The Necessity of Miracles

If you've ever thumbed through the Gospels, you have no doubt read the accounts of Jesus' miracles. Have you ever wondered why Jesus performed so many miracles? Sure, the obvious answer is he was validating his identity. Let's face it, the disciples and people of that day did not have the luxury of historical data like we do today to draw upon in order to confirm Jesus was who claimed to be. No one in the crowd could pull out their smartphone and Google Jesus. Certainly there was some prophetic knowledge regarding Jesus, which had been passed from generation to generation. Written on scrolls perhaps, there was information concerning Jesus, the Messiah. But unlike today, where we have instant access to information,  in Jesus' time such information was sparse. Now, I can see the pundits in the back of the room waving their arms in protest. Yes, yes, I understand this is an over simplification, and that the communication of information did occur because the people were waiting for the prophesied Messiah to arrive. True. However, my point is to contrast the availability of information between today and the time of Christ's ministry. 

So, given the fact that information, while it did exist, was not easily accessible (or verifiable for that matter), let's put ourselves in the disciples' position for a moment. A man name Jesus shows up and says, "follow me." Full stop. I see some hands waving again. Yes, Jesus was a man and also more than a man because he was God incarnate. He had power and authority that I'm sure played a role in calling men to drop everything and join him. That is not in debate. Okay, so Jesus calls these men, who the late James M. Boice referred to as ordinary men, for indeed they were. Perhaps Jesus was charismatic and had one of those personalities that filled a room. Maybe he was a leader among men, a man's man, someone a person would willingly follow. I'm sure he had personality traits that drew people to him, though the Bible doesn't go into much detail about that. Whatever the reason, the disciples followed him. They abandoned their lives and joined forces with Jesus, as it were.

Okay. So, now to the miracles. I'm not going to delve too far into this topic because it will be addressed in a future post; however, suffice it say that all miracles point to creation. Without going into details about the various miracles Jesus performed, I am going to explore the reason he performed them. Put your hands down in the back. It's not as obvious as people might think. Many believe, and rightly so to a certain extent, that Jesus performed miracles to validate his identity and prove he was the Son of Man. There is truth in this. After all, who would believe a man who claimed to be God without some sort of demonstration of godly power, right? Jesus was a man who liked like any other man. As a modern example, he could walk into Starbucks, sit across from you with a latte, and claim to be the Messiah. If we didn't have the Bible as reference to guide us in the identification process so to speak, we'd be skeptical and rightly so. Well, I imagine the people were skeptical too. In fact, I know they were because many who saw him perform miracles attributed them to evil spirits and witchcraft. 

Make no mistake, Jesus looked like an ordinary man because he was a man. He was fully human. Although his birth fulfilled prophecy, which was known by many scholars at the time, simply claiming to be the Messiah was not sufficient. Enter miracles. As I noted above, I believe all miracles point to creation. Without diving too far into that concept, let me summarize my thoughts on that. Simply stated, every miracle was a demonstration of Jesus' mastery over creation, which he could only have if he were God. In essence, Jesus demonstrated himself to be the Creator with each miracle. This was necessary for two reason. First, and the most popular reason, was to validate his identity and substantiate his claim. After all, who else but God could perform such wonders, especially bringing someone back from the dead? While I agree there was a need for Jesus to validate his identity, I also believe there was another reason, one that is specific and exact. 

This brings us to the second reason, and what I believe is the more important and most overlooked reason - to make true believers out of the disciples. Hold on in the back of the room. Give me a minute. Yes, the disciples witnessed many, if not all, of the miracles Jesus performed. Yes, I hear you, I'm making the same point twice, right? Well...yes and no. You see, miracles were necessary for Jesus to establish his identity. Retrospect give us the advantage of studying them. It also allows us to single them out, which many do, when we think of Jesus. A discussion of Jesus' life would not be complete without covering some of his miracles, which were a demonstration of his power. More than just something to appeal to the masses, they were integral in the disciples' calling. A cursory examination of history reveals many of the disciples lived difficult, troubled lives. Many were martyred for their faith. Keep in mind that when Jesus ascended into Heaven, he charged the disciples, what we call the Great Commission today. What he was really doing is calling them to a difficult life of service that for most of them would lead to their deaths. In other words, he was commanding them to follow in his footsteps. 

In order to follow in footsteps like that, an individual must be throughly convinced and possess supreme faith. Without getting too far into the topic of faith, I must ask, how many would believe without some kind of proof? Yes, I believe there was something unique about Jesus that made the disciples follow him. Perhaps there was a little divine influence. Whatever the case, the disciples developed faith and believed strongly enough to spend the remainder of their lives preaching the word to the point of their deaths because they were  convinced beyond any doubt Jesus was the Son of Man. We are called to do the same. While we did not have the privilege to observe miracles firsthand, we have the benefit of historical record. Yes, Jesus performed miracles so that many would believe. That is true. But a hidden reason, or one that is not so obvious, was for the sake of the disciples - and that includes us. To believe Jesus was born, died on the cross, and rose again is the heart of Christianity. Serving him completely requires unwavering faith - the belief he was who he claimed to be. And he was because he validated his identity numerous times (more than are recorded in the Bible). As John noted, "Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name."