Dear friends, clues lead us forward to the next thing. And in theology a clue only goes so far. The designer of the Game must give us the meaning. He must, as it were, open our hearts to receive the things of the Gospel. This story demonstrates many things. It puts on display the man focused on clues and nothing more.  It shows us true Spirit wrought faith. And it demonstrates the love of the Savior toward undeserving sinners. Our God is so good.

Many years ago my wife and I participated in a very large scavenger hunt. We had tremendous fun and wasted a lot of gas!  But imagine a humorous scenario.  Picture one of our colleagues finding a clue and instead of using it to press on to find the next clue he became enamored with the current clue. Perhaps he marveled at the style or the cleverness of the clue.  But all of his marveling did not move the game forward but instead frustrated his companions.  That is how we should imagine those in the story of John 4:46-54.

This miracle forms something of an inclusio with the first miracle. In John two we found Jesus turning water to wine in Cana of Galilee.  In chapter three Jesus and his disciples go south and visit Jerusalem and have an encounter with Nicodemus.  Now, in chapter four, Jesus is back in Cana of Galilee performing his second recorded miracle.  However, in the sentences preceding our text we find another interesting fact. Apparently the Galileans had gone to the feast in Jerusalem and had seen all the signs he was doing.[1]  John 4:45 leads the reader to believe that the welcome was based on signs. In other words, these folks were not looking at the thing to which the sign pointed but they were fixated on the signs themselves.  They were like my imaginary scavenger friend.

It is little wonder that when the official heard about Jesus’ arrival he sought him out right quickly. But Jesus understood the motivation. In John 2:23 we are told that many believed when they saw the signs he was doing and therefore he “did not entrust himself to them because he knew all people…” This likely explains his statement in our text, “Unless you see signs and wonders you will not believe.” Notice, in the Greek the “you” is plural.  Jesus is not addressing the father alone. He is addressing the people.

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