Miracles are everywhere with Jesus
We all want to believe in miracles: For 2,000 years Christian thinkers have been dazzled by the miracles of Jesus.
Many Christians believe Jesus’ miracles were historical events with his miraculous works an important part of his ministry on Earth. They say these miracles attest to his divinity and the “Hypostatic union”—the dual natures of Jesus as God and Human.
A common view is Jesus’ experience of hunger, weariness, and death are evidence of his humanity, and miracles are evidence of his divinity.
I’m grateful to Drew McSherry for continuing our teaching series on “The Wonders of the Faith.” His topic is: “I Wonder About Miracles,” so we can learn more about this topic, at the 11 a.m., Sabbath Saturday service.
The miracles of Jesus were not merely acts of power and omnipotence, but also works of love and mercy, performed not with a view to awe by omnipotence, but to show compassion for sinful and suffering humanity. Each of his miracles involved specific teachings.
John 10:37-38 quotes Jesus saying: “Do not believe me unless I do what my Father does. But if I do it, even though you do not believe me, believe the miracles, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me, and I in the Father.”
The majority of Christian scholars agree the miracles were as much a vehicle for Jesus’ message as his words. Many miracles emphasize the importance of faith, for instance in healing 10 lepers (Luke 17:19) Jesus did not say, “My power has saved you,” but said: “Rise and go; your faith has made you well.”
Similarly, in the miracle of walking on water, Peter learns an important lesson about faith in that as his faith wavers, he begins to sink (Mt. 14:34-36).
Liberal Christians tend to place less emphasis on miraculous events associated with the life of Jesus than on his teachings. The effort to remove “superstitious elements” from Christian faith dates to the intellectual reformist Christians such as Erasmus and the Deists in the 15th to 17th centuries.
The debate over whether a belief in miracles was mere superstition or essential to accepting the divinity of Christ constituted a crisis within the 19th-century church.
Contemporary liberal Christians may prefer to read Jesus’ miracles as metaphorical narratives of understanding the power of God.
It seems to me the most powerful miracle God continues to perform is the resurrection of sinful, spiritually-dead people into new life and eternal life!
I’m looking forward to Drew’s life-giving message this week!
If you need a miracle in your own life, please join your church family Saturday morning and learn how Jesus continues to Bless us with his Love and Mercy.
Pastor Duff
