God created us out of love. He wanted to share
his very life with us. The fellowship and
communion that he desired was broken, however,
when Adam and Eve sinned in the garden of
Eden. Because of their disobedience, humanity
was separated from God and became subject to
sickness, suffering, and death. Yet in his
great mercy, God promised to reverse the
consequences of this first sin. He fulfilled
that promise in Jesus Christ, the Word made
flesh.
Entrusted with his Father’s mission to redeem
mankind, Jesus began his public ministry,
“teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming
the good news of the kingdom and curing every
disease and every sickness among the people”
(Matthew 4:23). Indeed, after being anointed
by the Spirit at his baptism, he identified
himself as the one of whom the prophet Isaiah
had spoken:
“The Spirit of the Lord is
upon me,
because
he has anointed me
to bring good news to
the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim
release to the captives
and
recovery of sight to the blind,
to let the oppressed
go free,
to proclaim the year of the
Lord’s favor.”
—Luke 4:18-19 (see also Isaiah 61:1-2)
“Today this scripture has been fulfilled in
your hearing” (Luke 4:21), Jesus declared to
his fellow townspeople in the synagogue at
Nazareth. Jesus accompanied his teaching “with
‘mighty works and wonders and signs’ [Acts
2:22], which manifest that the kingdom is
present in him and attest that he was the
promised Messiah” (quote from
Catechism of
the Catholic Church 547).
Power Came Out
from Him
The Greek word for “power,”
dunamis,
is the also the root of the word “dynamic.”
Divine power and dynamism radiated from Jesus
and drew people to him: “All in the crowd were
trying to touch him, for power came out from
him and healed all of them” (Luke 6:19). In
confronting sickness, sin, Satan, and even
death, Jesus acted with the power and
sovereign authority that were his as the Son
of God, the Messiah-Redeemer.
Jesus’ miracles did more than manifest his
mighty power, though. They also communicated
the love and compassion of God for his people.
Jesus performed healings on the Sabbath—among
them, restoring a man’s withered hand and
straightening the bent back of a woman—even
though he knew he would be criticized by the
Pharisees for doing so. He sometimes cured
people of their physical ailments while at the
same time healing them spiritually by
forgiving their sins. The gospels often tell
of Jesus’ compassion when he performed a
miracle, such as the time when he restored the
life of the widow’s only son in Nain (Luke
7:11-23).
Although there’s no doubt that Jesus’ miracles
made a sensation, he didn’t perform miracles
to call attention to himself or enhance his
reputation. In fact, he refused to do
extraordinary deeds for his own advantage or
glorification, rejecting Satan’s urgings to
turn stones into bread and to display his
power by throwing himself from the pinnacle of
the temple. He also refused to satisfy the
Sadducees’ and Pharisees’ demand to “show them
a sign from heaven” (Matthew 16:1-4) and
Herod’s desire to “see him perform some sign”
(Luke 23:8). Rather, the miracles Jesus worked
demonstrated his divine mission of redemption
and expressed the saving power and mercy of
God.
Accounts of Jesus’ miracles make up a
significant portion of the text of the gospels
and record the variety of ways he revealed his
divine power. Some restored people to
wholeness and well-being through physical
healing, the forgiveness of sins, or
deliverance from evil spirits. Several
revealed Jesus’ authority over natural
elements, such as when he multiplied the
loaves and fish, transformed water into wine
at Cana, and calmed a violent storm. Still
other miraculous events—for instance, Jesus’
transfiguration and his walk on the waters of
the Sea of Galilee—were “epiphanies” of Jesus’
glory.
These extraordinary deeds were not merely
physical marvels that overturned the laws of
nature. Rather, they were divine acts that
transcended the natural order of the
physical world—reminders that the kingdom of
God transcends that physical world, as well.
Theologically speaking, Jesus’ miracles were
“above nature;” signs that, in the spiritual
order, had moral and religious character and
revealed the nature and goodness of God.
Although the scribes and Pharisees didn’t deny
Jesus’ ability to perform miraculous healings,
they challenged the authority with which he
performed them. Despite the evidence, some
people rejected Jesus; others even accused him
of acting by the power of Satan. Among the
reasons why the chief priests and Pharisees
sought to kill Jesus was that they felt
threatened by his power to work miracles and
by his growing popularity with the crowds who
witnessed them.
Historical
Realities
The public character of Jesus’ miracles is
clearly recorded. From a historical
perspective, it is indisputable that Jesus was
recognized as a healer. His deeds were known
by the crowds and generated great excitement
among those who witnessed them. Indeed, it was
because of his miraculous works that many
regarded him as a great prophet. There is no
evidence that Jesus’ contemporaries denied the
fact that he worked miracles, even though they
disputed that God was the source of his
ability to perform them. The miraculous nature
of Jesus’ deeds was confirmed by many
eyewitnesses who later passed on accounts of
them to the early Christian communities.
Jesus’ miracles are not to be dismissed simply
as ordinary events given grander meanings
through the eyes of faith. They are actual
physical realities that cannot be explained by
natural or earthly causes. Nor are they mere
symbols—although they do indeed contain
symbolic resonances and a depth of symbolic
meaning. The gospels not only record the
memory of the actual events but often reveal
the many levels of meaning also found in them.
For example, the healing of the blind man
recounted in John 9 illustrates not only the
restoration of the man’s physical sight but
also the removal of spiritual blindness and
the attainment of spiritual insight and
enlightenment. Similarly, Jesus’ calming of
the tempestuous wind and waves with a word of
command points to the care and protection he
still exercises over the church when it faces
“storms.” Feeding the hungry crowds by
multiplying the loaves is a sign that Jesus
himself is the Bread of Life and also alludes
to the messianic banquet at the end of time.
That these miraculous events have symbolic,
theological, and ecclesial meanings contained
in them does not discredit or reduce the
authenticity of the miracles themselves.
Occasionally the accounts of Jesus’ miracles
vary in their details and their chronological
placement in the gospels. Such variations
reflect the processes by which the gospel
tradition took shape and the way in which the
gospels were written. First, Jesus worked his
miracles. Then witnesses of these miracles
recounted what they had seen as a way of
spreading the good news of the salvation Jesus
had brought. These oral stories were repeated
and handed down over the years, and some were
recorded in writings that predate the gospels.
Finally, under the inspiration of the Holy
Spirit, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John drew
upon all the material they found in the
church’s living tradition and wrote their
gospels. When the original chronology of
Jesus’ actions or particular miracles was
uncertain to them, they inserted them into the
literary structure of their gospels with
careful consideration of where these miracles
would appropriately illustrate Jesus’ mission
and underscore his teachings.
The Evangelists did not invent or embellish
the stories of Jesus’ miracles, but they did
present them from their individual
perspectives and points of view. Mark’s gospel
closely associates Jesus’ miracles with the
proclamation of the good news of the kingdom,
and through them reveals the person of Jesus,
his power, his mission of redemption, and the
establishment of God’s reign. The Gospel of
Matthew offers the outlook of an instructor or
catechist, with its author highlighting
people’s professions of faith in Jesus, ways
in which Jesus fulfilled Old Testament
prophecies, and the significance of his
teachings and miracles to the developing
church. The gospel written by the
physician-Evangelist Luke portrays Jesus as
the prophet-Messiah sent by God to bring
salvation and deliverance. Luke records Jesus’
miracles—frequently with some medical
detail—in the framework of Jesus’ teachings,
in order to illustrate how the kingdom of God
was made present. John chose to recount only
seven of Jesus’ miracles, and he presented
them as “signs” and “works” that manifested
Christ’s glory and bore witness that he had
been sent by God.
Good News Made
Visible
Jesus’ miracles are, in fact, rich in their
“sign value.” Noted theologian and Scripture
scholar René Latourelle has called them “the
good news itself made visible.”1 We recognize
in them signs of the power of God, signs of
the coming of the Messiah and of the kingdom
of God, signs of the compassion and love of
God, signs of Christ’s glory, and signs of the
age to come.
Jesus himself pointed to the messianic signs
foretold by Isaiah, which were fulfilled in
him. When the disciples of John the Baptist
asked, “Are you the one who is to come, or are
we to wait for another?” Jesus said, “Go and
tell John what you hear and see: the blind
receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers
are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are
raised, and the poor have good news brought to
them” (Matthew 11:2-5; see also Isaiah
35:5-6).
When the apostle Peter addressed the
Israelites on Pentecost, he told them of Jesus
of Nazareth and the “deeds of power, wonders,
and signs that God did through him among you”
(Acts 2:22). Later, he spoke to the gentile
Cornelius and his household of “how God
anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy
Spirit and with power; how he went about doing
good and healing all who were oppressed by the
devil, for God was with him” (10:38). “The
signs worked by Jesus attest that the Father
has sent him. They invite belief in him. To
those who turn to him in faith, he grants what
they ask. So miracles strengthen faith in the
One who does his Father’s works; they bear
witness that he is the Son of God” (quote from
Catechism of the Catholic Church 548).
The miracles that Jesus performed announced
that the kingdom of God was breaking forth in
the world. By his marvelous acts of healing
and forgiveness, Jesus showed God’s mercy
toward those who were without hope—the weak,
the ill, the sinful. The Son of God used his
divine power in the service of love, moved
with pity toward those in distress. Thus,
“Christ’s compassion toward the sick and his
many healings of every kind of infirmity are a
resplendent sign that ‘God has visited his
people’ and that the Kingdom of God is close
at hand” (quote from
Catechism of the
Catholic Church, 1503).
The Greek word
simeion—“sign”—is used
seventeen times in the Gospel of John and
sixty times throughout the rest of the New
Testament. Chapters 1–12 of John’s gospel have
been called the Book of Signs because of the
sign-miracles described there. For John, the
mighty deeds that Jesus performed were signs
that “revealed his glory” (John 2:11) as well
as the power of God working through him.
Finally, while the miracles occurred in the
physical world of Jesus’ day, they also
prefigure greater realities to come when “a
new heaven and earth” (Isaiah 65:17; 2 Peter
3:13; Revelation 21:1) will be revealed.
Restoring health to the ill and life to those
who have died hints at the transformation that
will take place at the end of time, when “this
perishable body puts on imperishability, and
this mortal body puts on immorality” (1
Corinthians 15:53).
Jesus’ Invitation
to Us
When Jesus worked miracles two thousand years
ago, he manifested his love and compassion and
called men and women to faith in him and his
mission. These miraculous events still have
something to say to us: they are Jesus’
invitation to open ourselves to receive his
mercy and to embrace the salvation he came to
proclaim to us.
Today God continues to work miracles in our
midst to bring us to wholeness and deeper
conversion to him. Just as the father who
sought freedom and deliverance for his child
cried, “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!”
(Mark 9:24), so can we ask God to increase our
faith. And just as the woman with the
hemorrhage reached out to Jesus, saying and
knowing in her heart, “If I only touch his
cloak, I will be made well” (Matthew 9:21), so
can we reach out to him now. Jesus is eager to
answer us with miraculous signs of his
presence and love and healing power.
Jeanne Kun is a noted author
and a senior woman leader in the Word
of
Life Community, Ann Arbor,
Michigan, USA.
This article is excerpted from Mighty
in
Power: The Miracles of Jesus by
Jeanne Kun (Copyright © 2004 by The Word
Among Us Press). Used with permission.
