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What is your favourite miracle?
Why?
At Little Fishes this week we were going to tell the children the story we had today of the feeding of the five thousand.
Before we had even got into church – I got out five bread rolls and put them on a plate and was just about to find the paper fish- when one of the mums said to me – oh I know which story we are having today.
The bread gave it away – it’s a familiar story isn’t it.
One which most people if they have had any Christian teaching however small, at school would know.
And we did tell the story and they enjoyed eating the bread rolls – in fact I have never seen so many little children so quiet with just a piece of bread to chomp on.
This week we are going to be looking at the miracles of Jesus in our readings.
The miracles are often very familiar stories to us, stories like the feeding of the 5,000 and Jesus walking on water.
But the problem with familiarity is that we can think we know them and we can fail to stop and see what new things we can be taught by them.
So this week as we do read these stories I want us to stop once more and look at what God might be saying to us through them.
And this morning I want to look at several things that we can see and question we can ask from reading the miracles of Jesus:
Who Jesus is
What were his priorities
What is our response to this
Who Jesus is?
As we look at this passage today – what things are we struck with?
It’s pretty amazing really isn’t it – here is Jesus away from everywhere and surrounded by a huge crowd of people – over 5,000 if we count the women and children, and he is able to take 5 little loaves of bread and two fish and enable the assembled crowd to be fed to their fill.
This isn’t just some trickster who had a load of fish and bread stored on the hill just in case this arose.
This was an amazing miracle that revealed the truth about Jesus, that he had the power and authority over creation itself.
You see as we read the accounts of the different miracles this week – and hopefully it will spur you on to look at more of Jesus’ miracles as well – we can slow down to see what is it about Jesus that has been revealed.
I am certain that Jesus didn’t just perform the miracles we had recorded in the bible but there were many more people who received healing and wholeness when they came to him.
But the gospel writers have used their skill to show us different miracles that speak of different truths about Jesus.
That begin to reveal to us who this person was.
Most obvious in the gospel of John, but this is evident too in other gospels.
John speaks of the different miracles in his gospel as being signs.
Signs point to something, and John has carefully crafted his gospel to slowly reveal who Jesus is.
He starts with the wonderful description of the light coming into the world, and then slowly through the stories he has included in the gospel reveal who this light is.
So we see in Jesus’ first miracle in John – the water into wine, something about Jesus coming to change the old order of things – the ceremonial water jugs used for ritual cleaning into something really special- the best wine.
And this continues throughout the gospels as we see different miracles giving us more of an insight into who Jesus is.
The reading this morning – the feeding of the five thousand does just this.
We didn’t end the reading with the miracles but continued to hear a further conversation between Jesus and his disciples.
What is the question that is asked- who do you say I am? Jesus asked.
And we hear Peter’s reply – The Messiah of God.
This is a pivotal moment of revelation – and it is linked clearly with the experience of the miracle.
In John’s account of the feeding of the five thousand which we read in John 6 we see Jesus asking the question afterwards – are you following me because I can fill your stomachs?
And then he goes on to expand on what it means to feed on him spiritually and he makes the staggering statement – I am the bread of life- whoever eats of this bread will live forever.
So as we read the miracles of Jesus – stop and listen, see what this teaches us about who Jesus is.
Let Jesus ask you the same question that he asked Peter – who do you say that I am?
And like Peter perhaps once more we can see Jesus as the Messiah, the Christ, the Son of God.
And then as we read these miracles we also see something quite profound about Jesus priorities.
In the feeding of the five thousand what was Jesus response to the people.
The disciples were wanting to send the people away but Jesus even though it was getting late was still concerned for the people.
He had compassion on them- he probably realised that they wouldn’t find enough food in the surrounding villages- after all the day was getting late, even in our modern society a crowd of 5,000 people descending on the village shop is going to leave a great deal hungry!
So Jesus once more had compassion, he cared for the people not only for their spiritual needs but also for them physically.
Last week in the teaching of Jesus we were asked the question can we be unmoved by the teaching of Jesus.
And I want to suggest as we look at the miracles we are asked the same question.
You see as we see Jesus’ priorities often they are far away from our priorities and the affluence of modern society.
As we look at the miracles of Jesus we see that those who were touched by Jesus were not necessarily the rich and the highly respected in society – sometimes we do see that for example when Jesus heals the daughter of Jairus.
But often the people that Jesus brought healing to where the outcasts and marginalised of society.
The blind beggar, the ten lepers who would have lived outside the village, the woman who had been bleeding for years.
And when we see Jesus healing we see his utter compassion for these people.
Time and time again when we see Jesus’ miracles we see his compassion for those who are marginalised and his healing brings wholeness not only physically but also enables people to re-enter the community.
I think this speaks very profoundly to us about God’s Kingdom priorities.
The healing ministry is so much bigger than simply praying for someone to be made better.
When we think of healing we need to think of wholeness, which includes not only physical healing, but care for the spiritual, psychological and also community needs of the individual.
So we carry out the healing ministry of Jesus when we are concern for the poor and marginalised in our society leads us to action – when we show practical care to others.
God’s Kingdom priorities are so different from the worlds and we need to be aware of these and in our actions show them.
As we read through the miracles this week – ask yourself the question how did Jesus respond to need – how can I?
What about our response to the miracles of Jesus?
When we look at Jesus miracles we see different responses.
We see large crowds following as we did in the account of the feeding of the 5,000.
And we see Jesus responding to their need.
But out of these 5,000 how many turned to Jesus?
We are not told, they experienced this miracle but did all of them realise the magnitude of it?
When we read the accounts of the miracles of Jesus we see different responses from people.
And surprisingly not all are positive.
We see the religious leaders respond quite negatively to Jesus as they are challenged by him.
They saw what he was doing, they must have heard the accounts of the miracles and they still failed to see who he was.
What about us- what is our reaction to the miracles of Jesus?
Are we still moved when we read them, do we believe that Jesus can still work miracles in people’s lives?
If we believe in a God who came to earth to transform our lives, then why wouldn’t he care still for us today and long for us to know the miraculous.
We need to trust in a God who does hear and answer prayer and longs to bring healing of body, mind and spirit to individuals.
We may not understand how this can happen but we do know that there are times when we see the miraculous happen.
Eg of Andrew White in Baghdad
Miracles can still happen today – we are not to say how God can work in someones lives and we need to see the miraculous as not only healing physically but also healing emotionally and spiritually.
What we are called to do is to bring those we love to Jesus and lay them at his feet.
Just like the friends who lowered the man through the roof we offer those we love to Jesus and he asks of us – what do you want.
We may not understand the miraculous but we do know that God has power to transform lives, each of us knowing him for ourselves is a miracle in itself.
If we believe this then we should be able to put our faith in him to transform and renew people and situations, to have faith however little in His miraculous power.
So this week as you look at Jesus miracles – and even if you aren’t doing the E100 course perhaps have a look at some of his miracles again.
Ask yourselves these questions:
Who is this Jesus that I see
What are his priorities
What is my response
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