Miracles? You've got to be kidding!
Fiona Bronsdon
Miracles - what are they? Do they really happen? Aren't miracles in the Bible just exaggerated stories? Are Christians gullible for believing in them? Miracles? You've got to be kidding!!
God's not kidding
If you read any of the Bible it won't be long before you come across a miracle. A miracle, according to the Oxford English Dictionary is: an extraordinary event attributed to some supernatural agency, or any remarkable occurrence.
A biblical summary of a miracle would be something like this: it's a sign that points to God at work. The Bible is jammed pack full of them, from Genesis, right at the beginning of the Bible, telling us of the miracle of creation, to the parting of the Red Sea in Exodus, to the saving of Daniel from being eaten for lunch by lions, to the raising of Jesus from the dead. If an immortal, all-powerful God exists, then miracles are not a problem for Him. The Bible is saying that God is a God of miracles. God's not kidding about miracles.
Is seeing believing?
Do I have to see a miracle in order to believe in it? Let's take the resurrection, for example, a miracle central to the Christian faith. I, certainly, have never seen anyone rise from the dead, so why do I believe that Jesus is alive today? It's interesting that even some of Jesus' friends doubted that Jesus had risen from the dead. John, in his account of Jesus' life writes about Thomas, who refused to believe his friends' eyewitness accounts of the risen Jesus. This is what Thomas says to them:
"Unless I see in his (Jesus') hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into his side, I will never believe."
John 20:25
He wanted some physical evidence that what the others had been telling him was true, that they had seen Jesus alive again.
In this instance, Thomas was very fortunate. Jesus graciously came to him and the other disciples and allowed Thomas to see the evidence:
Then he (Jesus) said to Thomas, "Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe."
John 20:27
So if Jesus had left it at that, it would seem that seeing is believing, which would present a problem for us today, wouldn't it? We can't see and touch Jesus - the Bible says (in the book of Acts) that Jesus was taken up into heaven. However, Jesus doesn't leave Thomas thinking that because he's seen him and touched him that that in itself is a good basis for faith. Instead he says this:
"Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed."
John 20:29
This is something that comes up earlier in the gospel. John writes that:
'...when he (Jesus) was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, many believed in his name when they saw the signs that he was doing. But Jesus on his part did not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people and needed no-one to bear witness about man, for he himself knew what was in man.'
John 2:23-25
In other words, people were believing because they were amazed at what Jesus was doing...and some would have come to genuine faith, but for many they would have been impressed by what they had seen without really putting their whole trust and faith in Jesus - who was heading for the cross.
Going back to chapter 20 of John, John goes on to write that:
Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; 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
John is saying that in recording as much as he could about what Jesus did and said, taken all together these should make us think 'Who is this Jesus? How could he have done all these things?' In other words, they point us to God, and the miracles are part of helping us make a decision about Him. We should be amazed at the miracles, but seeing is not necessarily believing - we need to look beyond them to find out what they are telling us about God.
Miracles - God at work
Miracles then - or signs as John calls them in his gospel, are signs that God is at work. As I finish, here's a miracle that you may not have thought of as being a miracle before. If you are a Christian here tonight, or know you are sitting next to a Christian friend, then you are sitting next to a miracle! Seriously! The Bible says that 'all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God' (Romans 3:23). If that's true then how can anyone be made right with God? The Bible says that a miracle occurs in a person's heart when they believe in Jesus - the miracle being that enemies of God become friends of God.