Miracles of Jesus
Wikipedia
describes a miracle as an event not ascribable to human
power or the laws of nature and consequently attributed
to a supernatural, especially divine,
agency. We believe God regularly works through created nature yet is free to
work without, above, or against it as well. A total of about 35 of miraculous
events are described by the four gospels as being brought about by our Lord
during His ministry on earth. It is safe to assume He did many more. See John
21:25. Our purpose here is to analyze what was His purpose in performing
miracles, what He achieved through them and why should we study them.
His
purpose, evidently, was not to get famous, rich or powerful through them, not
to impress His followers, not to gather a crowd of admirers around Him and
inspire them to follow Him. We know this for a fact – on most occasions He tried
and avoided publicity; He actually warned beneficiaries of His attention
against revealing His identity. He firmly turned down Satan’s “proposal’ to
jump off the temple tower and demonstrate to the world He is the Son of God.
So
what was the purpose of carrying out these super-natural actions? I can see six
reasons, at least. These are the ones we will be discussing below:
1.
To reveal and prove His identity: Nicodemus told Jesus (according to John
3:2) “Rabbi, we know that you have come from God as a teacher because no one can perform these signs that
you are doing unless God is with him." Is it not amazing that, of all
the people, a hard-boiled Pharisee should be making a confession of this sort?
Jesus Himself made this point when he stated in John 4:11 “Believe me, I am in
the Father and the Father is in me. Otherwise, believe me, because of what I've
been doing”.
2. To assert His divine authority: It was part of Jesus’ ministry to reveal His power and glory
to select audiences. What better way to do this than demonstrating His control
over nature? The passage at Matthew 8:23
-27 narrates an incident when Jesus rebukes the howling winds and turbulent sea
in order to restore calm. “What sort of a man is this”, the disciples wondered!
3. To fulfill Old Testament prophecies: About 350 prophecies, spread all over the Old Testament,
were fulfilled in the person of Jesus Christ. (Some are yet to be fulfilled).
His miracles are specifically mentioned in these prophecies – the healing of
the sick, blind, lame, deaf and dumb, raising the dead, ostracizing demons,
freeing the bonded etc.
4.
Some of Jesus’ miracles are actually parables acted out, like the cursing of the fig tree;
(Matt 21:19), A few are, teaching through examples, e.g. Healing of the Canaanite
woman’s daughter (Matthew 15:21-28).
5.
Some miracles serve as witnesses and point out God to people, e.g. the raising to life the
dead son of the widow of Nain. The result of this particular miracle was,
according to Luke 7:16, fear gripped everyone, and they began to praise God,
saying, "A great prophet has appeared among us," and "God has
helped His people"
6.
Some of the miracles are occasions when Jesus acted out of the compassion of
His heart and reached out to the people in dire need.
Let
us examine some of the miracles in depth:
Changing water into wine (John 2:1-11)
Moses,
who represents law and judgment, changed the drinking water of Egypt
The feeding of 5000 (John 6:1-15)
The
only miracle recorded in all four gospels, it is also among the most
spectacular ones. Phillip was being ‘practical’, looking for a human solution – a
quick calculation of the cost – examining possibilities – but failed to
contemplate on a possible divine solution. It took a little boy who was
ignorant of costs or the enormity of the task at hand, to provide the solution,
in simple, pure faith. Jesus prefers to work through humans; if we offer
nothing to God, God will have nothing to work with; those who place their trust
in Him, those that fear him, and serve him faithfully, will have their needs
met.
This
is not only a miracle but a parable. It is thus that the Creator is ever
multiplying the slender stores leftover from one harvest to produce another.
It is thus that He will feed you and yours, if only you will trust him and not
run hither and thither in panic. You need not depart from Christ in search of
any good thing. All is in Him. When He bids us feed the crowds, He makes
Himself ultimately responsible, but paves the way by forcing home the
inadequacy of our resources apart from Him. It is as we break and distribute,
that the living bread multiplies in our hands. The Church is the intermediary
between the living Savior and the desperate hunger of the world. You may sit at
the world’s table and remain hungry. But at Christ’s table, you are filled.
There is always more than enough left for the distributor.
Healing blind Bartimaeus (Mark
10:46-52)
No
one told Bartimaeus Jesus was there. In fact, people tried to stop him from
going to Jesus. The blind man not only recognized Jesus, he called out to Him, addressing
Him by His ‘official title’. “Have mercy on me” he pleads, overcomes obstacles,
reaches Him and states his need only after Jesus asked Him. Once his need was
met, he followed Jesus, the Bible
tells us. Jesus told people it was His mission to heal the blind - including
the spiritually blind - but many chose to remain blind.
The raising of the widow’s son (Luke
7:11-16)
This
is one of those rare occasions when Jesus volunteered to help. Jesus raised the
man out of compassion. The widow was exactly the kind of person Jesus had come
to help–a woman with uncertain future--and help her He did. But He achieved more. Onlookers witnessed
Jesus was a great prophet among them, that God has met His people (how true!).
The good news spread beyond Judea . “Don’t cry”
He comforted the mother–-assuring her hope at a time of great tragedy.
Incidentally,
the miracle also illustrates the complete salvation story. We are dead in our
sins, unable to save ourselves, unable even to ask for help. Like the dead man,
we do not deserve a second chance in life, but Jesus reaches out to us in
grace.
Raising Lazarus from death (John
11:1-45)
Most
of Jesus’ miracles so far were confined to Galilee ,
the countryside. But this one–in
addition to healing the man bed-ridden for 38 years (John 5) and healing the
man born blind (John 9)–was done in the city. These miracles were more
spectacular, drawing the attention and provoking the resentment of the
religious establishment. Jesus’ delay in arriving at the spot tells us it is
never too late for God.
Martha,
who was once rebuked by Jesus for getting her priorities wrong, had obviously
matured in her spiritual life. She makes four strong faith statements here: 1. If
Jesus were there, her brother would not have died. 2. Whatever Jesus asks of
God, God won’t deny. 3. There is resurrection
after death (a concept that had a few takers among the Jews those days). 4. Jesus was the Messiah, the Son of God, the
One who was to come into the world. This was also the occasion when Jesus made one
of His strongest statements on eternal life and resurrection and prayed to God
for the benefit of on-lookers–-an effective witness.
When
Jesus raised Lazarus from death, He also signed His own death warrant. The high
priest and Pharisees hardened their resolve to kill Jesus, after the above
miracle and as a direct result of it. The plot to kill Him started here and
ended in crucifixion. The Crucifixion paved the way to mankind’s redemption and
to salvation, the greatest miracle of all times!
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Originally published
in the LIGHT OF LIFE magazine, Mumbai.
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