Miracles of Christ
Subject:
������� JESUS CHRIST'S MIRACLES‑by Bertrand L. Comparet #15
�� Date:
������� Mon, 5 Nov 2001 08:35:06 ‑0800
�� From:
������ "Bob Jones" <[email protected]>
���� To:
������ "dragonslayer" <[email protected]>
��������������� 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.
������������������ 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.
������������������ 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.
������������������ The great majority of His miracles were the healing of
the sick, the deformed the paralyzed 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.
���������� ���������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, "I 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.
������������������ 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
������������������ 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.
������������������ 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.
������������������ 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.