Miracles and the Meaning of Christianity

Preamble

Why did Jesus perform so many miracles?  I claim that an answer to this question goes to the heart of what Christianity is about.

Two inadequate Explanations of Miracles in the New Testament

1. Miracles proved Jesus deity.  This explanation seems to falter for the following considerations:

• Jesus never appeals to miracles to prove his divine status
• Others worked wonders and their divinity was not asserted (Elijah, Elisha etc.)

     2. Jesus used miracles to draw people to his message.  This falters too:

• In Mark 7:36, Jesus orders the recipients of his miracle to tell no one.  He is reticent in getting acclaim via his miracles.
• Jesus escapes miracle hungry crowds (John 6:15--after feeding miracle).
• Jesus purposely does miracles without crowds (Mark 5:40).

Two Better Explanations of Miracles in the New Testament

1. Miracles evidence Jesus' compassion.  See for example Matthew 20:34, John 11:35--raising Lazarus, et al.  This explanation actually dovetails into the next and best explanation.
2. Miracles express the presence, character, and hope of the Kingdom of God, in other words, they are symbols and foretastes of the kingdom of God itself.

• The miracles themselves are more often to put right what is not as it is intended to be (healing blindness, deafness, muteness, and lameness).  Jesus' miracles were not just firework displays, they met human needs.  They were signs that God's rule was beginning to put things right.
• The type of miracles Jesus performed were indicative of the reign of God as put forth in Isaiah 35:4-10, which Matthew seems to allude to in 15:29-31 where the litany of Isaiah is repeated twice.
• Exorcisms (a type of miracle) are signs of the defeat of Satan's kingdom which makes room for the Kingdom of God.  This is how Jesus viewed it in light of Mark 3:27//Matthew 12:29 (the strong man bound in order to plunder).
• Jesus himself directly links his miracles to the Kingdom of God: Luke 4:18-19; Matthew 11:2-6//Luke 7:18-23; Luke 9:1-2; Matthew 12:28 "if by the Spirit of God"//Luke 11:20 "if by the finger of God".
• Even some of the "nature" miracles fall in line here.  Jesus stills the storm using the same verb that he used to exorcise demons.  The storm was probably a Satanic event meant to take out the ambassadors of God's Kingdom.  The feeding miracles meet people's needs.  The cursing of the fig tree was probably an enacted parable of judgment.

Miracles and Jesus' Disciples

Jesus gives authority to his disciples to perform miracles (Matthew 10:1//Luke 9:1-2), and they perform exactly the type of miracles Jesus performed.  Acts is replete with miracles done by the disciples (see summary at 2:35 and 5:12-16).  Peter and Paul and Stephen and Philip all perform miracles which echo Jesus' miracles.  The reason they too perform miracle is that they were Jesus' ambassadors of the Kingdom of God.  The Kingdom of God arrives with healing and making things whole.

Miracles Today

If miracles are part and parcel of the Kingdom of God, then we would expect the church throughout history to perform them.  Cessationist arguments to the contrary are based on a mistaken view of what miracles were meant to accomplish.  If the Kingdom of God is nothing more than information to be believed ("Jesus died for our sins"), then it might make sense to say that miracles ceased because on that view the miracles were only there to call attention to the Gospel message so understood.  However, the Gospel evidence of miracles totally undermine this picture.  The miracles are part of the Kingdom of God, not just some carney sideshow.  Perhaps miracles happen where there is most need for God's power: human powerlessness.  If we in the West do not see miracles perhaps that says more about us and our non-reliance on God's power than it does about the possible cessation of miracles.

Theological Upshot

The miracles matter and they matter for reasons.  Paul says in 1 Corinthians 4:20 that the Kingdom of God (Paul rarely uses these terms) is not a matter of talk but of power.  Miracles are God's power setting things right.  It's time for us evangelicals to unmask our talk-only theology and put the power back into the Gospel where real transformation and new creation happen and not mere imputation, that is, mere talk.