Miracles or Preaching (for paper) Feb 24   

Jesus is at Capernaum at Peter’s home. Peter’s mother in law is sick in bed. Jesus takes her by the hand and she is instantly healed, and she gets up and begins to wait on the disciples. Wouldn’t it be nice to have Jesus come to you when you’re sick in bed, and take you by the hand and raise you up? So much better than all the hassles with the Medical insurance and waiting in doctor’s offices and picking up those prescriptions. Just have Jesus bend down next to you, and not even say anything. Just reach and take your hand, and gently lift you from your bed. And your sickness just goes away, just like that

And isn’t that more or less what we are hoping for? Or at least have in the back of our minds when we pray for the sick, when we ourselves are sick or someone we love is sick? That Jesus would do that kind of miracle for us? Just take us, or our loved ones, by the hand, and the illness goes away. He does make those kind of house calls today in answer to our prayers, but we do not see that very often. It would sure be a lot easier. Who knows, maybe more people would come to church if He would just heal a few cases of the cold or flu.

After Peter’s mother in law is healed Jesus spends a very hectic evening healing all who came and driving out many demons with only a word. Finally, early in the morning, when the crowds had gone, Jesus went to a quiet place to pray. That’s what He did when things got crazy. He went off by Himself and prayed. We could learn something from that. When the going gets busy, go off somewhere and pray. But Simon and the others ran after Him and found Him. He could have no peace. No time for prayer. “Everyone is looking for you,” they said. There was no end to the diseased and the demonized.

And then Jesus said a remarkable thing. “Let’s go to the next towns, so that I may preach there also, because that’s why I came.” He left all those diseased and demon possessed people behind in Capernaum and went on to the next town! He left them the way they were. Suffering, searching for Jesus. He went on from one town to the next, preaching in the synagogues, healing and casting out demons. That’s what the miracles showed. They were signs of the new creation, signs of the resurrection, sneak previews. Not the main event. Jesus came to preach. Healing everyone was not the main goal, preaching the message that the kingdom was near was.

So what’s with the miracles? They’re a sign that reveals who Jesus is. He is the active agent behind all healing, the Creator / Redeemer of the world. Simon’s mother-in-law would probably have gotten better on her own. Even if Jesus had never visited her house to bend down at her bedside, her healing would have been by Jesus. Jesus was simply showing Himself for who He is, our Creator and Redeemer, the One who made us and the One who saves us. Every healing, no matter how it happens, no matter on whom it happens, is the work of Christ.

Jesus didn’t heal everyone in Capernaum because it wasn’t necessary to heal everyone. His objective was not to create heaven on earth. That’s not what He came for. And that’s not how He typically deals with diseases and demons today. Yes we so see sometimes a miraculous healing, but typically today the way Jesus deals with demons and diseases is to die, and to drop all our diseases and demons down into the black hole of His death. The way He heals us is not to give us quick fixes, but a death and a resurrection. Death and resurrection is the way Jesus works. The miracles just point the way to Jesus. Saving faith in Jesus is not faith in miracles. Faith that is born of miracles needs miracles to keep it going.

Jesus didn’t kneel down at every bedside, as He did at Simon’s mother-in-law. Nor did He cast out every demon and heal every disease. He just pressed on to the next town with His disciples. And maybe you weren’t one of the lucky ones. But that didn’t matter. Because every healing, when it comes, however it come, comes from Jesus. And every prayer for healing is answered positively in the resurrection of the dead.

Someday He will reach down to you, as He did with Simon’s mother-in-law. He will reach down to you and take you by the hand, and raise you up from your grave. And then all those prayers for health and healing you ever uttered, and all the prayers others prayed for you, will find their “yes” and “amen” in your resurrection with a perfected glorified body. Today we may want a miracle, but Jesus pressed on to preach because he was announcing our real and final healing, Jesus heard them all, all those sighs and groanings and prayers. He heard them. And He’s already done something about them. He died and rose from the dead, and took you with Him. You know that. Rejoice in you glorious future.

Blessings,