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Narrative Lectionary Key Verse for Today
“Jesus said to him, ‘Stand up, take your mat and walk.’ At once the man was made well, and he took up his mat and began to walk.”
NL Daily Devotion for Sunday, February 8, 2026
by Pr. Matthias Lorimor, Clergy Stuff
Main Idea: Belief doesn’t always come in a single moment, but in a long journey of learning to trust.
When does the royal official “believe” in Jesus Christ? Is it verse 53 when the miracle is done “and his whole household believed”? Is it verse 50 when the man “believed” his son would get better? And didn’t the man have to believe Jesus could heal his son for him to come to Jesus in the first place? Rather than highlighting a contradiction in the scriptures, the question may point to a problem with our modern mindset. Today, many American Christians think of “belief” as either logical adherence to a set of ideas (like the Nicene Creed) or as a particular feeling (like the sensation of a conversion experience). But this puts us in a quandary. Shouldn’t there be one point at which the official logically knows Jesus is Lord and feels it in his heart?
In contrast to our modern assumptions, maybe the best way to understand the royal official’s belief is as a form of trust. “To trust” is actually one way to translate the Greek verb episteúsev (ἐπίστευσεν) which John uses to tell us the man “believed” (v.50, 53). In other words, there may be no single moment when the official goes from un-belief to belief or from not knowing to knowing. Instead, the passage tells the story of a desperate man who gradually learned how to trust Jesus more and more; from trusting he could do something for his son, to trusting this was someone who could be depended on, to finally trusting that this really was the Messiah. Perhaps the royal official is here to remind us that sometimes faith comes less from a single moment than from a long journey of learning that this man named Jesus is someone who is not just worth knowing or feeling, but worth trusting with our prayers, our children, and ourselves.
