CONFIDENCE IN THE FACE OF HARD QUESTIONS: Are Miracles Relevant?

In our current era miracle has come to include “an amazing product or achievement” – “It’s a miracle that the school won the game.”   

But a miracle is defined as a “surprising and welcome event that is not explicable by natural or scientific laws and is therefore considered to be the work of a divine agency.”  

The word is derived from Latin meaning “object of wonder” and is itself derived from an ancient word meaning “to laugh, to smile”.  Miracles often do make us laugh and smile!  

Today we learn that miracles are acts of God and glorify, give credit to, point to, God.

Contemporary culture often dismisses true miracles and promotes natural amazing events as miracles.  True miracles are dismissed as events we may not understand but which have rational, natural explanations. Take Apollo 13 for example.  Was it a miracle that the astronauts made it home alive, or was it just great engineering?  Did the fact that MUCH of the world was praying for their safe return play a part or was it just “wishful thinking that influenced the outcome?”  We OFTEN have no clue HOW miracles occur, BUT, miracles are possible because of who God is.  As we see in the miracles of Jesus, they point us straight to Him.

We look today at John 10:22-26; and 14:8-14, the events which follow Jesus’s healing of the man born blind and His assessment of the Pharisees as being spiritually blind because they refused to recognize who Jesus was. Many of the people had been following Jesus and many had participated, observed or heard about the miracles that he performed.  But the politicians just couldn’t believe it.  They wanted 1) him to clearly and unequivocally state it, 2) provide proof that his assertion was unequivocally true, and 3) do what THEY wanted him to do, not necessarily what God wanted him to do.  You know,  JUST LIKE US AND OUR MODERN CULTURE.  

Let’s look at what Jesus tells them.

John 10:22-26

22 Then the Festival of Dedication took place in Jerusalem, and it was winter.

23 Jesus was walking in the temple in Solomon’s Colonnade.

24 The Jews surrounded him and asked, “How long are you going to keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly.”

25 “I did tell you and you don’t believe,” Jesus answered them. “The works that I do in my Father’s name testify about me.

26 But you don’t believe because you are not of my sheep.”

John 10 focuses on the identity of Jesus. Jesus is God the Son, sent by God the Father to do the works of the Father and to redeem the world. Jesus is the Good Shepherd who lays down His life for His sheep in obedience to the command of the Father. Despite His teachings and the signs that He had performed, many refused to believe. 

Jesus’s next confrontation with political Judaism and occurred in the Jerusalem temple complex during the Festival of Dedication. From its inception this festival that we know as Hanukkah, was a time and season for rededication to God.  It was a relatively new Jewish holy day. It commemorated the cleansing and rededication of the Jerusalem temple in 164 BC. 

The Jewish Temple had been desecrated by the Syrian (Seleucid) ruler Antiochus IV who used the Jewish Temple complex to make sacrifices to other gods. Like other Winter solstice celebrations and also known as a celebration of lights, this was an eight-day festival that started of the 25th of Kislev (late Nov/early Dec). By Jesus’s day the festival symbolized the hope of the Jews that a new ruler would come who would drive out the foreign occupiers and reestablish Israel’s independence. Note that the phrase “Israel’s independence” ALSO means “set Israel free”.  Jesus flat out TOLD them I AM here to give you freedom, to give you independence.  But you won’t hear of it. Political Judaism’s response was we don’t want YOUR kind of freedoms, we want OUR kind of freedoms.  You know, JUST LIKE US AND OUR CURRENT ERA.

Herod the Great remodeled the sixth-century BC temple built after the Jews returned from the Babylonian exile and Solomon’s Colonnade, sometimes called “Solomon’s Porch,” was the raised, covered area stretching along the east side of the temple complex, having pillars holding a roof. Jesus and His audience would have been sheltered from the weather. Religious leaders (scribes) sometimes taught their students on the porch. The disciples met in this same area after Jesus’s resurrection and ascension.  It was kind of like “the courthouse” of its era. 

As they were “in the courthouse” so to speak, the political Jewish leaders, “the Jews” of verse 24, gathered around Jesus, and much like with our presidential elections they questioned him along the lines of “are you running for the job of messiah?  Just tells us and don’t keep us in suspense.” Like any politically minded politician they were wondering if there was going to be a “race for messiah.”  Jesus, verse 25 replies … “Um…I AM the messiah.  Haven’t you been paying attention?  I have told you, taught you, conducted signs AND performed miracles. But, because you are more interested in becoming the ones who set policy you can’t perceive that God’s policy maker is already here.”

The term believe means to have a firm inner conviction (be convinced) that something is true. In John’s Gospel, belief is not merely intellectual assent. It involves conviction. This belief is expressed in the believer’s obedience to the teachings of Jesus, and of God (one in the same). 

Works referred to here are miracles, “events that unmistakably involve an immediate and powerful action of God designed to reveal His character or purposes.”  The Greek term for works means “deeds” or “actions.” It can also mean “manifestation” or “practical proof.”  In this context, Jesus’s works can refer to His miracles or His entire ministry. Jesus knew that His ability to do these works was due to His special, unique relationship with God the Father, and they were proof that Jesus is God’s Messiah. These Jews rejected Jesus’s miracles in part because they rejected Jesus’s claim that He is the Son of God.  To them Jesus was just an astute showman and smart politician.  You know, like they fancied themselves to be.

Jesus’s works provided ample evidence that He was who He claimed to be— the anointed of God, the incarnate Son of God sent to reveal the Father to the world and redeem humanity from their sins. The Jews chose to reject Jesus because they had no clue about this perception of God’s messiah and Jesus did not fit their idea of what God’s Messiah was supposed to be. Just as in our current era, they were looking for “the super politician who could give everyone what they wanted, stand in the way of those who would usurp the people’s authority, and who would convince everyone else in the world to leave them alone.  You know, just like people are looking for today in their political elections.

Using an animal husbandry metaphor, Jesus identified the reason for the Jews’ disbelief: they were not His sheep. Jesus knows His sheep and they know Him, meaning that Jesus’s disciples have a genuine family relationship with Him. John makes clear that Jesus’ works and words are from the Father (he is God’s agent) and that Jesus’ message is not just about cognitive knowledge but about an awareness of a personal relationship with Jesus. 

The genuineness of the believer’s relationship with Jesus is demonstrated by the believer’s obedience to Jesus’s teachings. As one commentator noted, “The biblical view of salvation . . . is that a true believer remains faithful to commitments, whereas the opposite is true for pseudobelievers.”  It is better to be a sheep of God’s shepherd, Jesus, than it is to be a lion, or a wolf, or a bear of the World. 

In the next passage we learn how to perceive God.

John 14:8-11

8 “Lord,” said Philip, “show us the Father, and that’s enough for us.”

9 Jesus said to him, “Have I been among you all this time and you do not know me, Philip? The one who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?

10 Don’t you believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words I speak to you I do not speak on my own. The Father who lives in me does his works.

11 Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me. Otherwise, believe because of the works themselves.

John 14 is part of Jesus’s discourse to His disciples in chapters 13–17 on the night of the Passover.  When Jesus then told His disciples not to be troubled, that He was going back to the Father to prepare a place for them and He would return to get them and take them to Himself so that they would be together. In response to Jesus saying that the disciples knew where He was going, Thomas replied that they did not know where He was going. To which Jesus replied, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you know me, you will also know my Father. From now on you do know him and have seen him”, basically telling Thomas “look, I am going back to be with God.  If you follow me and learn what I have taught you, you TOO will go back to be with God.”

Philip was from Bethsaida, a city located on the northeast shore of the Sea of Galilee. He told Jesus, “look, just show us the Father and that’s enough for us.” Jesus rebuked Philip for his “freshman-level” observation. Jesus’s disciples were often slow to grasp what He was teaching them. When we have trouble grasping some aspect of Jesus’s teaching, we can take comfort in the fact that even those who spent about three years with Jesus while He was on earth often did not initially seem to understand His teachings.

John wrote, “No one has ever seen God. The one and only Son, who is himself God and is at the Father’s side—he has revealed him”. I like the term perceive.  Seeing involves the eyes.  Perceiving involves the senses AND the mind, and the SPIRIT.  The nature of the relationship between God the Father and God the Son means to perceive the Son is to perceive the Father. God is love, God is energy.  You don’t “see” energy or love directly with your eyes, but you may perceive energy or love through their actions and effects.  Jesus is telling us that there is a unique oneness in the nature of the Father and the Son (and by implication the Holy Spirit). They are one in nature or essence. However, they remain distinct Persons.  So observing and perceiving Jesus IS observing and perceiving God.  The nature of this unity or mutual indwelling of Father and Son is such that Jesus could proclaim, “I and the Father are one”. Note that it is NOT Jesus is LIKE the Father,  Jesus and the Father ARE one.  

Jesus told us that The Father who lives in me does his works. Because Jesus is God the Father’s revelation of Himself and because of the mutual indwelling of the Father and Son, the words and works of Jesus are the words and works of the Father. In fact, Jesus said nothing and did nothing but what the Father told Him to say and do.  We might phrase it as Jesus was so “in tune” with God that God’s thoughts and Jesus’ thoughts were identical.

Jesus called on Philip and the other disciples (as well as the readers of this Gospel) to believe in Jesus as Messiah, in the unity of the Father and the Son, and the works (signs) the Father performed through the Son. But the works Jesus performed are not JUST stand-alone miracles. An honest examination of the miracles and the power of God behind them point to the coming of the kingdom of God in the Person of Jesus, the Messiah sent to redeem the world, and should lead to belief in God’s Messiah, Jesus Christ. 

Thoughtful meditation on Jesus’s miracles will disclose what these miracles signify . . . that the saving kingdom of God is at work in the ministry of Jesus in ways tied to his very person.  The miracles performed demonstrate God’s Love and God’s Energy in action.  Through Jesus God’s Love and God’s Energy poured into the world…and still does.

But catch this.  Jesus says WE can do it too, AND that we can do even greater things than he was able to accomplish. 

John 14:12-14

12 “Truly I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do. And he will do even greater works than these, because I am going to the Father.

13 Whatever you ask in my name, I will do it so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.

14 If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.”

Again the word truly is used.  In Greek this word is amen, amen. The Greek is a transliteration of the Hebrew term, which emphasizes something is certain and sure, truthful and faithful. Belief here means that a person knows and puts his faith in Jesus as the chosen Messiah from God the Father, sent to redeem humanity. To believe is to acknowledge/have full confidence that Jesus is who he said he is and that what he taught is completely true. Furthermore, it requires personal commitment, choosing to commit oneself and one’s life completely to Jesus, His teachings, and His mission. 

Jesus stated as fact that we Will do even greater works than these, because I am going to the Father. While Jesus promised that the Holy Spirit would be sent to indwell His disciples, and all believers; Jesus also stated that He would be in His disciples.  The greatest work of believers indwelt by Jesus is the spread of the good news of the gospel.

Jesus stated Whatever you ask in my name, I will do it. Many have used this verse to turn Christianity into a genie in a bottle. Jesus is not offering a blank check to His disciples for anything they desire. The purpose of what believers are to ask from Jesus is “that the Father may be glorified in the Son”. 

The basis for the prayers of Jesus’s disciples is to join in fulfilling the mission on which the Father had sent the Son. “I will do it” emphasizes that Jesus will continue to act in the furtherance of the Father’s mission which He gave to Jesus and Jesus gave in turn to His disciples.  In their prayers, the disciples are to “ask me” (Jesus) for what they need to further the spread of the gospel. 

By the repetition of what He said in the previous verse, Jesus emphasized the certainty that what the disciples ask for in His name for the furtherance of the mission and the glorification of the Father will be given to them. 

It is a promise that Jesus “will do it.”  When you stop and think about it, THAT is a miracle in itself – the work of a divine agency.