John 4:46–54. An official comes to Jesus asking Him to come down and heal his son lest his son die. Jesus does not go with the man, but sends him home with, to quote Martin Franzmann, “only a word in his pocket.” Jesus speaks a healing word and the man’s son is healed. What Franzmann focused in on as he unpacked that text is the fact that the Word of God is more than enough, not just for the man, but for us. “When Jesus sent this man home with only a word to go on, with only a word in his pocket, He was ministering mightily to us all. He shifted our faith from signs and wonders to His word.
“although we have a much richer Word, a much more fully articulated Word, a much more loaded Word, than the poor nobleman had to go on. What did he know about the Jesus, the Man who could turn water into wine? The wondrous Man of Cana, what do we know about Him? We have His Word as the Word of Him who was with God and is God. We have His Word as the Word of Him through whom all things came to be. We sing “the whole world is in Thy power, O Lord, King Almighty; there is no man that can gainsay Thee.” We have the Word of Him who is Light, who is Light shining invincibly in darkness, who is the true Light. We have the Word of one who gives us power to become the sons of God; we have the Word that was made flesh and dwelt among us. We have the Word of Him for whose fullness we have all received, and grace for grace. We have the Word of Him who is the Grace and Truth and the Fidelity of God in person. We have the Word of Him who is God’s great Exegete, the Speller-out of the invisible God to us in our needs. We have the Word of one who is the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world, the everlasting Son of God, the house of God, the Bethel upon which the angels of God descend. We have the Word of Him who is the Giver of wine to make glad the heart of man. We have the Word of the Son of man who was lifted up in the wilderness for the salvation of a mankind under the wrath of God. We have the Giver of living water; we have the Bringer and Revealer of true worship in Spirit and in truth; we have the Savior of the world.”
