Gospel Part 3

Now, why does it matter that Jesus can do miracles? Why does this matter in the grand scheme of His ministry?

Simple: who else can do miracles? This shows us again, the God side of Him. We can’t turn water into wine or feed 5,000 with little materials, but Jesus can. This sets Him apart for the World to see.

Let’s talk about them!

First Miracle- Water into Wine

On the third day a wedding took place in Cana of Galilee. Jesus’s mother was there, and Jesus and his disciples were invited to the wedding as well. When the wine ran out, Jesus’s mother told him, “They don’t have any wine.” “What has this concern of yours to do with me, woman?” Jesus asked. “My hour has not yet come.” “Do whatever he tells you,” his mother told the servants. Now six stone water jars had been set there for Jewish purification. Each contained twenty or thirty gallons. “Fill the jars with water,” Jesus told them. So they filled them to the brim. Then he said to them, “Now draw some out and take it to the headwaiter.” And they did. When the headwaiter tasted the water (after it had become wine), he did not know where it came from—though the servants who had drawn the water knew. He called the groom and told him, “Everyone sets out the fine wine first, then, after people are drunk, the inferior. But you have kept the fine wine until now.”Jesus did this, the first of his signs, in Cana of Galilee. He revealed his glory, and his disciples believed in him. (John 2:1-11 CSB)

I don’t know about you, but I have never been able to turn water into wine, or at the base of it, He has the power to alter the substance of anything. By example, we now know He could easily make fruit into vegetables, cement into dirt, and His blood into payment for our sins!

Second Miracle- Healing the Nobelman’s Son

He went again to Cana of Galilee, where he had turned the water into wine. There was a certain royal official whose son was ill at Capernaum. When this man heard that Jesus had come from Judea into Galilee, he went to him and pleaded with him to come down and heal his son, since he was about to die. Jesus told him, “Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will not believe.” “Sir,” the official said to him, “come down before my boy dies.” “Go,” Jesus told him, “your son will live.” The man believed what Jesus said to him and departed. While he was still going down, his servants met him saying that his boy was alive. He asked them at what time he got better. “Yesterday at one in the afternoon the fever left him,” they answered. The father realized this was the very hour at which Jesus had told him, “Your son will live.” So he himself believed, along with his whole household. Now this was also the second sign Jesus performed after he came from Judea to Galilee. (John 4:46-54 CSB)

Another thing we learn about Jesus in this next miracle, is that He doesn’t need to be directly with someone to affect them. He healed this man’s son with distance between them simply because his father believed. And because we believe, we are saved! It doesn’t matter the distance between us and Him physically, He’s always there to heal us both physically and emotionally!

Third Miracle - Healing the Sick

After this, a Jewish festival took place, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. By the Sheep Gate in Jerusalem there is a pool, called Bethesda in Aramaic, which has five colonnades. Within these lay a large number of the disabled—blind, lame, and paralyzed. One man was there who had been disabled for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and realized he had already been there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to get well?” “Sir,” the disabled man answered, “I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, but while I’m coming, someone goes down ahead of me.” “Get up,” Jesus told him, “pick up your mat and walk.” Instantly the man got well, picked up his mat, and started to walk. Now that day was the Sabbath, and so the Jews said to the man who had been healed, “This is the Sabbath. The law prohibits you from picking up your mat.” He replied, “The man who made me well told me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’” “Who is this man who told you, ‘Pick up your mat and walk’?” they asked. But the man who was healed did not know who it was, because Jesus had slipped away into the crowd that was there. After this, Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, “See, you are well. Do not sin anymore, so that something worse doesn’t happen to you.” The man went and reported to the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well. Therefore, the Jews began persecuting Jesus because he was doing these things on the Sabbath. (John 5:1-16 CSB)

So, fun fact! For Chapter 5 of John, verse 4 is missing in most translations! We can discuss that in another post, but there’s your Bible-Tid-Bit for the day!

Now, back to the point of the post, Jesus took the time to publicly show that He is the one who heals, not the water or any other false gods/myths. This is so true for us! He is the Healer, nothing of this earth is. 

Fourth Miracle - Feeding the Five Thousand

After this, Jesus crossed the Sea of Galilee (or Tiberias). A huge crowd was following him because they saw the signs that he was performing by healing the sick. Jesus went up a mountain and sat down there with his disciples. Now the Passover, a Jewish festival, was near. So when Jesus looked up and noticed a huge crowd coming toward him, he asked Philip, “Where will we buy bread so that these people can eat?” He asked this to test him, for he himself knew what he was going to do. Philip answered him, “Two hundred denarii worth of bread wouldn’t be enough for each of them to have a little.” One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, said to him, “There’s a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish—but what are they for so many?” Jesus said, “Have the people sit down.” There was plenty of grass in that place; so they sat down. The men numbered about five thousand. Then Jesus took the loaves, and after giving thanks he distributed them to those who were seated—so also with the fish, as much as they wanted. When they were full, he told his disciples, “Collect the leftovers so that nothing is wasted.” So they collected them and filled twelve baskets with the pieces from the five barley loaves that were left over by those who had eaten. When the people saw the sign he had done, they said, “This truly is the Prophet who is to come into the world.” Therefore, when Jesus realized that they were about to come and take him by force to make him king, he withdrew again to the mountain by himself. (John 6:1-15 CSB)

This is one of my favorite miracles! It’s so paradoxical, I don’t fully understand how it could be, but it was! This makes me think of Genesis when God created everything. Jesus was able to create a surplus from a shortage, and that is a wonderful thing!

Fifth Miracle - Walking on Water

When evening came, his disciples went down to the sea, got into a boat, and started across the sea to Capernaum. Darkness had already set in, but Jesus had not yet come to them. A high wind arose, and the sea began to churn. After they had rowed about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea. He was coming near the boat, and they were afraid. But he said to them, “It is I. Don’t be afraid.” Then they were willing to take him on board, and at once the boat was at the shore where they were heading. (John 6:16-21 CSB)

In Matthew (14:26) it says that the disciples thought He was a ghost, and that makes me laugh usually. But, in their defense, what else do you assume when there’s a being walking across the water during a storm? You definitely don’t assume it’s human, because humans can’t do that. Jesus isn’t forced to interact with the world around us like we do, and that’s a huge comfort to us, because He saved us in a way that isn’t possible for mere humans.

Sixth Miracle - Healing the Blind Man

As he was passing by, he saw a man blind from birth. His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?” “Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” Jesus answered. “This came about so that God’s works might be displayed in him. We must do the works of him who sent me while it is day. Night is coming when no one can work. As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” After he said these things he spit on the ground, made some mud from the saliva, and spread the mud on his eyes. “Go,” he told him, “wash in the pool of Siloam” (which means “Sent”). So he left, washed, and came back seeing. His neighbors and those who had seen him before as a beggar said, “Isn’t this the one who used to sit begging?” Some said, “He’s the one.” Others were saying, “No, but he looks like him.”He kept saying, “I’m the one.” So they asked him, “Then how were your eyes opened?” He answered, “The man called Jesus made mud, spread it on my eyes, and told me, ‘Go to Siloam and wash.’ So when I went and washed I received my sight.” (John 9:1-11 CSB)

This particular miracle shows Jesus’ command over the physical body. Jesus isn’t powerless against what ails us, and He doesn’t struggle to help us through physical problems. Instead, He is fully capable of healing us, it just doesn’t always look the way we want it to. Exactly as Jesus explains to His disciples, He’s doing God’s work, not ours.

Seventh Miracle - Raising Lazarus from the Dead

Then Jesus, deeply moved again, came to the tomb. It was a cave, and a stone was lying against it. “Remove the stone,” Jesus said. Martha, the dead man’s sister, told him, “Lord, there is already a stench because he has been dead four days.” Jesus said to her, “Didn’t I tell you that if you believed you would see the glory of God?” So they removed the stone. Then Jesus raised his eyes and said, “Father, I thank you that you heard me. I know that you always hear me, but because of the crowd standing here I said this, so that they may believe you sent me.” After he said this, he shouted with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” The dead man came out bound hand and foot with linen strips and with his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unwrap him and let him go.” (John 11:38-44 CSB)

This one is the biggest, and the whole point of our advent series. Jesus was born at Christmas to do one big thing: die for our sins so we may have salvation in Him. This particular miracle shows that Jesus is over death. He chose to raise someone from death, and it happened. In the same way, He chose to save us from death as we know it so long as we believe in Him.

So, this Christmas season, as we focus on the lovely baby being born in a manger, also remember who that baby grows up to be, and what He did for us. What He did for us is so much bigger than running the family gauntlet for Christmas, or gifts under the tree. He gave us the biggest gift of all: Salvation. God executed this perfect plan through the miraculous birth of His Son, Jesus.