I shared a little story about miracles with the Staff this week … and I’d like to share it with you, as I begin today. From the little book, “God’s Never Failed Me, But He’s Sure Scared Me to Death a Few Times,” comes this story:
There were two nuns who were delivering medical supplies to a nursing home when their car ran out of gas. They searched the car for a gas can, but could only find a bedpan. The sisters walked a half mile to the nearest gas station and went ahead and filled that bedpan up with gas; that’s all they had…
Upon returning to their car, they carefully balanced the bedpan and began to pour the gas into their tank. About that time a man driving a pickup truck approached. When he saw what was happening, he came to a complete stop. Marveling at what he thought he was seeing, he stuck his head out of the truck window and said, ‘Sisters, I’m not Catholic, but I’ll tell you what. I sure do admire your faith!’
I’m not sure how much of that story is true-to-life, but I do know one thing: Faith and miracles sure go together, don’t they? Listen to this story from the Gospel of Matthew where faith & miracles worked together one day…
Matthew 14:13-21 (TEV)
13 When Jesus heard the news about John, he left there in a boat and went to a lonely place by himself. The people heard about it, and so they left their towns and followed him by land.
14 Jesus got out of the boat, and when he saw the large crowd, his heart was filled with pity for them, and he healed their sick.
15 That evening his disciples came to him and said, "It is already very late, and this is a lonely place. Send the people away and let them go to the villages to buy food for themselves."
16 "They don’t have to leave," answered Jesus. "You yourselves give them something to eat!"
17 "All we have here are five loaves and two fish," they replied.
18 "Then bring them here to me," Jesus said.
19 He ordered the people to sit down on the grass; then he took the five loaves and the two fish, looked up to heaven, and gave thanks to God. He broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the people.
20 Everyone ate and had enough. Then the disciples took up twelve baskets full of what was left over.
21 The number of men who ate was about five thousand, not counting the women and children.
So, why does God choose to do miraculous things … sometimes, but at other times—nothing? Have you ever wondered that? Let me share with you a couple of things I’ve discovered over years of studying ‘the Christ of Christmas’ in the Gospels … and then I’ll give you a couple of examples of what I’m talking about:
- As a child, I saw Jesus’ miracles as guarantees of personal safety. But, in the Gospels, I’ve learned that faith is not an insurance policy against suffering in this life…
- As a child, I saw miracles everywhere. But, as an adult—like those found in the Gospels, I don’t see them as often as I did … and when I do, they seem ambiguous, susceptible to a variety of interpretations. What happened to my eyesight over the years?
- As a child, I saw miracles as magic. Jesus was the ‘magic man’ to me. But, as a adult, I see them more as ‘signs’—signs of a reality or a world yet to come…
So, folks, why did Jesus perform miracles at all? Do they make any real difference? And, what do they tell us about the Christ of Christmas (if we’re trying to get to know him better)? Well, let me tell you a couple of things I’ve learned about miracles over the years…
SOMETIMES, JESUS PERFORMS MIRACLES AS SIGNS OF HIS IDENTITY (WHO HE IS). Verse 14 reminds us that, “Jesus got out of the boat, and when he saw the large crowd, his heart was filled with pity for them, and he healed their sick.” Read the Gospels and you’ll soon discover that Jesus did a lot of physical healing in his day—miracles such as have never been seen since… Mostly, Jesus wouldn’t heal anyone until they begged him to, showing him their faith … and then he was moved to do so…
Jesus was never one to go about saying, “Hey, you wanna see what I can do?” There was always a deeper meaning to every act of his earthly life…
When my father was my age, he was pastoring in Neenah, Wisconsin … and had begun to have heart problems … again (as there was a history of this in his life). He was at Theda Clark Regional Medical Center, there, awaiting heart surgery, at the very least. Six people from Faith United Methodist Church, in Neenah (Sandy Young, Mike Deitz, Gary Nilo, Mom, Pete Westergard, and Margie Burger) all felt led to come to the hospital, to pray for Dad and anoint him with oil (a historic symbol of healing)… Sandy Young was the catalyst for this group, though they were all prayer warriors in that church. They prayed for him, anointed him, and believed that he was physically healed. They looked at dad, at one point, for some confirmation. His response was: “I’m not healed yet. I still have some chest pains … and I won’t have any chest pains when I’m healed.” So, Sandy looked at him and said, “I feel God leading me to do something, R.A., but I’m just not sure.” (She was such a proper woman; she didn’t want to do anything that would upset my father.) His response was, “Well, do it then! Whatever it is, just be obedient!” So, Sandy did what God told her to do; she laid her hands flat on Dad’s chest and she prayed. My father soon found that he was not hearing Sandy (or the others) pray; he had an out-of-body experience. He remembers floating on the ceiling of that hospital room, looking down on everyone praying, and saying, “God, they’re not praying for you to take me!” And, my father said that God let him know that ‘he knew that.’ Pretty soon, Dad describes it as ‘being poured back into his body.’ He knew at that point that he was healed. Dr. Scanlon, his cardiologist, came in the next morning and told my mother to take him home (which she was afraid of, because she knew how sick he’d been); he went home, folks, (in the doctor’s words) with the heart of a 16-year-old (at 51 years old)… He went home and the next day he helped—with several men from the church witnessing it—shovel 20 tons of gravel (at his new home) into what would be there basement! (Jerry Arndt’s brother hauled it in with his dump truck.) Everyone there kept a good eye on him, and couldn’t’ believe the day they had together…
Why would Jesus do that miracle? I believe that, if not for my father’s sake, others who were there needed to know who Jesus really was—that he was indeed the Son of God (divine), capable of meeting their deepest needs! Needless to say, those who were present that day were never the same; their faith grew & grew…
SOMETIMES, JESUS PERFORMS MIRACLES TO TEACH IMPORTANT TRUTHS. Verses 16-18 reminds us of these words of Jesus: “‘They don’t have to leave,’ answered Jesus. ‘You yourselves give them something to eat!’ ‘All we have here are five loaves and two fish,’ they replied. ‘Then bring them here to me,’ Jesus said.” Even though it was pretty cool that Jesus could feed thousands with a very little bit of food, that wasn’t the point of the day… The truth that needed to be taught that day was two-fold:
- First, you can’t expect people to listen—even to Good News—with their stomachs growling! Physical needs are a very important part of the process of sharing Christ with others…
- Secondly, Jesus was the Messiah, the Son of God, who came to Earth for a very specific purpose—to rescue us…
Sometimes, Jesus performs miracles to teach important truths…
Thirteen years ago (this August 3rd), I lost my mother to cancer. She discovered she had cancer on the base of her brain right around Mother’s Day 1997, and she was gone less than 3 months later. We prayed and prayed and prayed for her physical healing … but Jesus didn’t come through on that one—didn’t give us the answer that we desired, as a family… Why not this time? Jesus had healed my father (several times) years earlier; why not my mom?
It wasn’t until sometime after my mom’s death that I was talking to my father … and came to realize that there was a healing done in my mother’s life that I wasn’t even aware of. He began to tell me that my mother, for all the years that he had known her, dealt with some emotional baggage that went clear back to her childhood … that she was never able to get over (or wouldn’t let go of). Dad then began to share with me how he felt; what he had witnessed in the last days of her earthly life … was one of the greatest healings he had ever witnessed—far greater than the physical healings of his life. He said that there was no way she was ever going to be able to be ready for eternity—to meet Jesus face-to-face—without first dealing with the excess baggage that she’d carried for years. In those few weeks that she had to live, after her diagnosis, God was able to help her deal with her emotional baggage—to let go and to forgive like she needed to—and then she was ready to meet God!
That, folks, was an incredible miracle! She had been prepared to meet God face-to-face; she hadn’t really been ready before this took place. And, in the end, the miracle that I can look back on now is this: My mom was totally CONTENT! How many of us can say that? Her final words were: “I’m happy!” Not even her impending death could tear down the spirit that God had placed in her—not any more… Sometimes, Jesus performs miracles to teach important truths, like … sometimes the miracle that we want … isn’t really the greatest miracle of all! (And, it’s only through God’s eyes—with God’s help—that we can begin to see that kind of truth; that’s why…)
Folks, the truth is that sometimes the greatest miracle is standing right before us … and, for a variety of reasons, we just can’t see it! We miss it!
That’s what happened in Jesus’ day… People would ask Jesus to ‘do a miracle’ as if he were a dancing chicken, performing on command. More times than not, in those cases, Jesus would refuse. It’s as if he were telling them, “The greatest miracle you will ever witness in your life … is standing before you right now; God Almighty has become human … so that you might be saved!” I truly believe that he wasn’t going to waste a lesser miracle on them, when they wouldn’t even believe the greatest one that was standing before them…
And, truth be told, it’s still happening today! Folks, the greatest miracle this world has ever seen—the reality of God’s presence—is with us today (albeit in Spirit). That miracle stands before you today, just as it did over 2,000 years ago… And, the imminent question today is still the same:
- What are you going to do with it?
- What are you going to do with the Christ of Christmas?
Why this miracle? So that you and I can be forever reconciled to the God of the universe—able to live with him forever (Miracle: Who He Is—the greatest TRUTH)…
- What difference has this miracle made?
Well, that’s up to us… The Christ of Christmas will never force himself on anyone, but rest assured: he wants to change your life today! He wants you to learn to be totally content … resting in him. Will you let him help you with that? Or, like so many before, will you just go on asking Jesus for one more sign?
He’s not the ‘magic man,’ folks; he’s the ‘miracle man’—the Son of God who came to this world to make things right … and to give us a glimpse of the supernatural, the perfect world to come…