On Miracles

On Miracles
Mar 16:14-20 NLT - [14] Still later he appeared to the eleven disciples as they were eating together. He rebuked them for their unbelief--their stubborn refusal to believe those who had seen him after he had risen. [15] And then he told them, "Go into all the world and preach the Good News to everyone, everywhere. [16] Anyone who believes and is baptized will be saved. But anyone who refuses to believe will be condemned. [17] These signs will accompany those who believe: They will cast out demons in my name, and they will speak new languages. [18] They will be able to handle snakes with safety, and if they drink anything poisonous, it won't hurt them. They will be able to place their hands on the sick and heal them." [19] When the Lord Jesus had finished talking with them, he was taken up into heaven and sat down in the place of honor at God's right hand. [20] And the disciples went everywhere and preached, and the Lord worked with them, confirming what they said by many miraculous signs.

Much attention is given to miracles when referring to Christianity. It is, after all, one of the chief aspects of our faith. Were it not for miracles, the story of the Bible and of Christ's death would have been just that: stories meant to entertain or frighten children and to keep the masses under the power of the elite. Were they not miracles, they would be no more than bedtime stories of faeries and wizards that the ancients so often told. But Christians well know the Bible to be more than bedtime rubbish. Even a child is able to make the distinction that the god Wōden is not really the leader of the Wild Hunt, but that it is perfectly logical that Christ should rise from the dead. It is because of miracles that we are able to separate myth from true myth. That is, our stories, while mythical in their telling, are actual in their occurance. These myths, as C.S. Lewis puts it, were propogated originally in the old pagan stories. The myths were ancient desires placed by God into the minds of men as a precursor to the true myth of Christ's death and resurrection. The Norse god Odin is said to have made a sacrifice to himself by hanging from the world tree Yggdrasil for nine days and nights, being pierced by his own spear. The idea of self-sacrifice does not originate itself in the Christian faith, but it is realized in it. Only Christianity has an account of a man who actually hung from a tree and was pierced by a spear.

The greatest evidence of miracles lies in the discipleship of Christ's followers. I do not mean only Christ's first eleven followers, but us today. Christ, when departing into heaven, promised that His disciples would "cast out demons in [His] name, and they will speak new languages." They "will be able to handle snakes with safety, and if they drink anything poisonous, it won't hurt them." They "will be able to lay their hands on the sick and heal them." Christ's promises were made to aid in His commandment for us to "go into all the world and preach the Good News to everyone, everywhere." The miracles accompanied the greater miracle of Christ's own resurrection. As C.S. Lewis puts, the great Corn King has made his yearly resurrection from Winter. Spring is here, and the ground is fertile again.

Miracles are God's reminders to us that He is still in control. They are, as Lewis puts, supernatural manifestations of a normal processes. Lewis, after referring to Christ's miracle at the wedding feast in Cana, states that "God creates the vine and teaches it to draw up water by its roots, and, with the aid of the sun, to turn that water into juice which will ferment and take on certain qualities. Thus, every year, from Noah's time till ours, God turns water into wine." In a sense, miracles happen everyday. God resurrects a man from the dead every day from his sleep. He breathes into man the breath of life again in a mother's womb. The man who can notice these miracles is usually apt to do His will. The miracles are assurances of Christ's presence in his ministry. They ought to be assurances to us. For what does the scripture say? That "the disciples went everywhere and preached, and the Lord worked with them, confirming what they said in many miraculous signs." Christ's presence was confirmed by the miracles. The miracles were the means to an end, not the end in themselves.
I have often found it strange that men should desire miracles as evidence of God, when the natural order of nature Herself is a miracle quite well beyond what is enough. It is not the miracles which can turn a skeptic to a believer, but the realization that, should these miracles be true, the evidence should be overhwhelming. The woman cured 30 years of cancer is evidence that a miracle has occurred. The man 3 months cured of cancer could well be in remission. What constitutes the miracle? In this case, it is the length of time. In Christ's case, it is the abundance of witnesses and the documentation from historians. This, then, is what the Christian should be concerned with. He must not be concerned with the miracle itself, but the thing which shows the miracle occured. The life of the drunken husband who turns his life to Christ and is radically transformed into a loving, God-fearing man. It is the changing of lives that shows the world that Christ lives. Christians must change lives. That is our purpose here. It is our commandment from the Father Himself. It is why miracles themselves occur.

With love in Christ,


Austin Aldrich