Why Miracles Are Not Amazing
So the other day I was teaching to story of Jesus walking on water to a group of fourth and fifth grade girls. And I stumbled upon something brilliant as I was explaining it to them. Jesus has every right to get frustrated with us when we don’t have faith in Him. Or rather, I understand how in His eyes faith in Him is simple, logical, and easy. And when we struggle with it, we must seem like complete idiots to Him.
If you don’t know the story check it out real quick; Matthew 14:22.
As I was explaining this story I first asked them to put themselves in the disciple’s shoes. How did they feel when they saw Jesus walking across the lake to them? They thought he was ghost, they were frightened. This part makes sense, it was in the lesson plan. But I took it further. I asked them to put themselves in Peter’s shoes as he walked towards Jesus. While his eyes were on Jesus, Peter walked on the water, but as soon as he lost faith he started sinking and Jesus had to save him.
Peter had just been at the feeding of the five thousand, literally hours previously. He had seen personally one of the biggest and most impressive miracles in the Bible. Then
Jesus comes out to him, walking on freakin water. It is no wonder everyone fell down and worshiped Him, that is some seriously impressive stuff.
But here is where I had my big breakthrough moment. I then said to put yourself in Jesus’ shoes. To Jesus, miracles were just a part of his life, something he was good at, but nothing that he couldn’t consistently rely on. I likened this to a special talent we might have. For me that talent is writing. As far as writers go, I am above average. I say this without conceit, writing happens to be a strength of mine among many other weaknesses.
So let’s follow the metaphor. Say I have been writing for a while. I have some friends, they have all read things I have written, and they all like it and recognize it as pretty good. Multiple times throughout our lives they consistently see me produce essays and literature. It is reliable, a fact about me that has been established in their eyes. Now let’s say I just got done with a reading, it went well, the audience liked what I wrote. I tell my friends to go ahead, I’ll catch up. A few hours later I present them with a new piece, something I wrote real quick on a napkin. It’s a good idea, but nothing I haven’t been able to do before. And these friends look at me like I am JK Rowling. They hold that napkin like it’s the Gutenberg Bible. Ok, maybe it’s a good story, but they have seen good stories out of me before. I think I would be pretty annoyed if in this moment they say I’m a good writer, like it’s the first time they’ve seen it. And I would be even more annoyed if in a few days they forget how awed they were and just think of me as ‘that girl who writes sometimes’.
This is how Jesus feels about his miracles. Our reaction to them cannot seem logical to him. And what worse is that today, we find excuses to discount his miracles. I’m sorry, but just because you can explain something with science doesn’t mean that you didn’t just witness a miracle. God would be able to explain all of his miracles with science; because science is just the way humans try to understand how the world that He created works. Everything God does uses science, he is just a little more advanced than we are.
Miracles exist, they are amazing because they come from God and He is amazing. But they should not be surprising.
Humans have always approached miracles the wrong way. In biblical times they would be surprised and amazed at every single one, and then forget how powerful Jesus was only a few days later. Today we have taken the opposite extreme; we have become so un-amazed that we have discounted the existence of miracles all together.
But to Jesus, miracles are not amazing; they are just something he does. One of the girls said “That’s just His job. He’s just doing his job”. And she is right. To Jesus, this is just life. We should never be amazed that God can perform miracles, but we should always be amazed at God. Because what he has done with and for his creation requires imagination beyond anything we could ever hope for. What he does should never be discounted, it should be worshiped. He should be worshiped.
If you don’t know the story check it out real quick; Matthew 14:22.
As I was explaining this story I first asked them to put themselves in the disciple’s shoes. How did they feel when they saw Jesus walking across the lake to them? They thought he was ghost, they were frightened. This part makes sense, it was in the lesson plan. But I took it further. I asked them to put themselves in Peter’s shoes as he walked towards Jesus. While his eyes were on Jesus, Peter walked on the water, but as soon as he lost faith he started sinking and Jesus had to save him.
Peter had just been at the feeding of the five thousand, literally hours previously. He had seen personally one of the biggest and most impressive miracles in the Bible. Then
Jesus comes out to him, walking on freakin water. It is no wonder everyone fell down and worshiped Him, that is some seriously impressive stuff.
But here is where I had my big breakthrough moment. I then said to put yourself in Jesus’ shoes. To Jesus, miracles were just a part of his life, something he was good at, but nothing that he couldn’t consistently rely on. I likened this to a special talent we might have. For me that talent is writing. As far as writers go, I am above average. I say this without conceit, writing happens to be a strength of mine among many other weaknesses.
So let’s follow the metaphor. Say I have been writing for a while. I have some friends, they have all read things I have written, and they all like it and recognize it as pretty good. Multiple times throughout our lives they consistently see me produce essays and literature. It is reliable, a fact about me that has been established in their eyes. Now let’s say I just got done with a reading, it went well, the audience liked what I wrote. I tell my friends to go ahead, I’ll catch up. A few hours later I present them with a new piece, something I wrote real quick on a napkin. It’s a good idea, but nothing I haven’t been able to do before. And these friends look at me like I am JK Rowling. They hold that napkin like it’s the Gutenberg Bible. Ok, maybe it’s a good story, but they have seen good stories out of me before. I think I would be pretty annoyed if in this moment they say I’m a good writer, like it’s the first time they’ve seen it. And I would be even more annoyed if in a few days they forget how awed they were and just think of me as ‘that girl who writes sometimes’.
This is how Jesus feels about his miracles. Our reaction to them cannot seem logical to him. And what worse is that today, we find excuses to discount his miracles. I’m sorry, but just because you can explain something with science doesn’t mean that you didn’t just witness a miracle. God would be able to explain all of his miracles with science; because science is just the way humans try to understand how the world that He created works. Everything God does uses science, he is just a little more advanced than we are.
Miracles exist, they are amazing because they come from God and He is amazing. But they should not be surprising.
Humans have always approached miracles the wrong way. In biblical times they would be surprised and amazed at every single one, and then forget how powerful Jesus was only a few days later. Today we have taken the opposite extreme; we have become so un-amazed that we have discounted the existence of miracles all together.
But to Jesus, miracles are not amazing; they are just something he does. One of the girls said “That’s just His job. He’s just doing his job”. And she is right. To Jesus, this is just life. We should never be amazed that God can perform miracles, but we should always be amazed at God. Because what he has done with and for his creation requires imagination beyond anything we could ever hope for. What he does should never be discounted, it should be worshiped. He should be worshiped.