The Rector Writes – April 2009
Dear Friends
Do you believe in miracles? I have met quite a few people who have told me of at least one remarkable incident in their lives. I do not mean just co-incidences – if none of these ever occurred that would itself be remarkable. Sometimes when we are almost beyond hope we offer half a prayer, little more than a focussed wish, and it happens, and we wonder if there is not some process or some presence which we should be more aware of.
To be more specific, do you believe in the miracles of Jesus as recorded in the Gospels? Not all the books written about him were included by the early Church into the Bible. Fanciful stories about Jesus’ childhood, which is not described in Scripture, have amongst them one in which, as a boy, he made wooden birds which then flew away, to give one example.
St John, in his Gospel, prefers to describe the miracles of Jesus as ‘signs’, which were intended to lead others, principally his disciples, to faith in him as the Son of God. Some of these involved the provision of food and drink, such as the changing of water into wine at the wedding at Cana in Galilee, or the feeding of the five thousand; some involved healing sick people, and one even raising someone from the dead – Jesus’ friend Lazarus. When Jesus revealed to the woman at the well at Sychar (chapter 5) that he knew about the complications of her domestic circumstances she shared her experience of him with the inhabitants of her town, who were unfriendly to her but accepted what she said and came to faith on meeting Jesus themselves. St John gives the healing of a blind man particular significance because, whilst he comes to recognise who Jesus truly is, the religious authorities demonstrate their blindness by ignoring the evidence about him.
It is not difficult to find people who are sceptical about Jesus’ miracles and who exercise great ingenuity in trying to explain them as entirely natural, inferring that those who witnessed them were easily duped and that the Gospel writers themselves were intentionally deceiving those who came after.
The other three Gospels – Matthew, Mark and Luke – also include accounts of miracles over the forces of nature, some of the forgiveness of sins and others of the driving out of evil spirits from people. It is as if interaction with Jesus restored their true nature, without the distortions of disease, abuse or guilt. This might involve the profound and instantaneous remaking of crippled and dysfunctional bodies. An extreme case of this was when Jesus brought back to life the son of the widow of Nain in Luke chapter 7 during his funeral procession. Jesus possessed a unique power and authority which he could exercise by a word or by touch, in his presence or at a distance.
Again I ask, do you believe in miracles? The most important of these is what we celebrate at Easter – the resurrection of Jesus. This is different from all the others mentioned so far in that Jesus was the subject of the miracle rather than the one who performed it. Whilst likening himself beforehand to a shepherd, he said that he has ‘authority to lay down his life and to take it up again’, St Paul tells us that ‘it was by the glory of the Father’ that he was raised from the dead.
Descriptions of miracles demand reactions. We might react by dismissing whoever has told us about them as a crank. But if we are not prepared to then we have to rethink our understanding of ourselves and our world and the other characters involved, especially Jesus. On one occasion when he calmed a violent storm which threatened the boat on which he and his disciples were sailing, they asked, ‘Who is this that even the wind and the waves obey him?’ We might ask, ‘Who is this?’ who cleanses people with a dreaded skin-diseases by touching them, whereas everyone else would become contaminated by doing so?
Jesus was raised by God the Father because he had trusted him to the point of death. St Paul tells us that through the resurrection God confirmed Jesus as his Son and that he also gave him a position of such authority that we are to call him ‘Lord’.
The Resurrection may seem beyond our experience but there is evidence for it, most especially in the lives of the followers of Jesus who had been so timid before and immediately after his death. Their boldness to speak and act in his name, confirmed by a continuation of his power to heal, is evidence of the truth of their claims that he had risen from the dead and was alive and active among them, and would remain so amongst those who continue to follow him until his coming again. Happy Easter.
Yours sincerely
Martin Snellgrove