When he heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee, he went and asked that he come down and heal his son, who was on the brink of death. Jesus put him off: "Unless you people are dazzled by a miracle, you refuse to believe." But the court official wouldn't be put off. "Come down! It's life or death for my son." Jesus simply replied, "Go home. Your son lives." John 4:47-49
No, my life is not this precipitous hour Through which you see me passing at a run. I stand before my background like a tree. Of all my many mouths I am but one, And that which soonest chooses to be dumb. I am the rest between two notes Which, struck together, sound discordantly. Because death’s note would claim a higher key. But in the dark pause, trembling, the notes meet, harmonious. And the song continues. From The Book of Hours by Rainer Maria Rilke
Unless you people are dazzled by a miracle, you refuse to believe.
What is happening here? How can Jesus be so rude in the face of such a request? Is he, in fact, drawing the man out? Would I have persisted in what I knew and was sure of or would I have shrunk back? Gus MacLeod