The Gospel in the Gospels: Miracle2.16.2023

    It is more difficult than one might imagine, to preach compelling, timely, and actionable sermons from texts dealing with Jesus performing miracles. This may not seem self-evident at first, believing as we do that Jesus is/was God in the flesh and thus able to intervene in whatever capacity He wished. While this is true, and our faith in His power is firm, that still doesn’t make it any easier to apply these narrative texts.

    You and I are not God. Though God may continue to act in supra-natural ways He does not need us to do so. Even more pointedly, as God-in-Flesh, Jesus was exercising His divine will when He chose to heal, cast out demons, control natural processes, or even raise the dead. 

    The reason these texts can be complex is that they amplify and condense all the other issues we have been discussing this month regarding the exegesis of narrative texts. It is already more difficult in dealing with narratives to make the leap from telling the story in the text, to applying the lessons from the text. The risk for the preacher is narrating, describing, and backgrounding the text; only to abandon it for personalizing and application. Our job is still to preach the text, even when it is hard. (Note…I just paused and looked at last Sunday’s sermon from Mark 6.1-6 to make sure that I did not violate the advice I am now giving.)

    This may be more difficult in our current circumstances than it has been for many generations. Let’s discuss why it is difficult and then we’ll explore some strategies for preaching compelling, timely, actionable sermons from the miracle texts in the Gospels. Increasingly, in dealing with a myriad of topics I find the following heuristic pattern useful for analysis.

Biblical

    There are several misunderstandings about the role of miracles in the scriptures in general and in the Gospels in particular that we need to consider. These issues can be reduced to number, distribution, purpose, and promise. Let’s start with a specific reminder from John’s Gospel

“John 20:30   Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; John 20:31 but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.” (John 20:30–31 ESV)

From a Biblical perspective, the miraculous signaled a new, groundbreaking epoch in the work of God.  There was no greater change in that work than the coming of Jesus. Though His miraculous deeds were not the reason for His coming they were marks of His coming: marks of the presence of God.

    Throughout the Old Testament miracles were not commonplace, and people did not necessarily expect or depend upon them. Some of the miracles recorded were for the encouragement of the recipient and did not have any further impact beyond the individual recipient who benefited directly. 

In looking at the Bible as a whole we tend to misjudge how many miracles occurred, where and when, for what reason, and whether each was attached to and fulfilled a promise.

    We need to understand that our belief in miracles should not lead to exaggeration or expectations which do not follow from the text. The various epochs defined by miracles signaled new often revolutionary developments in the covenant relationship between God and humanity. Yet the benchmark for this relationship always remained faith. The consistent testimony of scripture is that, despite common sense, miracles did not and do not produce faith. 

Historical

    Because of Enlightenment and Post-enlightenment attacks on the miraculous in scripture, it has become a historical necessity for Christians to “defend the faith” against these attacks. To that end defending the scriptures is often reduced to explaining and defending the miraculous. 

    The historical outcome of this apologetic trajectory follows, as one might guess, the laws of unintended consequences, and emotional satisfaction. It feels good to affirm the miraculous as an essential part of understanding scripture. In fact, it feels so good that such defense begins to subtly increase the centrality of the supernatural in general and the miraculous to the story of scripture and the unfolding Christian history. As Seth Godin recently stated in a blog post: “If it’s all in bold then none of it is in bold.” Once we define the Christian faith in terms of continuous miraculous intervention then we have, in effect put everything in bold, and nothing stands out. This is a historical misapplication of Biblical truth with consequences for daily Christian living individually and corporately. 

    Christ calls us to follow Him in faithfulness. This has been the standard since Abraham. Abraham followed before God moved miraculously to give him a son, provide a substitute sacrifice on Mt. Moriah, or overthrow Sodom and Gomorrah because of their sin. 

In short, we must be careful lest an overly ardent defense of the miraculous nudges us toward an overly indulgent dependence on the miraculous. We see some of the impacts of this sort of thinking in neo-Pentecostal movements whose recent record of accomplishment is to reduce the life of discipleship to waiting on the miraculous or even manufacturing it. 

Theological

    Which leads to the need for a theological perspective. If everything is miraculous, then nothing is miraculous. If the norm is abnormal intervention by God, then there is no need for us to understand the content of scripture or the outworking of faith in historical processes. This leaves the Church bereft of guidance and reduces the individual believer to something like a quest for enlightenment, where after enough reflective waiting, God acts. 

    This is not the normative application of scripture. This is not the normative process of historical development. This is not a theologically sound understanding of miracles. The job of theology is to take the raw material of sound exegesis and the factual flow of historical processes and to build a structure for governing our understanding. From this understanding, the Church and the individual believer can accrue faithful wisdom. It is this store of faithful wisdom that allows us to contribute to the growth and understanding of one another as we follow Jesus as disciples. Theology is important because it combines Biblical data and historical development. Theology is the context for living. 

Tactics

So, to summarize. We must be careful in preaching about Biblical miracles lest we:

• View what the Bible sees as exceptional as normal. Miracles in Scripture are not treated as commonplace. They were extraordinary, or should I say “miraculous.” The reductionistic tendency to make everything miraculous has the opposite impact. 
• Confuse the historical activity of God with our own activities. God acted miraculously in Israel’s unfolding history. God in flesh acted miraculously during His earthly sojourn. He has called us to be in a relationship with Him. Some of His servants in both covenant relationships were the means by which He acted miraculously. God does miracles.
• Reduce all theology to God’s actions without considering our corresponding reaction, which is of course faith. Earl Weaver’s offensive strategy when managing the Baltimore Orioles was to wait for a three-run homer. Far too much of our theological engagement seems to be the same. Discipleship, worship, fellowship, fruit-bearing, experience in the Scriptures, developing an aptitude to preach or teach, exercising diligent oversight. The church needs these acts of faith, and they are not miraculous. In fact, they require you and me to do the work. 

    Tactically we need to grasp why Jesus did miracles and what that can teach us about other means of working out diligent discipleship. With reference to faithfully and accurately preaching the Gospel texts dealing with Jesus’ miracles, this means making. three connections. 

Miracle and Incarnation

    Jesus is God the Word, made flesh. The acts of compassion or power in the Gospels point to His deity. It is always tempting to look for a motive beyond the obvious. “God in flesh” was able to personally override the laws He built into His creation. In doing so He demonstrated His graceful character and divine presence. In preaching miracles, we must point out the divine presence as communicated in the text. In trying to apply the text we will find material not so much in His deeds as in His motivations.

Miracle and Kingdom

    The presence of Christ meant the presence of the Kingdom. Jesus inaugurated Kingdom through His ministry. There were times to describe and teach the Kingdom message, and times to demonstrate the pure presence of the Kingdom. Jesus did both. 

    In His life, He confronted many who were opposed to His message. Kingdom was not well received by those in the throes of Empire. Even His hometown failed to see Kingdom through His eyes. 

“And he could do no mighty work there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and healed them.” (Mark 6:5 ESV)

Jesus didn’t perform miracles to “make people believe.” He performed miracles and some believed while others refused. Our job in the 21st century is to make sure that people decide for or against Jesus based on our faithful proclamation of Kingdom.  

Miracle and the Cross

    The Crucifixion is the ultimate demonstration that our understanding of God’s purposes. Our knowledge is limited, and we must focus on what is central. The Son of God willingly died. There was no miraculous intervention until the tomb was opened and death was defeated. As humans, we cannot see the big picture. God does. That picture determined His strategy and tactics for the scheme of redemption. 

Any theology of the power of God must ultimately deal with the reality that the Kingdom came in the humble power of a crucified Savior. To want anything more than the empowering life of resurrection, something spectacular, something to “get the attention” of the world around us is an ultimate misunderstanding of how God Himself, when present among us, lived, loved, and served. 

    Yes, this essay is long as well as late. There is a reason. It is hard, in our age in which preachers become trapped in the mania for application, to apply these important texts. We want people to “be like Jesus” and some mistake that guidance for figuring out how to have a “miracles” ministry in our time. Others reduce the message of Gospel miracles to petty moralizing. The best approach is to remember that “God with us” lived a life of compassionate service. This was worked out in healing as well as teaching. When Empire became frustrated with its inability to corrupt or corral Him, it killed Him. Not comprehending the ultimate outcome. The proper response to the life of Christ, the proper outcome for all our preaching whether that text teaches a parable or narrates a miracle, the proper response to the life of Christ—His whole life, is cruciform living.