Reflection Jesus, the Miracle Worker

Reflection Jesus, the miracle worker Last week, Arto spoke to us about Jesus’ teaching, particularly in the form of his many parables, using and often confusing his listeners, and challenging us with their stark imagery. Jesus spent much of his public lifetime teaching. However, as we’ve heard today, he also performed miracles, of which approximately forty are documented in the Gospels. The focus of today’s Gospel is on Jesus’ feeding the 5000 – actually, probably more like at least 10,000, if one accepts the count of the men present and then adds the women and children. This particular event is also told to us by Mark, Luke and John. It’s the only miracle recorded by all four evangelists. Today’s reading from Matthew actually records two miraculous actions by Jesus. We tend to treat the first, the curing of the sick among those gathered, almost as commonplace, because it happens so often in the Gospels, and tend to overlook it, as we focus on the loaves and fishes. As well, other miracles follow immediately afterward in Matthew’s narrative. Jesus walks on water and does more healing on the other side of the lake. Hmm, so what does all this talk of “miracles” mean to us? Certainly, to those present when they happened, they would have been most extraordinary and awe-inspiring, but what about for us? How do we view them. Did something truly miraculous really happen or are these just stories? If something happened, what was it? Did Jesus do something that for us would, even now, be impossible? Can we accept that Jesus could do such a thing? Many who have thought about Jesus’ miracles have tried to explain them in various ways, some taking the position that they are the same for us as would be the actions of a scientifically trained and equipped person to a stone-age primitive. Others dismiss them as merely tales or illusions. However, is not such a position simply the result of trying to place our own limitations on Christ? Most of Jesus’ miracles described in the Gospels are acts of compassion – healing the physically and mentally or spiritually sick, raising the dead, and, as is in this case, feeding a hungry multitude. Of the others, most involve overcoming nature, such as by changing water into wine and calming the storm. The one real exception that jumps out for me is His cursing of the unproductive fig tree. (I wonder if His human nature got the better of him, in that case.) Of course, the miracles have a purpose beyond their immediate effects. They are signs to those who were there, and to us, that Jesus’ teaching had a supernatural, a divine authority behind it. John records: “After the people saw the sign Jesus performed, they began to say, ‘Surely this is the Prophet who is to come into the world.’” His miracles are glimpses into Jesus as God. While he often invoked or spoke to the Father in prayer before performing a miracle, they were his to perform. What else do we see in this particular miracle? It strikes me and some of the authors I’ve consulted that the symbolism of the feeding of the 5000 and the later feeding of the 4000, is beyond even the demonstration of his divine nature. In this miracle, Jesus foreshadows both what will happen to Him and how He himself will be distributed to the spiritually hungry. This miracle is a preview of His act at the Last Supper, and of the Holy Communion that we share. Shortly afterward, according to John chapter 6, Jesus calls himself “the bread of life, a living sacrifice which had to be broken for our salvation”. This is therefore also a presage of Jesus’ death on the cross, by which God saves his people once-and-for-all. According to the website of a group called “Ask Questions Ministries” (paraphrased, in some parts), Afterward, Jesus and His disciples cross back to the other side of Galilee. When the crowd sees that Jesus has left, they follow Him again. Jesus takes this moment to teach them a lesson. In John’s rendition, He accuses the crowd of ignoring His miraculous signs and only following Him for the “free meal.” Jesus tells them, “Do not labor for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal.” They were so enthralled with the food, they were missing out on the fact that their Messiah had come. So the Jews ask Jesus for a sign that He was sent from God (as if the miraculous feeding and the walking across the water weren’t enough). They remind Jesus that God gave them manna during their desert wandering. Jesus responds by telling them that they need to ask for the true bread from heaven that gives life. When they ask Jesus for this bread, Jesus startles them by saying, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.” A phenomenal statement! First, by equating Himself with bread, Jesus is saying he is essential for life – not physical life, but eternal life. He is contrasting what He brings as their Messiah with the bread He miraculously created the day before. And, as I have said, Jesus is making His claim to deity. This statement is the first of the “I AM” statements in John’s Gospel. The phrase “I AM” is the covenant name of God (Yahweh), revealed to Moses at the burning bush. The phrase speaks of self- sufficient existence (or what theologians refer to as “aseity”), which is an attribute only God possesses. Also, notice the words “come” and “believe.” This is an invitation for those listening to place their faith in Jesus as the Messiah and Son of God. Coming to Jesus involves making a choice to forsake the world and follow Him. Believing in Jesus means placing our faith in Him that He is who He says He is, that He will do what He says He will do, and that He is the only one who can. Likewise, in Luke chapter 9, immediately after the feeding of the 5000, Peter declares that Jesus is the Messiah, the “Christ of God.” For our part Now, I am certainly not in a position to tell any of you what you should believe, so I only ask you to consider what you believe. The Uniting Church of Australia is founded on, among other things, The Apostles’ and Nicene Creeds, and the Scots Confession of Faith. In these, we find elements, such as, in Latin, “Patrem omnipoténtem”, or “Father all-capable”. In the Scots Confession, we confess and acknowledge one God alone … Who is eternal, infinite, immeasurable, incomprehensible, omnipotent, invisible; one in substance and yet distinct in three persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. It is interesting that, when most of us hear or think about Jesus’ miracles, we generally don’t experience a terrific sense of awe. I expect that most of us think about them as stories, as illustrations, or unconsciously avoid thinking too much about them at all. However, we profess to believe in God and that Jesus is God. Honest doubt and uncertainty arise from our lack of direct experience or understanding of such things as the miracles in the Gospels. Nevertheless, given our professed faith, is there any real reason not to contemplate these things as having actually happened and stand in awe of Jesus, as God, and in appreciation of what he has done for us? .

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