ExploringGod's Word

When something amazing happens, we often say, “It’s a miracle!” What is a miracle? Is a miracle nothing more than a natural law not discovered? This definition denies any intervention into our world by God. Is a miracle as a coincidence where God chooses to remain anonymous? If there is such a thing as a coincidence or chance then God has an equal out there in the universe, against which He is competing. Is a miracle an act of a supernatural being? Is a miracle an unusual and significant event requiring the working of a supernatural agent and performed for authenticating a message or a messenger? Why did Jesus perform unusual and significant events during His ministry?

The accounts of the miracles Jesus performed are contained in stories, and stories have context, characters, plot, and climax. In order to understand the stories we need to look at the miracles literally. We need to study the miracles following the usual steps of observation, interpretation and application, but since the miracles are stories, we need to look at things like plot, character development, and climax.  We need to determine which gospel or gospels record the miracle something that is often difficult to do. Sometimes it is difficult to tell if two Gospels are telling the same miracle or if they are just similar miracles. If we decide that, they are the same event, which is the longest account of the miracle. That is the one we will use primarily for the study and then pull in the extra details we learn from other parallel passages to supplement the longest passage. What you will notice is that different gospel writers stressed certain things because they were writing to different audiences or have a different theological point to make. Because of these differences, many critics point to the differences in the miracle accounts to show that the Bible is full of errors. That does not mean the Bible has errors. That is the critic’s assumption that the Bible is full of errors and that is what he sees.

 
Interpretation of the miracles performed by Jesus requires answers to the questions; (1) what was the meaning for the Jews who saw the miracle. (2) What was the meaning for the disciples? (3) What was the meaning for the person involved in the miracle? (4) What truths are taught in the miracle? (5) How do we apply the truths to our lives?