Her daughter was healed. I said Charlie was, and so on. Yes, conveying tone of voice is a problem. Perhaps we are getting closer to an answer. One more classic explanation to the puzzle of this text comes from Elton Trueblood in his book, The Humor of Christ .
Thoughtful readers are more likely to recognize the humor here than at any other point.
He is certainly correct there. There is a wonderful message here, even if we have to wade through some material we might not understand to get to it. More about that in a minute. I say I did not truly understand this encounter until yesterday. It was before daybreak.