Why Miracles?

We can ask many questions about the miracles of Jesus. How did Jesus do them? Did they really happen? Are miracles possible? And on and on. I want to ask a different question. Why did Jesus do miracles? Why did Jesus heal the paralyzed man? Why did Jesus heal the officer’s son?

First, let's think briefly about these other questions. How did Jesus do them? We don’t know, but I like an idea from C.S. Lewis: “Miracles are a retelling in small letters of the very same story which is written across the whole world in letters too large for some of us to see.”

Think of the feeding of the five thousand. Jesus took two fish and five loaves and multiplied them to feed a huge crowd. That is what God is always doing. Farmers plant seed in the ground and it multiplies. According to Google, one grain of wheat multiplies; it becomes something like 100 to 250 grains of wheat during a growing season. When Jesus fed the crowd, he did quickly and immediately what God is always doing: multiplying food until there is enough for everyone. This thought – that miracles are written in small enough letters for us to see what God is saying – gives us an idea of why Jesus might do miracles, but let’s bracket that thought for a moment.

Did Jesus really do miracles? Our rationalistic secular minds rebel against the thought of miracles. One of the basic reasons that some leave their faith is the trouble they have believing in miracles. We don’t have time to go into this question today. I can recommend C.S. Lewis’ book, Miracles, in which he examines the rationality of believing in miracles. It is enough for us to say this morning that there are good reasons to believe in miracles, even if our culture struggles with them. We should be skeptical when people call something a miracle. We should analyze the evidence for any given event carefully, but ruling miracles out automatically is close-minded and irrational. For now, I simply note that I believe God does sometimes write in letters small enough to see – what we call a miracle.

If Jesus does miracles of healing today, as he did during his earthly life, why doesn’t he heal the person I was praying for? That’s a question that we struggle with, and it brings us closer to the question, “Why miracles at all?” It’s a tough question. My mother died at 71 years old. Why did God not intervene to heal her following her heart surgery, a valve transplant? Mother was the glue that held our family together. She died at 71. Dad loved her deeply and tried to do what she had done. He couldn’t. He lived another 27 years. Why didn’t Jesus heal her?

We can torment ourselves with questions like this, and it is best not to dwell on them. Isaiah said long ago, “Don’t you know? Haven’t you heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the creator of the ends of the earth. He doesn’t grow tired or weary. His understanding is beyond human reach” (Isaiah 40: 28). Who can understand God? No one! That is a basic point that the book of Job makes. Still, we want to understand, so we come back to our question, why does God do miracles at all? Let’s talk through the passages from John and see what they suggest.

John 4

We start with a royal official in Capernaum (possibly an official in Herod’s court – a cut above Jesus socially) in John 4. His son is dying, and he knows that Jesus is healing people who are ill. He hears that Jesus is coming to Cana, about 26 km., so he finds him and asks him to heal his dying son. Jesus responds in a curious way: “Unless you see miraculous signs and wonders, you won’t believe.” It’s as if he is speaking to the crowd that pressed around him wherever he went. What could he mean? Perhaps he meant, “I am teaching you how to live. I am bringing God’s reign to earth, but all you are interested in is a miraculous show. Listen to what I’m saying!”

The official is focussed on helping his son and repeats his request. Almost pleading, adding “Please!” This time Jesus reassures him. He doesn’t offer to come and see the son or do anything more. He simply says, “I’ve healed him. Go home.” In a remarkable display of trust, the official goes home, where he discovers that at the very moment Jesus spoke, his son started to recover.

John adds a note of explanation: “The official and his entire household believed in Jesus. This was the second miraculous sign Jesus did while going from Judea to Galilee.” What does this explanation say to our question, “Why miracles?” It suggests 1) that Jesus performed the miracle to help the family come to faith in him, and 2) that it was a sign of his identity. Note that the idea of faith (believe in Jesus) includes trusting and following. The synoptic gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke) regularly use the language of following. Jesus calls people, “Follow me.” John uses the word “believe”, by which he means trust and follow. When John says that the family believed in Jesus, he has in mind this holistic belief: “trust and obey, for there’s no other way.”

John 5

The scene shifts to Jerusalem, to “Bethsaida Pool”, where a crowd of sick people sat by the pool. They believed that an angel from God would periodically stir up the waters. Whoever could get into the water in time would be healed. One poor man had been trying to get into the water in time for 38 years, without success. It must have been an exhaustive and frustrating experience. Jesus spoke to him. “Do you want to be healed?” “Well, I can’t get into the water in time.” Jesus doesn’t sympathize or make suggestions. He says simply, “Pick up your mat and let’s go!” The sick man did. Healed, without any magic from the pool. Better, after 38 years of agony. I must admit I wonder why God let him lie there for 38 years before healing him.

The man was healed on the Sabbath, which led to interaction with the religious leaders. We discover that the healed man did not know who his benefactor was. When he found out, Jesus implies that his misfortune included some kind of rebellion on his part. “Don’t sin anymore, lest something worse happens to you.” The man responds by telling the religious leaders that Jesus had healed him. He becomes, if you will, a witness to the inbreaking kingdom of God.

The passage closes with conflict between Jesus and the religious leaders. The leaders recognize that the way Jesus talks and acts suggests an identification with God. They are right. Although this miracle is not called a sign, it serves to point people to faith in Jesus as the Son of God.

Back to the Question

So, we return to our question, “Why did Jesus perform these miracles?” Let me suggest three reasons from these accounts.

1) Jesus delights in giving us what we need. He wanted the official’s son to be healed. He wanted the man at the pool to be healed. Jesus wants you and me to be healthy and whole. This truth can be carried too far. Some people turn it into what we call the prosperity gospel. They are wrong. This truth remains: Jesus wants us to be healthy and whole. The deeper truth is that when we are in trouble – financially, physically, spiritually, mentally – God will give us what we need. God may use a miracle, or the abilities placed in medical professionals, or a friend who cares. But be sure of this, it is God who gives you what you need, however it comes.

A couple of weeks ago, a former colleague from Providence visited us in Steinbach. As we talked together, we learned that he had a close encounter with prostate cancer. His PSA numbers were off the chart, and the doctor told him, “You have two years to live – unless you are willing to try one last treatment. No guarantees, but it’s worth trying.” He took the chance and today he is cancer-free. His response? To thank God for giving the doctors the wisdom and the tools to provide a response to the cancer that had invaded his body.

The basis for our confidence in God’s goodness is the creation truth that God made us for an intimate relationship with God. I was struck anew with this foundational truth seen in Genesis 3. After they eat of the forbidden fruit. Adam and Eve hide from God. In verse 9, we read, “The Lord God called to the man and said to him, ‘Where are you?’”

French and German translations bring out something that we may miss in English. In French: “Mais l’Eternel Dieu appela l’homme et lui demanda: Où es-tu?” God uses the familiar “tu” for you. In German: “Und Gott der HERR rief Adam und sprach zu ihm: Wo bist du?” God uses the familiar “du” for you. This dramatic contrast between lEternel Dieu and the familiar intimate tu reminds us that God made us for a close intimate relationship with God. God loves us. God cares for us. God will give us what we need – whether as the one experiencing a crisis, or as a family member walking alongside. I know that this is a lot easier to say than it is to live.

2) A second thought. The fact that Jesus gives us what we need is a surface truth. There is something more basic, more important at work here. The text says that Jesus healed the official’s son to help the family come to faith in him. The effect of healing the sick man by the pool was the same: to create faith. When Jesus works in our lives, he wants a response, the response of faith: To trust him; to believe in him; to orient our lives around him. That is what my friend did as he reflected on the healing he has received. He gave thanks and kept following Jesus.

John Wimber was the founder of the Vineyard Churches in California. From 1982 to 1986 he co-taught a course at Fuller Seminary (with missiologist Peter Wagner) on signs and wonders, with a focus on what we would call miraculous healing. Such teachings are a basic part of the Vineyard Church’s identity. Yet Wimber himself died of heart trouble at the age of 63 in 1997. He also had had sinus cancer in 1993. Here is how he described his own experience:

One night … I awoke with a jolt. “What is it, Lord?” Something in my spirit wasn’t right. … I had the distinct impression from the Lord that something frightening was headed my way. Slipping out of bed, I retreated to my prayer corner in the living room and prayed my favorite crisis prayer: “O God, O God, O God.” I opened the Bible … to Psalm 33. I read verse 18: “But the eyes of the Lord are on those who fear him, on those whose hope is in his unfailing love.” … I read the rest of the psalm: “We wait in hope for the Lord; he is our help and our shield.” I relaxed and let out a sigh, relieved to be reminded that he was in charge. God had gotten his message across, though I didn’t know what the message was all about. Seven days later my doctor told me I had cancer.

When I began radiation …, I discovered what it was like to walk through the valley of the shadow of death. … I began to realize that the physical and emotional trauma coming my way could only be met by taking the hand of the Lord and walking with him. … Being led through the valley of the shadow is frightening. Its uncertainties keep you alert to every changing scenario. I began to cling to every nuance of the doctors’ words, shrugs, and grimaces; I experienced the full range of emotions that go with a life-threatening illness. I wept as I saw my utter need to depend on God. The fear of the unknown often gripped me. I had to embrace the truth that I could not control or plan my life.

Some Christians believe we should never struggle with doubt, fear, anxiety, disillusionment, depression, sorrow, or agony. … If those ideas are true, then I’m not a good Christian. Not only have I suffered physically with health problems, but I also spent a great deal of time struggling with depression during my battle with cancer.

But I also found that the view from the valley gave me a focus on Christ that I wouldn’t have gained any other way. Stars shine brighter in the desert. There are no obstructions, no distractions, no competing lights. The view from the valley isn’t so bad because Jesus shines so clearly. I knew he was there even when I didn’t always feel close to him.

 

“Stars shine brighter in the desert.” That is what Jesus wants to give us: a complete and total dependence on him. This complete dependence comes from recognizing who Jesus really is, the Son of God comes to save the world. That’s why the gospel of John calls these miracles “signs”. They show us the identity of Jesus, which in turn reorients our lives with God in Christ at the centre.

3) Which brings us to the most important point. Why miracles? To bring God glory. To helps us refocus on God and God alone. To teach the world that real life is found only in Jesus Christ. To help us see Jesus.

Hear again the quote from C.S. Lewis I gave at the beginning, “Miracles are a retelling in small letters of the very same story which is written across the whole world in letters too large for some of us to see.” Miracles – in the Bible and in our lives – help us to see the God who loves us and cares for us and wants us to have the life that only God can give. And miracles include not only the act of healing someone in a way that we cannot explain; they include also God’s presence giving us what we need to live in this world. Everywhere from the devastation of Gaza to the chaos of Minneapolis to the diagnosis in the doctor’s office to the loneliness of being left behind when a loved one dies to walking with unhoused people on the streets of Steinbach. “You are all we have. You give us what we need. Our lives are in your hands, O God, our lives are in your hands.”

1 February 2026

Steinbach Mennonite Church

Lent Five: Through Fire and Water

Our theme today is “perseverance” – finding hope and joy in the obstacles of life. We take the 40 days of Lent (plus the six feast days), remembering the dangers of temptation and fasting, which creates in us an awareness of God’s protection and safety.

The last time I preached, I recalled the experience of getting lost in the woods. Today, I go a year further back. May 29, 1968. We had just finished our last exam of my freshman year, and I and my friend Dale went canoeing on the creek that flows through Messiah College. I could tell the full story of our trip down the creek, but a brief resume is enough – tipping the canoe, my holding on to the canoe while Dale ran along the road to the next bridge, and finally two men who were fishing at a spot a half hour downstream from where we tipped. The fishers came in and became fishers of men (or at least, one young man, me).

I don’t swim, and I still don’t know how I did not drown. Dale thought he would be carrying the news of my death to my parents, and he wondered what he would tell them. Instead, God preserved me, and Dale and I walked back to the campus from the place of my rescue. We thought that I was in terminal danger, and in fact I was completely safe and secure, even in the waters. Join me this morning in exploring the dangers we live with, which point us to our ultimate safety, resting in God’s care.

Texts

Isaiah 43

We turn to the prophet Isaiah. Chapters 40 to 45 function to give Israel in exile hope for the future. Chapter 43 begins with a reminder of the way that God preserved the Children of Israel in the exodus (verses 2 and 3): “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze.”

The prophet then looks ahead to the salvation of all God’s People at the end of time (verses 3-7): I will bring your children from the east and from the west. I will say to the north and to the south, “Give them back!” “Bring my sons from afar, and my daughters from the ends of the earth.” This salvation is prefigured in the return of God’s People from exile in Babylon.

Verses 8 to 13 picture this salvation graphically as something that no one could have foretold. God’s salvation demonstrates the reality of God, and the Children of Israel are witnesses to both the salvation and reality of God. These verses are the background to Jesus’ words in Acts 1:8, “When the Holy Spirit comes on you, you will be my witnesses.”

Then come the verses we read:

·         Verses 16 and 17 recall the passage through the Red Sea. God fought for the Children of Israel, setting them free from the Egyptian Army, the most powerful of its day. God would also set them free from the Babylonians.

·         This salvation would be something new – not just a replay of the Exodus. God is ready to make everything new and to bring life to the desert (verses 18 and 19).

·         All creation will praise God, with God’s people, as they see what God’s mighty saving action.

From this passage, anticipating God’s salvation for God’s people bound in exile in Babylon, we turn to Paul’s words in Philippians 3.

Philippians 3: 1b-14

We read chapter 2 often in this church, with Paul’s call to humility, imitating the example of Jesus. We read chapter 3 less often. Paul starts the chapter with “further”, which signals a repetition of Paul’s concern that the Philippians know God’s joy: “Rejoice in the Lord!” Then Paul restates his opposition to those who make circumcision necessary for salvation, using the kind of language that I do not want to repeat from the pulpit. His strong language leads to a redefinition of circumcision as a spiritual act of worshipping God fully.

Paul objects so strongly to circumcision as a path to salvation because it relies on human efforts to fix our problems – what Paul calls “relying on the flesh”. In the verses we read, Paul observes that he had many human reasons to feel confident in God’s presence (verses 4 to 6). Paul was a good Pharisee – from his own physical circumcision, to his membership in the People of God, to his personal efforts to keep the Law of God fully.

Verses 7 to 11 contrast a complete reliance on God with this human effort. Our own efforts are garbage (verse 8) compared with God’s work in Christ. In Christ, God gives us righteousness. In Christ, God gives us faith. In Christ, God gives us the “fellowship of sharing in his sufferings”, which in turn leads to sharing in the power of his resurrection.

Verses 12 to 14 close this section with Paul’s resolution to hold on to Christ and to hold on to God’s salvation. (That’s our theme of perseverance!) Holding on to Christ, he – and we – can forget the failures of the past and press on towards the goodness and joy God has for us, living with God in eternity.

Our Stones

We bring these two passages together into a basic lesson for today. Our health and salvation rest in God’s gracious love and care. We can do nothing to save ourselves; God in Christ does all that can be done. When I was floating down the Minnemingo Creek, hanging on to a canoe, I needed help. Without the man who came in and took me to the shore, I would have died. Without God’s love and care, we die.

We see this truth in Paul’s words. He states clearly that we cannot save ourselves in this life. We can do a lot, but we cannot live the way God wants us to live, or reach the end of our lives safely, or go to Heaven when we die unless God works within us.

We see this truth in the Children of Israel’s experience – recalled by the prophet in Isaiah 43. Trapped between the sea and the Egyptian army, they were dead unless God saved them. Isaiah used the memory of that experience to help them see that, trapped in exile in Babylon, they were dead, unless God saved them. Further, he made it clear that God would save them.

Their experience is a type of what God always does in our lives. We cannot survive the attacks of people around us, unless God helps us. We cannot survive the terrors of illness and death, unless God helps us. We cannot deal with being cut off and isolated, unless God helps us.

We can turn also to the events of our world. We cannot end the abuse of marginalized peoples in our world, unless God helps us. We cannot deal with the problems of climate change, unless God helps us. We cannot end poverty in our community, unless God helps us. We cannot heal the wounds of political and religious extremism, unless God helps us.

None of this means that we leave salvation to God in the sense that we do not take the action we are called to take. The Children of Israel fled to the Sea before God acted to save them. Paul pursued God’s righteousness (although obedience to the Law could not provide it) both before and after God made him righteous (by grace through faith). We know what God wants us to do, and we do it.

In spite of our best efforts, however, our efforts often fail. We try to mend relationships with a friend, and our efforts go awry. I remember a close friend who broke our relationship about nine years ago. He thought I was to blame for something that was not my fault and was so hurt that he broke off all communication. I made several efforts to meet and restore our relationship, without success. Our efforts – whatever they are – often fail. God does not always step in and fix the problem.

Then what happens? Our passages turn us to God. God pours out God’s Spirit in our lives and brings healing and new life, even if the actual problem that overwhelmed us remains. We turn to God in our distress, and there we find safety and wholeness.

It’s time for this morning’s symbolic act. The stones have been built into an altar to God. We seek God’s presence in our lives, which come together as an altar symbolizing our commitment to be the place where God’s Spirit falls and to be the people on whom God’s Spirit falls.

[Walk down to the altar carrying a vessel of olive oil. Pour the oil into the altar as a symbol of God’s renewing Spirit.]

Another Story

What I have been describing is in fact the normal path for Christians, indeed, for human beings in general. We do our best to make things good, and somehow in the struggle we find that life gets so hard that we survive day by day. What I am calling for is a constant return to God, opening ourselves to God’s Spirit to pour out the oil of renewal in our lives.

I teach missions, so when I think of such experiences, I often think of missionaries I have known (or studied). They are not unique creatures, such that we cannot be like them. Rather, they are like us – or we are like them. We can learn from their stories, because their stories are our stories.

Frances Davidson was one of the first Brethren in Christ missionaries, who went to Zimbabwe in 1898. She was a remarkable woman. In a time when most BICs did not go beyond Grade 8, she did a Master’s Degree. In a time when most BICs lived in the countryside, she taught German Literature at McPherson College in Kansas. In a time when most women kept silence in church, she was ready to speak her mind and follow God’s leading wherever that took her. When a young man showed his interest in her, she was attracted to him, but she also realised that he had no call to follow God wherever God led. So she ended the relationship.

In 1896, she received her call call to follow God in overseas missionary work. Here is how she described it.

… the Lord came to me, as it were, in the midst of the class work, in the midst of other plans for the future, and swept away my books, reserving only the Bible. In reality He showed me Christ lifted up for a lost world. He filled me with an unutterable love for every soul who had not heard of Him, and with a passionate longing to go to worst parts of the earth, away from civilization, away from other mission bodies, and spend the rest of my life in telling the story of the Cross.

All of her joy and determination in doing God’s work meant that she often came in conflict with the men who supervised her work. I have read my grandfather’s comments about working with her; they are not complimentary! Further, the man she appreciated most was her fellow pioneer, Jesse Engle. Engle was 62 years old when the first missionary party sailed to Africa. He died after two years of hard work in Zimbabwe, one of the young country’s first White settlers, living in rugged conditions and without the medical supplies to protect himself from the tropical diseases there. In 1899, there were six missionaries at Matopo Mission, as George and Sara Cress joined the party. By 1900, Frances Davidson and Alice Heise were the only survivors. Then, in 1901 a young man named Isaac Lehman and a young woman named Adda Engle joined them. But while they waited for these workers to come from North America, the year 1900 was hard, as Frances Davidson and Alice Heise held the mission open.

I could say much more about that work and about the first Ndebele converts, who truly planted the BIC church in Zimbabwe, but this morning I am noting simply the struggle with Davidson’s soul. In February she wrote in her diary, “There is joy along the way these days and I praise God for continual victory in the Holy Ghost.” Good! Not long after, in April, she wrote more bitterly. I suspect that the struggle following Jesse Engle’s death was part of her despair.

Lord thou knowest thy purposes in bringing me out here and leaving me so utterly alone yes alone except thy wondrous sustaining Power. But how thou hast so utterly separated me from all human help and sympathy Thou alone knowest. Surrounded by those for the past three years who seem so determined to misunderstand me—shall I say?—or so unable to understand me. Instead of being better in outward H. Frances Davidson surroundings it seems to be almost worse and yet Lord thy promises are sweeter thy companionship sweeter. Thou alone knoweth the secrets of my heart and the travail of my soul. May I learn Thy lessons thoroughly and in patience. Thou knowest Thine own purposes in thus placing me. Oh! help me to live so on the Mountain tops with Thee that these things will cease to be trials that they will continually be real stepping-stones to mount to the summit. Dear Lord whatever is base in me purge out, whatever of self destroy utterly root and branch. Not like many who claim to have it destroyed when so often shows itself most hideous, but Lord I really want it dead in even the smallest particular and keep me patient under thy purifying fire though it should be ten times hotter than hitherto if that were possible. In many ways the future looks dark and trying, I can only see one step before me, but Lord hold my hand so firmly in thy powerful one that I may not even stumble in the darkness.

My Father do keep me sweet, loving, patient, trusting through it all. It is Thy will that I should be thus hold my faith fixed on Thee. I am so weak, Lord, but Thou art strong, I am so unworthy but thou art worthy. I am so lacking in all that Thou desireth me to be, but Thou hast an abundant storehouse, do Thou supply every lack and to Thee will be all the praise throughout eternity.

You can hear how she was struggling inside – with the survival of the mission, with conflicts she experienced, with her co-workers, and indeed with God himself. You hear also how her words turn from lament to praise, much as the psalmist pours out his soul in distress and then finishes with praises to God.

We might think that she was a missionary, a saint of the 19^th century unlike us. Actually, she was just like us. This is path we walk, through the fire and water of troubles in our lives, into the safety of God’s eternal care – as we pour out our troubles to God and discover God’s closeness and care and love and protection in all the dangers of this life.

Steinbach Mennonite Church

7 April 2019

Lent Five

Focus Statement: When we are worn out with the familiar and lack of progress, Jesus calls us to the heights and we press on with joy.

Our focus word: Perseverance.

Movement – We add oil to the altar of stones.

Texts: Isaiah 43:16-21 Philippians 3:4-14

Texts

Isaiah 43: 16-21

¹⁶ Thus says the Lord, who makes a way in the sea, a path in the mighty waters, ¹⁷ who brings out chariot and horse, army and warrior; they lie down, they cannot rise, they are extinguished, quenched like a wick: ¹⁸ Do not remember the former things, or consider the things of old.

¹⁹ I am about to do a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. ²⁰ The wild animals will honor me, the jackals and the ostriches; for I give water in the wilderness, rivers in the desert, to give drink to my chosen people, 21 the people whom I formed for myself so that they might declare my praise.

Philippians 3: 1b-14

Breaking with the Past

To write the same things to you is not troublesome to me, and for you it is a safeguard.

² Beware of the dogs, beware of the evil workers, beware of those who mutilate the flesh! ³ For it is we who are the circumcision, who worship in the Spirit of God and boast in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh— ⁴ even though I, too, have reason for confidence in the flesh.

If anyone else has reason to be confident in the flesh, I have more: ⁵ circumcised on the eighth day, a member of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; ⁶ as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless.

⁷ Yet whatever gains I had, these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ. ⁸ More than that, I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ ⁹ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but one that comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God based on faith. ¹⁰ I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death, ¹¹ if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead.

Pressing toward the Goal

¹² Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal; but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. ¹³ Beloved, I do not consider that I have made it my own; but this one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, ¹⁴ I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.