Dear friends and family of Grace Baptist,

“Jesus, do a miracle!”

I remember these words because they were part of passion play a drama ministry that my home church in Ohio had when I was a youth.  For several years, one of the local high school choir teachers would perform the role of King Herod as found in Luke 23:8.  There we read “Herod was greatly pleased to see Jesus because he had heard about him and hoped to see him perform some miracle.”  The local teacher, with much flamboyance, would sing out the words, “Jesus, do a miracle.”  But in the scriptures Jesus does not do a miracle for King Herod.  Jesus does not even say a word to him.

I thought about this scene because as we continue in the Gospel of Mark this week we see Jesus performing many different miracles.  He drives out an evil spirit (1:21-28), heals Simon-Peter’s mother and many others (1:29-34), heals a man with leprosy (1:40-45), and heals a paralytic (2:1-12).  Throughout these passages people have been amazed, asking questions such as, “What is this?  A new teaching with authority?” (1:27) or exclaiming, “We have never seen anything like this!”  (2:12).  Eventually, their questions and amazement will lead to them facing a decision about who Jesus is. (8:27-29)

For some people, the cultural distance between the world of the Biblical text and our contemporary society presents challenges for interpretation when it comes to these miracle stories.  These people might try to explain or ignore these stories.  For others, they will point to Jesus’ ability to heal people and do miracles as evidence of his divinity.  To get caught up in this debate, misses the point.  There were many miracle workers, healers, and exorcists during the time of Jesus.  The ability to do miracles was not what made Jesus unique.  But Jesus did not base his authority on “signs and wonders.”   What made Jesus unique was his invitation to a relationship of trust, a relationship that led to people being healed not only physically, but spiritually with the forgiveness of their sins.

Jesus extends the same invitation for a relationship with him to us.  Jesus offers the same opportunity for us to put our trust in him.  The question for you and for me is will we put our trust in Jesus?

See you on Zoom on Sunday,

Pastor David