When Heaven Breaks Through
"The Gospel writers saw Jesus' miraclesas evidence that He was the fulfillment of Messianic prophecy."
Photo by Zwaddi on Unsplash
I often marvel at how Jews living during the first century could have missed that Jesus was the Messiah. The prophecies about the Messiah proclaimed that this "Chosen One" would wield the power to undo pain and evil, and that's exactly what Jesus demonstrated, over and over again. The Gospel writers saw Jesus' miracles as evidence that He was the fulfillment of Messianic prophecy. The healings and the casting out of demons weren't just a big show to draw a crowd; Jesus' miracles demonstrated a specific characteristic the Chosen One must possess: the ability to "undo" pain and evil.
Consider these prophecies:
The afflicted shall eat and be satisfied... - Psalm 22:26
The Lord sets the prisoners free; the Lord opens the eyes of the blind. - Psalm 146:7-8
In that day the deaf shall hear the words of a book, and out of their gloom and darkness, the eyes of the blind shall see. - Isaiah 29:18
Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped - Isaiah 35:3
In Jesus' first declaration of His identity, He read aloud from Isaiah: "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor..." (Luke 4.18; Isaiah 61.1-2) You could consider this text the roadmap of what Jesus' ministry looked like from beginning to end. Over and over, Jesus used miracles as evidence that He was, in fact, the Son of God. When He forgave the sins of a lame man in Mark 2, He also healed his physical lameness to reinforce His authority to forgive sin. The crowds got the message. When Jesus healed a cripple at the pool of Bathseda in John 5, the Jews recognized that He was identifying Himself as God. (See John 5:20.) Jesus' miracles testified to the reality of His identity.
Throughout the rest of the New Testament, the apostles' miracles bore the same trademark: the Spirit worked intentionally to bring glory to King Jesus. Heaven had broken through; death had been defeated. Christ was alive and reigning, and as such, sickness no longer had authority over the resurrected Lamb (*1).
In all the centuries since then, Christ's authority has not changed. Do we really believe that the Kingdom of God is in our midst like Jesus taught (Lk 11.20; Lk 17.21)? Do we believe Jesus has complete authority to heal and break chains of bondage? Can He do the impossible miracles we're afraid to ask for?
I've heard entire cases made for the continuation of miracles built solely on a healed headache or an aced math test. While of course we should be grateful for all things (Eph 5.20; Col 3.17), let's be real: That's like saying you believe in Jesus because you saw His face in your french toast. WhileI don't discount those things are possible, the God of scripture is a Man of War (Is 42.13) who can and does heal our permanent brokenness, can and does redeem or waywardness, and can and does heal cancer, blindness, deafness, autism, or anything else that causes pain. But the reason I believe this is not just because I've seen it or because He's obligated to heal by some "gifting," but because Jesus inaugurated the Kingdom of Heaven at the cross and He is a good King, ruling over His creation with kindness and complete authority (Ps 135.6; Dan 4.35; 1 Tim 1.17; Rev 17.14).
Church, it's crucial that we are fiercely confident in our God's agenda to undo pain and evil. It's the story on every page of Scripture: God trumps evil. God is perfectly just and perfectly sovereign, so we must throw ourselves at His feet and beg that He heal our pain, without doubting for a moment that if He does not, it is still His will that we rejoice in His sovereignty (Php 4.6; 1 Thess 5.16-18). Friends, my charge is that of Zechariah: "Return to your stronghold, O prisoners of hope!" (Zech 9.12)
“We modern people think of miracles as the suspension of the natural order, but Jesus meant them to be the restoration of the natural order. The Bible tells us that God did not originally make the world to have disease, hunger, and death in it. Jesus has come to redeem where it is wrong and heal the world where it is broken. His miracles are not just proofs that he has power but also wonderful foretastes of what he is going to do with that power. Jesus' miracles are not just a challenge to our minds, but a promise to our hearts, that the world we all want is coming.” - Timothy Keller, The Reason for God
Abba,
You rule over all things: over the pain and disease of sinful men, over the wind and the rain and every square inch of creation. We don't deserve for a moment to enjoy relief from the consequences of our sin, yet many of us enjoy daily comforts which we don't attribute to Your goodness. Forgive us for thinking we deserve Eden; we deserve nothing. Yet You single-handedly rescued us from Adam's curse and are renewing Your world and filling it with the knowledge of Your glory. Yahweh, please increase our faith until we can throw ourselves without hesitation onto your great Name. Heal our brokenness. Undo the pain and evil we've welcomed into our lives and grown accustomed to. Lord, we believe; help our unbelief.
Amen
It's crucial that we are fiercely confident in our God's agenda to undo pain and evil. It's the story on every page of Scripture: God trumps evil.
(Photo by Marina Vitale on Unsplash)
Footnotes:
*1 - It's interesting to note that in the same way healings testified to God's glory, the Spirit's refusal to heal did the same thing. Consider 2 Cor 12.7-9, Php 2.25-30, and 1 Tim 5.23