Jesus Christ started His earthly ministry of sharing the good news of God’s kingdom when He was roughly thirty years old. Several miracles followed his sermons. Since Jesus frequently asked the people He cured to remain silent and since He never planned or advertised His miracles in advance, these were not intended to dazzle the masses. What then was the purpose of Jesus’ miracles?
To show that He is the Messiah
The Messiah and Savior that the Jewish people had been longing for was Jesus. The fact that Jesus did not (yet) satisfy all the expectations and desires the Jewish people had for a messiah meant that many imposters claimed this title for themselves, however, made it difficult for the public to accept Jesus as the Messiah right away. As a result, Jesus worked miracles to bolster His claims and to fulfill predictions made in the Old Testament regarding the arrival of the Messiah.
Consider reading Matthew 8:16–17. “That nightfall, they brought a great number of people who were under the control of demons before Him. With a single word, He drove the spirits out and healed every sick person. This fulfilled the prophecy of the prophet Isaiah, according to which “He took our illnesses and bore our diseases.”
Matthew 11:2–6 provides another example. John sent message through his disciples to Jesus after learning of His exploits while he was imprisoned, asking, “Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?” Jesus replied to them, saying, “Go and tell John what you see and hear: lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the dead are raised from the grave, and the poor hear the good news preached to them.” And happy is the one who takes offense at nothing I say.
John’s misgivings were allayed when Jesus explained the miracles He had performed, which satisfied Isaiah’s messianic predictions (Isaiah 29:18–19; 35:5–6) and demonstrated that Jesus was, in fact, the Messiah. His miracles convinced a lot of people. “A large number of individuals had faith in Him. “Will the Christ perform more signs than this man has done when He appears?” they questioned. (John 3:11)
To show that He is the Son of God
Jesus was a male individual. But [He] was God as well. From the outside, this was invisible. The religious authorities regarded Jesus’ assertions that He was the Son of God as heresy, and even His own brothers believed He was insane (Mark 3:21). Jesus demonstrated via His miracles that He was God and that He possessed supernatural power.
This is illustrated by two miracles that involve a stormy sea. Jesus once spent a stormy night resting in a boat. He commanded the sea to remain motionless and the wind to stop when He awoke. “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey Him?” the terrified disciples questioned one another. (Mark 4:39–41) They certainly knew a number of Bible scriptures that make clear reference to God, including
- “The Lord on high is mighty, mightier than the thunders of many waters, mightier than the waves of the sea!” (Psalm 93:4)
- “How can a person be justified in God’s eyes? .. Who by himself trampled the sea’s waves and stretched out the heavens. (Job 9:1–9:8)
- “You command the sea’s fury; you still its waves as they rise.” (Psalm 89:9)
The only conclusion that can be reached if these verses also apply to Jesus is that He is God. Jesus once again surmounted the waves to board His disciples’ boat in the midst of a storm. The storm stopped when He entered the boat. The disciples acknowledged Him as the Son of God as they bowed down to Him this time. Matthew 14:32–33
Many additional miracles performed by Jesus are documented in [the gospels]. With merely five loaves of bread and two fish, He drove out devils, healed the blind, deaf, and disabled, and even raised some people from the grave. He fed thousands of people. Everyone was thinking after reading Matthew 9:4–8, Mark 6:2, and John 9:16. “Believe Me that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me,” declared Jesus. “Or else believe Me for the sake of my own works.” (John 14:11)
To show what God’s Kingdom is like
Jesus’ miracles not only validate His status as the Messiah and Son of God, but they also provide us a glimpse of the [new planet] that God is planning to establish. Timothy Keller does a wonderful job of explaining this in his book The Reason for God[1]:
“While miracles are often associated with the suspension of the natural order, Jesus intended for them to be associated with its restoration. According to the Bible, disease, famine, and death were not originally intended by God when the world was created. Jesus has come to make amends for wrongdoing and to mend broken things in the world. Not only do His miracles demonstrate His power, but they also serve as amazing previews of what he will be able to accomplish with it. Jesus’ miracles promise us in our hearts that the world we all desire is on the way, rather than only testing our intellect.
[1] Timothy Keller, Belief in an Age of Skepticism: The Reason for God (New York: Dutton, 2008), p. 96.
Thanks to GospelImages for the picture