If you have been in the church for very long and have read the Gospels several times and heard messages on the ministry of Jesus, you probably, like I have, take the miracles of Jesus for granted. We smile at how four men lowered their friend through the roof of the house in Capernaum, so Jesus could heal him, or at the one leper who returned to thank Jesus after he and the other nine lepers were healed.
We correctly understand that Jesus’ miracles were acts of kindness or compassion, but we do not often discuss how they demonstrate for us the very core of his mission. Nor do we realize how his miracles testify to us about the core of the church’s mission, and then seek to model the church’s mission after his mission. I have been thinking these matters through as I am in the midst of a study of Jesus’ miracles, particularly his healing miracles as the Gospel of Luke tells about them.
At first, you might think I am making too much out of Jesus’ miracles, but consider C.S. Lewis’ view of Jesus’ miracles. He wrote a book titled Miracles in 1947 during a time when one of the prominent values of Western culture was to find a natural explanation for everything, and to discount supernatural activity of any kind. Most, if not all, other religions do not require their adherents to step out of the bounds of nature. Christianity, however, assumes that mankind is lost and God must break into our world and take action to bring us salvation.
Christ’s entire earthly life and ministry, then, is a miracle. Jesus comes into our world through a virgin birth, and God becomes man. Then he continues to break into our world by overcoming disease and illness and death as he heals people and raises them from the dead. Jesus offers hope to people who put their faith in him. He alone can overcome the natural restrictions of our world and therefore brings us eternal life.
The problem today, unlike the time when C.S. Lewis wrote, is not that no one accepts the miraculous. Instead people believe miracles can happen, but that they are without any meaning or purpose outside of their individual benefits, that they are "random acts of kindness" on the part of some benevolent but impersonal force in the universe.
Jesus, however, claimed from the very beginning of his ministry that he was anointed to break into the natural laws of the universe and into our sin-stained lives. When he returned to Nazareth at the beginning of his ministry, as told in Luke 4, he went to the synagogue and read the passage from Isaiah 61 that predicted he would bring good news to the poor and freedom to prisoners, and recovery of sight to the blind. Then he announced that Isaiah’s predictions were fulfilled by him. His miracles would, you see, validate his message. They become demonstrations of his ability to save us.
Luke follows the account of Jesus’ message at Nazareth by telling about two of Jesus’ miracles: when the people expressed amazement at Jesus’ teaching in the synagogue at Capernaum, a demon –possessed man challenged Jesus, only to have Jesus drive out the demon. His miracles validate his power. Then Jesus went to Simon’s home where Simon’s mother-in-law was suffering from a high fever. Jesus healed her and demonstrated that his miracles validate his compassion. Jesus really does care about the circumstances of people’s lives.
These three emphases of Jesus’ miracles – his message, his power, and his compassion – are at the core of his ministry and need to be at the core of the church’s mission. Just as Jesus broke into the first century world in order to bring salvation, he has given his church the mission of demonstrating his message, power, and compassion in today’s world.
So let me ask you: does your church teach and demonstrate to people that God can break into their world and bring them salvation? Take another look at the miracles of Jesus and allow them to inform the mission of your church.
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