As we begin today, I think it is important to acknowledge that the topic of today’s sermon, “The Miracles of Jesus,” are for some people uncomfortable to talk about. At least part of the difficulty comes from the fact that we live in a world in which science has opened to us the world in a way that our ancient ancestors could not have anticipated. At one and the same time, we realize now how large the universe truly is. The vastness of space is unfathomable. And yet here at home, we can look down to the micro-level, even to the atomic level. We know many things about the universe and the way it operates. From its initial moments, from a singularity to its increasing expansion through the Big Bang. And to its continual growth and evolution. As new planets are being formed and old planets die away. And fade into the stars which themselves go supernova. And form the incubation chamber for yet newer stars. Biologists know much of how life on Earth works. We know how cells grow and divide and turn into organisms differentiate themselves one from another. How living things reproduce and survive and adapt to different climates. And to different ways of being in the world. Thus, with all this vast scientific knowledge, many people are tempted to think that perhaps we have somehow marginalized the role of God in all of this. God is thus made small. Perhaps not even necessary in the grand scheme of things after all. This isn’t a new thought. It has been around for hundreds of years since the Renaissance and the Enlightenment. What is new today is the vehemence of some non-believers, what we would call atheists, who demand that people give up their belief in a higher power because it is silly, irrational, and not in keeping with the understanding of our quote unquote modern era. Among these, perhaps the most famous, is Richard Dawkins, an evolutionary biologist who in his free time lampoons everything Christian and frankly everything religious as silly.

One of the chief things on Dr. Dawkins’ list of incredible Christian claims are the miracles described in the Bible, and the claims that miracles still happen today. As is fashionable in some scientific circles, Dr. Dawkins denies the existence of something that we would label miraculous. Either things happen by scientifically explainable means, or they simply do not happen. That is the fundamental core of Dr. Dawkins’ worldview, his way of thinking the world works.

The name for a worldview in which basically all things happen according to naturally predictable laws is often called naturalism or materialism. It is called naturalism because according to this worldview, everything occurs according to natural processes with no intervention from outside the system. It is called materialism because under this system of belief, all that exists can be observed with the naked eye, the raw material of the universe. Outside of that, there exists nothing else. No world of spirit or God or anything else is permitted under such a view.

Of course, this is where the conflict comes with the biblical worldview, right? As Christians, we believe that God has acted definitively in nature and in history. The Bible tells us how God acted for the nation of Israel, for the people of the early church, and most importantly in the life and ministry of Jesus Christ. Indeed, we believe that the entire creation is filled with miracles every day, and that behooves us to venture a definition of miracle.

According to the dictionary, a miracle is… “a surprising and welcome event that is not explicable by natural or scientific laws and is therefore considered to be the work of a divine agency.” I have a problem with this definition. It limits a miracle to things which are not explainable by any other way. In other words, we are talking about cause and effect here, not the agent by whom the miracle occurred. If God is so intent on order as it appears from the finely tuned universe in which we live, would it not then make sense if God would follow the laws of nature that God himself has set up? Would it not make sense that a miraculous healing would happen through the means of the immune system, the healing system that God has set up in the body? It doesn’t make sense that God would have to always go outside of the natural means to bring healing to a body part, for instance. And so there may be no miraculous flash of light, no feeling of heat and wonder as healing comes. I by no means dismiss claims that this has happened. I have seen things myself which are otherwise unexplainable except that the hand of God was at work. But in the normal means of things, that is not how God has worked in the world to bring healing.

I think this phrase, “in the normal means of things,” is the key into a definition of miracle with which we can work today in our message and which we can defend against all comers who would challenge the miracles that we find in scripture. Let us try this definition on for size. “A miracle is an unexpected outpouring of God’s power in an event that defies ordinary explanation, which occurs for the purpose of advancing God’s kingdom.” This definition comes to us from the folks at the Anchor Bible Dictionary, one of the most respected Bible dictionaries among academics.

I like this definition for several reasons. First off, a miracle is unexpected. That puts it into the realm of defining it as not unprecedented, perhaps, not without prior occurrence, but unusual enough that the event points to an actor outside of the normal realm of existence. Secondly, it does defy normal explanation. It is an action that, while perhaps not unprecedented, is unusual enough that it is not easily explained. And finally, the miracle has a purpose. It is not just to be flashy. It is not just to glorify the person performing the miracle. It is to advance the kingdom of God. And the kingdom of God is another way that scripture talks about bringing heaven to earth. The order, the love, the peace, the joy, the healing of heaven coming down to earth as a foretaste of what happens at the end of time.

It is here that we can start to talk about the miracles of Jesus. Jesus is known as many things as possible in scripture. Jesus is the son of Mary and Joseph. Jesus is a carpenter. Jesus is an excellent teacher. Jesus is a rabbi who has disciples. But many people know Jesus as a worker of signs and wonders. And of course, Jesus is known as the son of God, pointing to his relationship to the Father in heaven.

So then, what purpose did the miracles throughout Jesus’s ministry serve? Were they merely signs of Jesus being God in the flesh? Or were there other purposes for these miracles, for those who observed them firsthand, and for us, who read about them in the scriptures?

I don’t think we can talk about just one purpose for the miracles of Jesus. The miracles of Jesus show us many things about Jesus, about God, and indeed about human capacity and potential. We must always remember that when we talk about Jesus, we are not merely talking about God. We are talking about the God-man, God becoming flesh, Emmanuel. We must always remember the human side of Jesus when we are speaking of the divine, because they are never separate, never unequal, but always 100% present.

And so, we could say that the first purpose of the miracles of Jesus is to closely relate Jesus to the God of the universe. They are to demonstrate that Jesus is operating in God’s power, and out of the same divine power that created the universe and sustains it to this day. In other words, as God in the flesh, what Jesus does in the miracles attributed to him demonstrates the power of the God that created the universe.

In our passage today, where Jesus calms the storm, we see God in Jesus working over the forces of nature in a way that no mere human can. Jesus calmly, yet resolutely, deals with the forces of nature in the upper atmosphere to bring a storm to a screeching halt. This is one of the miracles that science would have a great deal of trouble trying to explain. Was Jesus speaking some magic, or ordering another deity? That was the Greek and Roman explanation. Was Jesus manipulating air molecules? Was he speeding up, or slowing down the flow of time? All of these would be entertained and cast out as impossible by those operating in our scientific materialist worldview. Yet for people who appreciate the authority that scripture has for us, we must take this miracle seriously and follow where it leads. If you trace the Old Testament storyline, you find very clearly that one of the attributes of the God of the Old Testament was God’s power over the weather and the forces of nature. In fact, God is often presented as a God of storms, thunder, and lightning in the Old Testament. For a prime example, one can go to Psalm 89.

Here at the calming of the storm in Matthew, we see Jesus doing what only YHWH can do as presented in the pages of the Old Testament. Clearly then, the authors of the Gospels are clearly identifying Jesus with the God of the Old Testament, and not merely for their own ends, but as inspired by the Holy Spirit to point us to the fact that Jesus is indeed God in the flesh.

Jesus is not only God in the flesh, he is hailed by many as the Son of God. And we need to pause and look at that title a little bit more closely, for it is not unique to Jesus. I know that may be shocking, but scripture very clearly shows that there are more people called the Son of God than merely this one person named Jesus. In fact, Jesus stands in a long line of Sons of God in the Old Testament. Indeed, the first person to be called Son of God, at least in order of time, is Adam himself. And we find this in the genealogy of Jesus Christ in Luke chapter 3. Jesus is presented as the Son of Abraham, who then is, through a list of descendants, is brought the whole way back to Adam, who is called the Son of God. Moreover, in the Old Testament, the nation of Israel itself is called the Son of God. Hosea chapter 11 verse 2 says, “Out of Egypt I called my son,” clearly referring to the nation of Israel. And yet Matthew’s Gospel uses that prophecy to speak specifically of Jesus and the Holy Family’s escape to Egypt from Herod’s clutches. And there is one more use of the Son of God terminology that we need to refer to this morning, and that is the fact that the kings of Israel were all anointed as the Son of God in a special way. And to one king, David, in 2 Samuel chapter 7, was given a promise, that there would never fail to be one to reign on David’s throne forever and ever, and that that Messiah figure would come from David’s line and would be entitled the Son of God.

If that were the only reason that Jesus performed miracles, that is, to demonstrate his relationship to God, that would be enough to make him worthy of worship and praise. However, that may not be enough to demonstrate all of God’s attributes as we find them in the Old Testament. As incredible, awesome, astounding, and inexplicable as the miracles are, there is still something better! One of the most astounding aspects of the God revealed in the pages of Scripture is God’s divine compassion, love, and mercy.

And as we survey most of the miracles of Jesus, we find that this seems to be the motivating factor: God’s compassion. From the healing ministry of the paralytic that Jesus says, “Get up, take your mat and walk, your sins are forgiven,” to the raising of Lazarus and Jairus’ daughter from death back to life, compassion and love seem to be at the core of Jesus’ actions. Notice what Jesus says to those who question him after healing the paralytic. He says, “What is easier, to say your sins are forgiven, or to say, ‘Get up, take this mat and walk’?” Clearly, Jesus expects one answer, and they expect another, the religious authorities, that is, to whom Jesus is speaking. But Jesus does both as a demonstration of God’s love and mercy. God cares not only for the body, but also for the soul. Sickness infects the body, but sin afflicts the soul. To be truly healed, both must be dealt with.

Much more could be said about the miracles of Jesus, and I do want to speak about one final purpose of the miracles of Jesus. This one may be a little challenging to hear. It is encouraging to our faith to hear about the miracles of Jesus with the eyes of faith. Because we believe that God created the heavens and earth, we know that nothing is too powerful for God. And if God in the flesh appeared, as he did in Jesus Christ, then it stands to reason that God can do miraculous things in and through Jesus.

We must ask a question, though, and this is a very important question, I believe. What about those religious authorities that witnessed these many miracles of Jesus and did not believe? Are they proof that Jesus did not perform miracles? Or perhaps that he was a charlatan like many modern-day miracle workers out there claiming to act in Jesus’ name? Was Jesus merely an attention seeker? Well, given the fact of the rise of the early church from zero to three thousand in one day via the miracle of Pentecost, and the fact that that tomb was empty three days later from Jesus being crucified, I think we can say that we must deal with the fact that Jesus did perform miracles exactly as scripture recorded them. I believe in the power of miracles, and I believe in the power of God, and I believe in the authority that scripture presents to us as the word of God. But I must acknowledge also, if I give factual credence to the miracles, I must give factual credence to those that doubted, and I should be able to offer an explanation. An explanation that is for why the religious authorities doubted Jesus.

Here we must make an important distinction. The religious authorities did not doubt that Jesus performed miracles. They witnessed the same things as the disciples. They witnessed the healings, the feedings, the exorcisms, even the raising of dead from life. The important difference is from whom did they claim that Jesus drew his authority. In Matthew chapter 12, Jesus is accused of being in league with the father of lies, Satan himself. And many attributed ulterior motives to Jesus’ miracles and infernal sources. Surely, they thought, if they were trying to take authority away from the recognized teachers of the law and the traditions of the elders, any such diversion must be motivated by Satan and the power of evil. In their perspective, they were infallible, and even God himself could not find fault with them. They had all the power to declare themselves blameless, as in fact Paul tells us that he did before his miraculous experience on the Damascus Road. The people in power had a good thing going, and they despised Jesus for disrupting it.

And so, the miracles of Jesus formed a dividing line. Each one had to choose whether Jesus was operating in the power of a holy God or in the power of evil itself. I don’t believe many choices in life require a yes or no answer. I’m not a big believer in binaries myself. I believe there is plenty of room for shades of gray, for discussion, for growing and learning. But on this issue clearly, one must take a stand. Are you in the court of God? Or are you in the court of human beings’ pride, selfishness, and arrogance, thinking that you know the proper interpretation of scripture to the exclusion of yes, God in the flesh? Because that is exactly what the leaders, the powerful, the religious, the zealous were doing. They were debating scripture with the God who inspired it, who had come to them out of mercy, love, and compassion. And yet they rejected him, even after seeing demonstrations of that love, mercy, and compassion. And the only reason I can attribute to that is hardened hearts.

Friends, life has a way of getting us down. I can tell you through this extended illness that I am hopefully at the end of, that it has not always been easy to say my prayers and to remind myself that God is in control when pain or discomfort was a constant thorn in the flesh, to turn a phrase. And as those of you that suffer with chronic pain know, it is not easy to have a positive outlook when the body is crying out for help 24/7. And sometimes it is even easy to become cynical and doubtful that God really cares that we are suffering.

Remember that many Jewish folks had been waiting for a messianic deliverer, the Messiah, to come for hundreds of years. During that time, is it not possible that some hearts began to grow callous and doubtful that God would interact with humans again? That God would come and really save them this time, to bring them out from their oppression, to end the exile, and restore the kingdom? The miracles of Jesus remind us of several things that we must take with us as we go today. Firstly, they remind us that God has power. God created the universe by merely speaking it into being, and God, through Jesus, demonstrated that that power remains for those who call upon Jesus’ name.

Secondly, we must remember that Jesus said one important thing that perplexes me even to this day. Jesus said that “his disciples would do even greater things” than the miracles that he performed in his life and ministry. How is that possible, that Jesus and his disciples would do more than Jesus did himself? Now, I don’t think this is talking about the degree of difficulty of the miracles we would perform. And I don’t even know if Jesus was talking about miracles in the same sense as he performed in his ministry. I think Jesus is saying that as people of love and compassion, as people who follow the God of love and compassion, that because we are greater in number, the effects of our power and might would be even greater than his in his limited three-year ministry.

Finally, in a world in which hate and violence seem to rule the day, is not love and compassion and mercy a strange thing, perhaps even a wondrous, even miraculous thing? I remember the Nickel Mines shooting several years ago now in southern Lancaster County. I remember the fact that the fathers and mothers, aunts, uncles, and grandparents of the victims not only reached out to the wife and family of the shooter, but to the entire community and demonstrated through their love, their forgiveness, and their compassion what it meant to follow Jesus Christ. This was a sign of God’s kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven, and many in the world were astounded and enraptured. It was an unexpected outpouring of God’s power in an event that defies ordinary explanation. I cannot help but wonder what sacrifice that was to give up on anger and rage and even hatred. But it is a sacrifice worth making because it makes us more godlike, more miraculous to demonstrate love and compassion and mercy, especially to those that by the world’s standards don’t deserve it. Amen