Jesus' miracles reveal his identity
First, Jesus' miracles reveal his
identity.
This is the big theme controlling
Luke's organization of the material. In the disciples' words of verse 25, Who is this?
Ironically, the demons were in no
doubt. In verse 28, they call him, Jesus, Son of the Most High
God
And the Gentile former demoniac
seemed pretty clear. Look at the lovely parallel in verse 39. Jesus tells him, Return home and tell how much God has done for you. So the
man went away and told all over the town how much Jesus had done for
him.
In short, Jesus does things that
only God can do.
King Canute, the 11th century king,
got this. In the famous story, Canute set his throne by the sea shore and
commanded the tide to halt and not wet his feet and robes; but the tide failed
to stop. Canute leaped backwards and said "Let all men know how empty and
worthless is the power of kings, for there is none worthy of the name, but He whom
heaven, earth, and sea obey by eternal laws." He then hung his gold crown
on a crucifix, and never wore it again. God created those eternal laws; only he
can subvert them to perform miracles.
Similarly, who else in the entire
history of the world has been able to order demons around, able to heal at a
touch, or able to restore life with a word?
Only God can do these things. The
miracles of Jesus reveal his deity. He is God in human form.
Second, Jesus' miracles reveal God's
kingdom.
To demonstrate his mastery over all
of creation, Jesus could have done it by destroying: how spectacular it would
have been if he'd commanded a volcano to erupt, or an asteroid to smash into
the temple. How spectacular if he'd sent the Roman army mad with demons. How
spectacular to inflict boils on all the Pharisees. How spectacular to strike
Pontius Pilate down with a word.
But Jesus' miracles have no whiff of
the destructive about them. In every case he chooses to bring order instead of
chaos, he chooses to heal instead of harm.
In this way he shows us what God's
kingdom is like.
You see, the creation we live in is
like a wonderful, bright painting that has been obscured by a think layer of
dirt and grime. We can just about make out the underlying picture, but it is
faint, and our world is full, not of brightness, but darkness and evil.
What Jesus does in these miracles is
punch a few holes through the grime so that we can see a speck of the glorious
picture underneath. In Jesus' miracles, we catch a glimpse of creation ordered,
so that never again will 200,000 people perish in an earthquake. We catch a
glimpse of evil banished forever. We catch a glimpse of a world where there is no more death or mourning or crying or pain.
For now, it is only a glimpse.
The miracles are down-payment and guarantee of Jesus' promise to return and
bring the kingdom in full; to wipe away all the grime and restore the picture
in all its glory. He can do it; he will do it.
Those who receive the miracles
The third observation I want to make
is about those who receive the miracles.
In each of the cases we've seen, the
recipients were desperate. There was no human means by which they could
be helped. They had reached the end of the road: Jesus was the only hope they
had left.
This applies equally to the
disciples about to drown, the helpless man possessed by a legion of demons, the
bleeding woman whom no-one could heal, the grieving father whose daughter was
dying. All were desperate, they had nowhere else to turn.
So we learn that Jesus helps the
desperate.
But it's not enough simply to be
desperate. The other thing they have in common is that all of them came to
Jesus. The disciples may not have had much faith, but they had
enough to make them wake their Master. Even the demon-possessed man came to
Jesus: apparently enough sanity prevailed that he came out of the tombs to meet
Jesus on the shore. The woman forced her way through the crowd just to touch
him. Jairus fell at Jesus' feet and pleaded with him to come.
These miracles were done for
desperate people who cast themselves on Jesus as their only hope.
It's worth noticing that these seem
to be the only important qualifications. In other respects, the recipients are
a thoroughly mixed bunch: from Jesus' close friends, to a Gentile man, to a
poor unclean woman, to a prominent leader of the synagogue. Jesus doesn't
discriminate according to who you are: anyone can be desperate; anyone can come
to him.