Subject:

������ JESUS CHRIST'S MIRACLES ‑ Bertrand Comparet

�� Date:

������ Sun, 01 Apr 2001 13:44:55 ‑0400

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������ MinuteMan <[email protected]>

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JESUS CHRIST'S MIRACLES

by Bertrand L. Comparet

A little more than 1,900 years ago, the best and

kindest person who ever

walked

this earth in human form spent three years

intensively doing nothing but

good. On many occasions He displayed the power of God

to work miracles. In

an age when superstition was strong, and most people

expected a display of

miracles to convince them of great power, there would

naturally be a great

temptation to impress the multitude by a show of

supernatural power. The

Jews were constantly demanding that Jesus Christ

should work some miracle

as a "sign" that He was more than just a man. All

four Gospels record this:

Matthew 12:38‑40; Mark 18:11‑12; Luke 11:16, 29‑32;

and John 6:30. But He

always refused to do this: He had not come as a

mountebank, to amuse people

of that character with a spectacular show. Just as He

refused to perform

miracles for Satan, as is recorded in the 4th.

chapter of Matthew, He also

refused to perform them at the demand of the Jews.

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First of all, He did only those miracles which the

prophets of the Old

Testament had prophesied the Messiah would do. This

was for a definite

purpose: those who knew and believed the Old

Testament (which was all of

the Bible which was in existence at that time) would

by this recognize Him

as the Messiah, the Christ. When John the Baptist

sent some of his

disciples to inquire if Jesus was the Christ, as we

read in Luke 7:19‑22,

Jesus reminded them of the miracles which 'He had

performed‑‑‑these being

the very miracles which Isaiah had prophesied; this

would be proof enough

for John. But those who could not or would not see

this, also could not

understand His true character when He told them that

He was the Christ, as

He told the Jews in John 10:24‑25.

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What was the nature of these miracles? They were all

connected with the

great Gospel He preached: that of the Kingdom of God,

to be established on

this Earth. In the Kingdom of God, the defects of the

present age will not

exist; and Jesus had come to set men free from the

crushing burdens we

carry in this evil age.

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The great majority of His miracles were the healing

of the sick, the

deformed the paralyzed and and the blind, and He also

freed them from

possession by demons. The Jews well knew that leprosy

was incurable, as far

as all human skill of that day could do; yet on

several occasions Jesus

Christ healed it with only a spoken word. Those who

otherwise were

condemned to the living death of a disease under

which their flesh rotted

away while yet they lived, and because of this they

were outcasts from all

human society‑these people He restored to full health

and useful, happy

life. Twice He restored strength and activity to

those who for years had

lain hopelessly paralyzed. One woman who had for 18

years of misery been

deformed as a hunchback, He restored to perfect form

with but the touch of

His hand. Many who lived in the hopeless despair of

blindness He blessed

with renewed vision, giving them not only the beauty

of the world about

them but also the usefulness which enabled them to

earn their living,

instead of being dependent upon charity. Those who

lay in pain and weakness

upon their beds, too sick to rise, more of these than

could be counted He

healed with only a spoken word. Many who were dumb

came to Him for help,

and to them He gave the power to speak.

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God did not intend that we should be tormented by

sicknesses, which also

shorten our lives. He meant for us to live under the

glorious conditions of

His kingdom, free from crime and sin, free from

sickness and death. But

instead of this, men chose to live under the rule of

Satan, despite the

terrible price we have paid for this all during the

course of human

history. It was to set us free from this that Jesus

Christ came: as He said

in John 10:10, "1 am come that they might have life,

and that they might

have it more abundantly." Therefore, these miracles

of healing were a

demonstration to us of the perfection of His kingdom,

as well as the proof

of His identity.

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Again, He fed multitudes‑4,000 at one time, and 5,000

at another‑‑out in

the desert where no food was to be found: for this

purpose, He made a few

fishes and loaves of bread sufficient to feed

thousands, and even the

scraps left over were more than the food they had in

the beginning. But

note that He did this, not for the benefit of the

merely lazy: He did it

for whose who had followed Him to listen to His

teachings, and who would

not leave Him even to go back to the towns where they

could eat. Only when

there was a hunger of the soul for His truth did He

also feed their bodies.

�

He calmed the storm at sea, to save the lives of His

disciples who were

threatened by it. He cast out devils from those whose

lives had been ruined

by them. Here was the power of God plainly displayed:

and yet the

unbelieving Jews only scoffed, and said that He could

only cast out devils

by the help of Beelzebub, the prince of devils. But

the Jews well knew

that, by the laws of God in the Old Testament to

which they gave insincere

lip‑service, their High Priests should have been able

to cast out

devils‑‑‑yet they could not; so Jesus reminded them,

"If I by Beelzebub

cast out devils, by whom do your children cast them

out? Therefore, they

shall be your judges. But if I cast out devils by the

Spirit of God, then

the Kingdom of God is come unto you." Matthew

12:22‑29

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Finally, as the greatest miracle of all, He several

times restored the dead

to life. Surely here was the power of God beyond any

possibility of doubt;

but also, here was the demonstration of the goodness

of God, who does not

want us to suffer death, and has set us free from it

through Jesus Christ.

In the Kingdom of God, the reign of death is ended.

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In all of these we see His consistent policy. When

Satan asked Him, to turn

stones Into bread, and to show that He could safely

jump from the topmost

pinnacle of the Temple, as demonstrations of His

supreme power over nature,

He refused; yet He produced food in plenty to feed

those who believed in

Him; and He calmed the storm to save the lives of His

disciples. In a world

where God's economic laws were mocked, at the cost of

ever‑widening poverty

among the people; where the moral laws of God were

mocked, at the cost of

general depravity; where the sick became more

numerous with each

generation, and they had lost the power to restore to

sanity the wretched

ones who raved and fought; in that world, with only a

word or the gentlest

touch of His hand, He stopped pain and sorrow,

restored the sick to

strength and usefulness, and reminded them that only

God is the source of

all good. As He said in John 5:12, "Verily, verily I

say unto you, the Son

can do nothing of Himself, but what He seeth the

Father do: for what things

soever He doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise."

These miracles were

not to display His power for the admiration of the

fickle mob: they were to

show the power of God, and what it would be like in

the Kingdom of God, for

which the faithful few waited.

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How glaring was the contrast between the world as He

found it and the

Kingdom of God which He taught them! But let us not

forget‑ that our world

of today is little better than that which rejected

Him nineteen centuries

ago. We also have our sick, our cripples, our

paralyzed, many of whom we

know not how to heal; we also have our poor, but we

have not learned how to

feed them except at the cost of excessive taxes which

again create the very

evil they were supposed to remedy; we also have our

storms and natural

calamities bringing death and destruction, but we are

powerless before

them; and we also face the bitter sorrow of families

separated by death.

All our vaunted civilization, our education, our

science, has not relieved

us of these evils. How long will it take us to see

that man's materialism,

however good his intentions, can never furnish the

answer to our needs? It

is just as true today as it was then, that in Jesus

Christ alone is the

answer: His power, His mercy, His goodness and

generosity afford the only

possible way for us to secure the good things which

can come only in the

Kingdom of God.