Monday, March 16, 2026
Humanity has been trying and failing to create "heaven on earth" since Adam and Eve were cast out of Eden. Try as we might, we cannot bring about the miraculous transformation we crave. Our utopias become unjust autocracies. Marginalization persists. Weedy bureaucracy chokes out charity.
Still, our readings tell us indeed there will come a time on earth in which “never again will there be in it an infant who lives but a few days, or an old man who does not live out his years.” (Is 65:20 ). They assert that someday the sound of weeping and of crying will be heard no more. (Is 65:19). Psalm 30 declares that God never abandons us even when we cannot see him working on our behalf — “weeping may stay for the night, but rejoicing comes in the morning” (Psalm 30).
But today’s gospel (John 4:43-54) goes further than showing us we don’t need to see what God is doing to know he works on our behalf. It reminds us Jesus refused to be performative. He refused to put on a show to satisfy the crowd’s desire to see a spectacle. And he doesn’t always answer our prayers in the way we think he should.
In this reading, a Royal Official sought out Jesus, hoping that he would return home with him to heal his dying child. No doubt this official was used to being treated with deference. No doubt most people did what he asked quickly and meekly. But Jesus refused to go to the man’s house. He simply told him that the child would live, then sent him home. As the scripture says, “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” (John 4: 50-53).
We can’t always understand what God is doing or the means he uses to accomplish what is best for us. We may even feel unseen or unheard. Yet, the transformation we seek in our personal life and the world will come to pass. Scripture promises that, despite what we see around us today, there will be come a time when God will so transform that world that it will be a paradise beyond what we can imagine.
Like the Royal Official, We must learn to trust God, and that is slow faith building work. And like the Psalmist, we must never forget to praise the God who comes to our aid and heals us spiritually and physically
Jane Harris-Zsovan
Jane Harris-Zsovan
Behold, I Am Making All Things New Isaiah 65:17–25 The Algorithmic Cantor
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