Believable

I've been reading through John Eldredge's 'Beautiful Outlaw', digging deep into the rich personality of Jesus.  Today I've been further exposed to Jesus as one who is believable.  You see it over and over throughout the New Testament, folks taking him at his word.  Not so in my life.  I think I'm more often than not trying to convince myself as to how or why he might not be believable this time around.

A brief look at the man in John 4:43-54 displays this character of Jesus.  Basically, a powerful boss-man who lived 20-30 miles East of where Jesus was had a son who was ill, dying in fact.  Most likely he'd already been treated by whatever means that were necessary.  So this guy did the last thing he could do, race to catch up with the man people were saying was a miracle worker, healer, prophet.  He reaches him, explains his predicament and implores Jesus to come back to his home so that he could heal his boy.

Imagine this desperation.

Instead of racing back East, Jesus simply tells the man that his son is healed and that he can start making his way back home.  This is the point of the story in which the aspect of believable jumped out at me.  The dad did so, he actually heard Jesus' words and acted on them.  I would've sought out a second, third, and fifth opinion from neighboring doctors.  Yet this dad just turned around and walked home.  Why?  Better yet, how?  How could a dad, with a dying son be appeased by such an answer.

Here's reasons which don't give an adequate answer:
-He wasn't more spiritual than me.  In fact, I'm not sure he's ever seen a miracle of Jesus first-hand, though he'd probably been given plenty of second-hand accounts. Jesus didn't commend his faith, praise his belief or any of that.
-He wasn't more naive than me.  A dad is a dad regardless of the century.  He wants his sons life.  He was also a powerful man, necessitating at least moderate intelligence and know how.
-He wasn't less skeptical of religion than me.  I'd venture to say he had just as many differing religions, cults, and self-proclaimed prophets in his ear as I have in mine.

Here's the only reason why he could have taken such a simple answer and turned homeward.

Jesus is believable.

The God-man speaks truth in such an unflinchingly honest way, solely out of his deep integrity of character, that when you heard him, you simply believed him.  I think this is what frustrated those who opposed him to such a high degree, they absolutely did not want to believe him, but couldn't resist his believability.

My takeaway is this.  I can believe him because he's believable.  Not because my faith is great, or my reason is satisfied, or my emotions are stoked.  I can only believe him because he's believable.

Much of my thoughts on this passage of Scripture were enhanced by Elbert McGowan, who preached today at Redeemer Church in Jackson, MS.