4.9

The joy of miracles (Luke 19:37)

Many of Israel’s prophets performed miracles, but none as many and as great as did Jesus. His miracles were always in response to the immediate situation and need, never to merely impress the crowds. Jesus’ miracles were never random. They were always personal, intentional expressions of His authority over the details of life. His was an authority of abundance over any lack He met, a divine sufficiency that is not from this earth and can not be deciphered by our senses. The joy of Jesus’ miracles is in their expression of God’s will, who not only can meet our needs, but wants to. God’s miracles speak to us that He is both able and willing

Jesus’ miracles changed the predictable, to do God’s will in the midst of life’s unending needs. When Jesus walked on water, it was so He could get to the other side of the shore and receive His disciples when they arrived later by boat. When He called Peter to walk on water to meet Him, He wanted to satisfy Peter’s need to know that His word is reliable, His simple word come that He fulfills in Peter’s obedient heart. When He calmed the raging waters by saying, “Hush, be still,” it was so He could continue with His disciples on their boat journey and also to calm their fear, for the storm was terrifying them. Each miracle Jesus did was to reveal His Father’s will that is responsive to both the ordinary and extraordinary needs filing every day

Two times are recorded when Jesus fed the crowds who followed Him. On one of these occasions (Mark 6:34-44), He taught for a long time until it grew late. His disciples told Him to send the people into the nearby areas so they could buy food for themselves. “You give them to eat,” Jesus answered. How could they feed so many thousands, they asked Him. Where would they get so much food? But that question didn’t interest Jesus. For Him, the relevant question was, “how much food do you have?” The disciples collected all they could find and came up with a total of five loaves of bread and two fish. That was the exact amount Jesus wanted, and He told His disciples to bring it all to Him. As He held the food in His hands, He thanked His Father for this provision and proceeded to break off pieces and give them to His disciples, who served them to the crowds. And the multitudes were satisfied with the bread and fish, all five thousand men with uncounted women and children

This miracle meal is reminiscent of God feeding Israel with manna from heaven. There was no natural way to feed the people in the desert, so God changed the ground’s natural morning dew into manna once it evaporated. The manna had the familiar tastes of coriander seed and honey (Exodus 16:31), but no one knew just what it was so they called it manna, Hebrew for what is it? Neither did the crowds know just what was this food Jesus fed them. It had the familiar taste and feel of fish and bread, but something entirely unknown had multiplied them. A potent ingredient was in this meal that they could not locate or know, so they called it a miracle. They saw that they were being fed by something they could not see, so they could see what is always present and unseen: God providing for them. God is always our source of nourishment. All things always proceed from His hand, but now they could see His hand that they couldn’t see before in their predictable, as Jesus fed them one broken piece at a time

Jesus’ miracles revealed the divine nature and mystery of what we typically judge as common and ordinary: the presence of God who is ever meeting our continual needs. The greatest miracles were times He brought the dead back to life. These resurrections are the clearest demonstrations of Jesus’ authority over life. Some might call them healings, but death is not an illness. It is life’s inevitable conclusion on earth. In one of these miracles, a man named Lazarus was sick to the point of death (John 11:1-46). Lazarus and his sisters Martha and Mary were friends of Jesus. His sisters sent Jesus a message to come and heal Lazarus. Jesus determined to go to His friend, later. For now, he was occupied elsewhere. When He finally arrived to see Lazarus, he was already dead and sealed in a tomb for four days. All his family and friends were grieving his death, because he was loved

Even Jesus, who knew Lazarus would not stay dead for long, groaned in His Spirit and wept. He shared His friends’ grief and wept with them. The compassion of Jesus is unique because it moves beyond its shared emotion to satisfy the need of the other with His personal response. In a loud voice that I imagine He bellowed from His fully engaged diaphragm, Jesus cried out, “Lazarus, come forth” (v. 43)! Out of the tomb hopped Lazarus. Even in the wake of so great a miracle, Jesus tended to the practical needs and He told Lazarus’ friends to free him from his burial cloths

The miracle of Lazarus’ resurrection once again reminds us of God’s unnatural presence in the natural. Death is the natural end to every life, but God did something new with Lazarus’ death that He always does: He gave life where there was no life. God originates life every time it is conceived. Jesus revealed in this miracle what is always present and true, that God gives life. God alone gives life and He has given this same authority over life to His Son. In the raising of Lazarus, God also showed that His authority over life is not interrupted by death. In this miracle, God shows us that death cannot stop Him from being the God of life. He is ever the giver of life and of the living. He gives not only for our needs on earth but also for our endless need of life. How can we believe so extravagant a promise? There was in Jesus’ presence and words an authority that fostered in those who knew Him great hope and confidence in Him. It was a hope and confidence that took deep root after Jesus’ own death