THE MIRACLES OF JESUS

Several Old Testament prophets performed miracles in their ministries. Moses, for example, poured water from a rock to sated the people's thirst in the wilderness (Exodus17.1-7) and the prophet Elijah resurrected the son of a widow (1 Kings17.7-24). However, no one has done as many miracles as Jesus. On this, the commentators of the New International Version Bible catalogued, in the gospels, 35 miracles that Jesus operated during his performance in Israel. And they were not simple miracles, for they range from the healing of lepers, paralyzed, blind to the resurrection of the dead [1]. 

This aspect of Christ's action bothers many people who, because of a rational view of the world, do not believe in miracles. For Kant, for example, "passages of the Bible that seemed to transgress the limits of rational credibility should be interpreted allegorically and not literal, and would serve to provide incentives for what were, in essence, moral ideals" [2]. That is, this German philosopher, in his work, nullified the transcendent character of Christianity and reduced it to a religion that preaches good morals. However, the Danish Christian Philosopher Kierkegaard disagreed with Kant, as he understood the absence of rational proof" for miracles as "necessary", since "Christianity is inherently paradoxical and resistant to human reason" [3]. 

Miracles are changes in concrete reality, of spiritual order, that violate the natural laws of the world and find no explanation in human reason. They are evidence of the divinity of Christ that shows that He had power over diseases (cures), spiritual beings of darkness (exorcisms), on “physis”, that is, nature (walking on waters, calming storms, multiplying breads) and over death (resurrection of dead people). I also quote that Jesus Christ also had a power much more excellent than the previous ones: the power to forgive sins (Matthew9:2,6). 

Jesus was not a moralist and Christianity is not a human building, a religion invented by man to bring great moral to humanity. It is, before, God entering the world to restore in man his original condition of perfection lost in the Fall. Thus, the miracles jesus performed were inevitable because of his divine nature and compassion for the human being who was plunged into suffering. John wrote that Jesus, raising his eyes and seeing the crowd that followed him, was moved and decided to feed her what resulted in the first multiplication of loaves (6.1-15).  

Even after his death, Jesus continued to operate miracles through the apostles and disciples. Acts chapter 3, for example, shows Peter healing, in the name of Jesus, a crippled birth, which was always at the door of the temple. Paul also, in Trôade, resurrected a young man of the name Heutico (Acts20.7-12). Even today, in the scientific and technological society in which we live, God's miracles happen in the lives of those who, immersed in pain, suffering and anguish, place their trust in God and cry out for a miracle. 

But it would be a serious mistake to think that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, came into the world to perform miracles. John narrates, in his gospel, an episode in which He went to a tank named Bethesda in Jerusalem, where many sick and invalid people were waiting for a miracle. Seeing those people, He healed only one man and not all (5.1-15). The Evangelist John always refers to the miracles of Jesus as "signs" that point to something greater: The Kingdom of God. Jesus' miracles are glimpses of the Kingdom he has come to implant. A kingdom where God “will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passad away” (Revelation21.4).

Antônio Maia - M. Div.

Copyright

[1] Bíblia Nova Versão Internacional. São Paulo, Ed Vida, p.1790

[2] GARDINER, Patrick. Kierkegaard. São Paulo, Edições Loyola, p.31

[3] Idem