Breaking Open How Your Pain Becomes the Path to Living AgainSample

Miracles, Not Manipulation

In the book of John in the Bible, when the author, John, wanted to tell the story of Jesus, he decided to situate the whole ministry of Jesus around seven miracles. John used the word miracle or miraculous signs twenty-four times, making miracles the pillars on which he built the story of Jesus.

The first miracle was at a party. Jesus turned water into wine (John 2:1–11).

The second involved a royal official begging Jesus to heal his almost-dead son (4:43–54). Jesus said, “Unless you people see signs and wonders... you will never believe” (4:48). And he healed the man’s son.

The third miracle happened near a place where people believed miracles could happen. There was a pool, and if the water in the pool was miraculously stirred, the first one in the water (usually the fastest or strongest) got the miracle. Jesus walked past this scene, a pool of water surrounded by all manner of physically and spiritually broken people, hoping they would make it to the water first. Jesus approached a man who had been paralyzed for thirty-eight years. The man, who had no chance of being the fastest or the strongest, told Jesus he couldn’t make it to the pool when the water was stirred. With a word, Jesus healed the paralyzed man. Without a hospital or weeks in a center for spinal injury, that man stood up and walked (John 5).

You can find the rest of the seven miracles in the book of John in the Bible. But the story of Jesus is filled with miracles. People who had tried all kinds of ways to get better, but the only way it happened was through Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. Something about that name.

Jesus’ miracles lead us to believe.

When Jesus turned the water into wine, John said it revealed Jesus’ glory and the disciples believed in him (John 2:11). Jesus said, “Unless you people see signs and wonders... you will never believe” (4:48). He knows how we work.

When the official’s son was healed, the whole family believed. They did not believe he was healed—that was easy—they believed in Jesus (4:53).

When we see something that can’t be explained, except by God, it leads to belief.

Jesus’ miracles show us he can do anything.

This is what we find in John’s progression of miracles.

Water into wine. Nicely done, Jesus! Cool party trick! I would have loved that one in college.

Then a sick boy’s fever went away. This is getting serious.

The seventh miracle in John’s gospel is dead Lazarus pulling off grave clothes, coming back to life (John 11). Whoa!

And John’s last words in his book are, “Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down... the whole world would not have room for the books” (21:25).

John intentionally shared seven miracles to show us that Jesus. Can. Do. Anything. There is just nothing Jesus can’t do. But...

Jesus’ miracles involve waiting and mystery, and they show us there is much we don’t understand.

Do I believe in miracles? Oh, yes I do. I do! I will pray for it for you, ask for it, even claim it, but we will not think that we have the comprehension to understand how the eternal God works in all his ways.

Jesus’ ultimate work is not a physical miracle. After every physical miracle that Jesus had the power and discretion to perform, he would not allow people to focus on the physical. That’s where we want to look, because that’s what we can see. Instead, Jesus told people to pay attention to where he was going and where they were going. He says the same thing to us today.

John called Jesus’ miracles "signs." They pointed to something else. Jesus’ miracles were pointing toward Jerusalem, to the cross, and to the empty grave.

With all the miracles Jesus worked and works, we see it is about way more than drinks at a party or even walking again. The miracles point to a miracle for everyone, everywhere, for all time.

All the miracles of our story are pointing to Jesus’ miracle of life over death, which is our only hope. All these miracles of rescue (crossing the Red Sea, the bread from heaven in the wilderness, the lion not eating Daniel), were pointing to the rescue we will need. Jesus cares about physical things and provides physical healing, but it’s not what it’s all about. The ache that you and I feel is only met in him.

So we look for miracles because they point to Jesus. We resist manipulating our lives for fleeting pleasures and temporary satisfaction, and we are willing to break and suffer because it is in the breaking that we are made whole.

At last, we can release the controls on our lives (our attempts at control have been destructive anyway). We no longer have to manipulate each moment. Instead, we become aware of what Jesus is doing all around us and even participate in his life and death. We see miracles happening. And we trust in and for his miracles more than anything we could possibly manipulate.

But it’s not just that we see miracles; our lives become miracles. Seeing our lives as miracles, we walk away from a life defined by the pain of our brokenness and into a whole new place—a spacious place, where God delights in us and offers intimate communion.

Respond

Have you ever experienced or seen a miracle? Explain.

How did God change your life through that experience?

What did you learn about Him and about yourself?

Prayer

Glorious Savior, I am so grateful for the miracles, big and small, that You allow me to experience each and every day. I love You! Amen.