You would think everyone would rejoice…that everyone who saw the man after his healing would be delighted and happy. But, oddly, some people reacted with suspicion and accusations. Instead of delight, they were critical – why was the man carrying a mat on the Sabbath? Who healed him? And, when they found out Jesus had healed the man, they were upset that the healing occurred on the Sabbath. 

So, some of the haters, Temple authorities, approached Jesus with accusation – why was he violating the rules by healing someone, doing work, on the Sabbath? And, when Jesus responded, they became even more angry and accusatory…Jesus told them his father worked 7 days a week and so did he.. So, then they were upset because Jesus called God “his father.” They were upset because Jesus was indicating he was the Messiah and that he had insight into God’s will for us.

Instead of appreciating the wonderful things that were happening, the Temple authorities were mad about the little details – they thought Jesus violated the sabbath rules by working and they thought Jesus was making false claims about being the messiah. Ugh.

Talk about someone not being able to see the forest for the trees.  The Temple authorities were not happy about the healing. They weren’t delighted that the Messiah was in their midst. They were paying attention to the wrong things. 

When the Gentile family saw the healing of their son, everyone believed. They didn’t stop and throw out criticisms or excuses. They believed. 

But, the people who should have had a similar reaction to the invalid at the pool being healed were the opposite. Instead of believing in Jesus and being appreciative of God, they had many criticisms and excuses and accusations. Witnessing a miracle didn’t help them believe.

In our lives, we need to work to be more like the family of Gentiles and less like the Temple authorities. We should respond to good things that happen in our lives and in the lives of our family members appreciatively. God is making things better….God is actively at work in the world….let us rejoice and be glad in response to God.

But, often, like the Temple authorities, we get distracted by the details and miss out on the big events. A man who was disabled for 38 years was better! Praise God. But, because the healing happened on the wrong day of the week, and the person doing the healing didn’t look the way they expected or have the right kind of education or belong to the proper group of Pharaisees or Sadduccees, they were upset. They missed out on something special because they allowed themselves to be distracted by the details.

In our lives, we put these constraints on ourselves….we can’t help people who are homeless because we aren’t trained as social workers. We can’t help our nephew learn algebra because we don’t have an education degree. We can’t help our neighbor get groceries because we don’t speak their native language and they don’t speak English. We miss out on doing a good deed, or putting our Christian faith in action, because we get too caught up in the details ... .we get too caught up in doubting ourselves or our skills or our talents.

When Jesus met people who needed to be healed, he healed them. He didn’t demand they have the right background. He didn’t worry if they didn’t deserve to be healed. He didn’t check their documentation. The man by the pool of Bethesda didn’t even ask Jesus to heal him. When Jesus met people who needed to be healed, he healed them.

Let us work on putting our faith in action. Let us help people who are suffering. Let us help people who are struggling. Let us worry less about whether or not we have the right training or knowledge and instead step forward and respond. Let us model our lives on Jesus, and when we see a need, respond to that need with love and action. And, let us delight in the work of God all around us. 

Amen

The Woman at the Well -- A Message for February 1, 2026

  Friends, last week, in worship, we focused on Nicodemus’ middle-of-the-night visit to Jesus. Even though Nicodemus was an educated Pharisee and leader of the Jewish Council in Jerusalem, he struggled to understand the meaning of Jesus’ words when they spoke. And, he came to talk to Jesus secretly in the dark – he not only didn’t understand Jesus, but he also was afraid to be seen with Jesus. 

Today, we continue reading our way through the book of John and pick up where we left off.  Soon after Jesus and Nicodemus had their talk,Jesus and his friends departed Jerusalem and headed towards Galilee. The most direct route was one Jewish people usually avoided, because it took them across Samaritan territory.  

The Samaritans are the descendants of the people of Northern Kingdom of Israel – their country was defeated by the Assyrian army and their leaders were scattered across the Middle East in the 7th century BC. After the country was partially depopulated by the Assyrians, the people who still lived in Israel gradually inter-married with Gentiles. In the first century, the Jewish people considered the Samaritans their enemies, but both groups believe in God and follow much of the teachings of the Old Testament. 

Jesus and his friends walked through Samaritan territory as they travelled to Galilee.  Jesus rested by Jacob’s well….in the Old Testament, wells are places for “meet-cute” moments.  Moses met his future-wife Zippoarh for the first time at a well. Jacob met his future-wife Rachel at a well. Rebekah met Abraham’s servant at a well – after they met, she agreed to return to Israel with him to meet and marry Isaac. So, men and women meeting at wells were significant in the history of our faith – but, when Jesus met the Samaritan woman at the well in today’s story, he wasn’t meeting a future wife – instead, he revealed himself for the first time as “the messiah” and offered the woman living water and new life in Christ.  The woman became the first non-Jewish follower of Jesus and first evangelist on behalf of Jesus who wasn’t one of his disciples.

This story is lengthy – bear with me as we read from John chapter 4: 

Scripture Lesson John 4:1-42

Now Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that he was gaining and baptizing more disciples than John— 

although in fact it was not Jesus who baptized, but his disciples. 

So he left Judea and went back once more to Galilee.

Now he had to go through Samaria. 

So he came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 

Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon.

When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Jesus said to her, “Will you give me a drink?” 

(His disciples had gone into the town to buy food.)

The Samaritan woman said to him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.)

Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”

“Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? 

Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?”

Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, 

but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”

He told her, “Go, call your husband and come back.”

“I have no husband,” she replied.

Jesus said to her, “You are right when you say you have no husband. 

The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband. What you have just said is quite true.”

“Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. 

Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”

 “Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. 

You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. 

Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 

God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”

The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) “is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”

Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.”

Just then his disciples returned and were surprised to find him talking with a woman. But no one asked, “What do you want?” or “Why are you talking with her?”

Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, 

“Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Messiah?” 

They came out of the town and made their way toward him.

Meanwhile his disciples urged him, “Rabbi, eat something.”

But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about.”

Then his disciples said to each other, “Could someone have brought him food?”

“My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. 

Don’t you have a saying, ‘It’s still four months until harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest. 

Even now the one who reaps draws a wage and harvests a crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together.

Thus the saying ‘One sows and another reaps’ is true. 

I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labor.

Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I ever did.” 

So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days. 

And because of his words many more became believers.

They said to the woman, “We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world.”

After the two days he left for Galilee. 

(Now Jesus himself had pointed out that a prophet has no honor in his own country.)

Here ends this reading of the word of God for the people of God. Thanks be to God.  Amen…

Let us pray….

Message The Woman at the Well

This morning, we remember that Jesus revealed himself as the messiah to a woman – a woman who was a stranger to him – a woman who was one of his traditional enemies – a woman who was married 5 times – a woman who wasn’t Jewish. 

We don’t know all of the details about the woman’s history – maybe she was forced to marry her husband’s brother when her husband (s) died – maybe she was unable to have children, in a period when children cared for their widowed mothers – maybe her “job” was to carry water from the well to her town – maybe she was rejected by her people, her neighbors, her community – we don’t know her history.

But, Jesus offered her living water. And, Jesus told him that he was, “I am,” the Messiah. And, when the woman heard this news, she had no hesitation – she rushed to her town to tell everyone Jesus was there. She rushed to town and told everyone to come and meet Jesus – to meet the messiah for themselves.  She didn’t keep this meeting to herself, she wasn’t like Nicodemus who wanted to keep the conversation to himself….the woman went and told everyone about Jesus and told them where he was so they could meet him for themselves.

In this interaction, Jesus models for us how we should act….most Jewish men would have not spoken to the Samaritan woman – they would have ignored her. They definitely wouldn’t have asked her for water. If Jesus behaved like a typical 1st century Jewish man, he would have not even walked on the path through Samaria, so there would have been no contact at all between a Jewish person and a Samaritan person.

But, Jesus talked to his enemy. Jesus talked to a woman. Jesus talked to someone other people even in Samarian possibly avoided or ignored. And, Jesus offered her living water, new life in Christ. 

Twenty-first century people aren’t that different from 1st century people. We still divide ourselves up into groups – we still have “us” verses “them” – we steer-clear of people who we perceive as other: gay people or old people or teenagers or goths or ghetto people or foreigners or Muslims or Dallas Cowboys fans or MAGA people or antifa or theater kids  or people who live in the city– we avoid people we perceive as different, as we perceive as other. And, over and over again, Jesus demonstrates to us that instead of avoiding people who are different than us, we are called upon to draw closer to them. We are called upon to share our lives with people who at first glance we assume we have nothing in common with….because we believe in the God of Jesus Christ. And, the God of Jesus Chrsit wants us to work with each other…we are called upon to work together for the good of people who are experiencing needs – the hungry, the thirsty, the homeless, the lonely, the rejected, the ill, the disabled, the foreigner, the widow, the orphan. Jesus Christ came for all of us and Jesus Chrsit compels us to work together.

The Samaritan woman didn’t keep Jesus’ message to herself. She immediately left her water jug at the well and ran to tell everyone about Jesus. We are also called upon to share the Good News with others…to tell them about our faith in Jesus Christ…to tell them about our loving God….to share that we feel the presence of God’s Holy Spirit in our midst. 

So, let’s not keep our faith to ourselves….let’s share the Good News…and let us work to open our hearts and our minds to accept and love people who we once may have turned away from.

Amen.  

Nicodemus Visits Jesus -- A Message for January 25, 2026

 

Dear friends, we are reading our way through the rich Gospel of John in this, the season of Epiphany. Last Sunday, we focused on Jesus’ first trip to Jerusalem as a spiritual leader. He was dismayed by his trip to the Temple – within the walls of God’s house, people were being ripped off – financially exploited by greedy money exchangers and the people selling animals for sacrifice. Jesus overturned the tables of the money changers and cast out of the temple people selling animals. Jesus was furious – and Jesus’ actions led to him being noticed by quite a few people.

One of the people who noticed Jesus was Nicodemus – a Pharisee and member of the Jewish ruling council. He wanted to learn more about Jesus, but wanted to gather his information discreetly.  So, he visited Jesus at night, under the cover of darkness. Nicodemus had a lot of questions for Jesus, but he struggled to understand Jesus' answers. 

Listen to how John describes the conversation in his Gospel, chapter three, verses one through twenty-one:

Scripture Lesson John 3:1-21

Now there was a Pharisee, a man named Nicodemus who was a member of the Jewish ruling council. 

He came to Jesus at night and said, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him.”

Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.”

“How can someone be born when they are old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother’s womb to be born!”

Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. 

Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. 

You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’ 

The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”

“How can this be?” Nicodemus asked.

“You are Israel’s teacher,” said Jesus, “and do you not understand these things? 

Very truly I tell you, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still you people do not accept our testimony. 

I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things? 

No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven—the Son of Man.

Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up,

that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.”

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 

For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 

Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. 

This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. 

Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. 

But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.

Here ends this reading of the word of God for the People of God. Thanks be to God. Amen.

Let us pray….

Message Nicodemus Visits Jesus

Nicodemus wanted to understand who Jesus was and who gave Jesus the authority to do his work of preaching, teaching and performing miracles. Nicodemus was full of questions – but he knew it was unwise for a Pharisee and a religious leader to publicly question Jesus…so he showed up in the middle of the night outside of the house where Jesus was staying.

Most of us are scared when we hear noises in the night ... .we presume they indicate danger or that something is wrong ... .a neighbor is ill, there has been a car accident in front of our house, someone is in trouble, or maybe we are in trouble. Nicodemus knocking at the door in the middle of the night may have been an unwelcome surprise for Jesus and his friends.

But, Jesus woke up from his sleep and answered Nicodemus’ questions.  They covered a lot of theological ground….they talked about spiritual rebirth and salvation. Jesus’ teachings were a change from 1st century Jewish dogma – the Pharisees tried to follow the laws of Judaism in a very legalistic way – Jesus was less worried about following the rules and more concerned about following God’s intentions – love God, love each other, treat others the way you want them to treat you.

The nighttime conversation between Nicodemus and Jesus is where we are introduced to the idea of being “born again.” The New Testament was written down in Greek – the words Jesus said to Niodemus in Greek roughly translate into: “Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.” But, the word also means being “reborn” – Nicodemus heard it that way – he started asking questions about how it is physically possible for adults to have a new birth. “Can we reenter our mother’s womb?”  Nicodemus struggled to understand Jesus’ meaning – to be born from above means being spiritually reborn – to have a newly reinvigorated faith or a wholly new faith in God.

The concept of being “born again” started to be emphasised by Evangelical Protestants in the 1960s. Charles Colson, who was part of President Nixon’s administration, published a book called “Born Again” in 1976 about his conversion to Christianity just before he went to prison for crimes he committed during his political career. People in the Evangelical world started to ask other people if they were “born again” or when they were “born again” – but the phrase was sometimes used as a “test” of sorts – Some people may have thought Evangelicals are “born again” Christians, and everyone else is not authentically Christian enough. 

But, the purpose of Jesus telling Nicodemus that we must be “born from above” was not intended for us to use as a way to determine who is an insider or an outsider – instead Jesus wanted us to be filled with the Holy Spirit and to receive new life in faith – new life in Christ. Jesus wants us to believe in God – really believe in God. Jesus wants that belief to change us for the better – to be born from above, to be born again, our hearts and minds and souls are committed to God. This may not be a “one and done” experience – many of us have periods of our lives when we put our faith in God on the back burner, but when we are born from above, our faith becomes a priority for us.  

Jesus came to earth to offer people a new path to God – everyone is invited to become a child of God. We don’t have to follow all of the rules of the Old Testament, we don’t have to be born into a Jewish family, we don’t have to come to church every Sunday since the moment we were born, we don’t have to have unblemished pasts or clean criminal records, we don’t have to be a member of the right political party or right ethnic group or grow up in the right zip code. Our faith is not who we were, it is about who we are becoming in Christ. Jesus wants us to love God, and to make that love for God extend to love for other people. Jesus wants us to treat each other fairly and compassionately. Jesus wants us to serve the least of these – people who are struggling, people who are sad, people who are hungry, people who are homeless, people who are mentally ill, people who happen to have physical disabilities. Jesus wants our faith to inspire us to change our lives for the better – to believe in God and to have that belief inspire our actions for the good of other people and the good of our planet.

So, let us deepen our faith in God, invite the Holy Spirit to fill us anew, and live as those who have been born from above. Amen.