Thursday, May 13, 2010

When Can a Miracle be a Miracle?

Some time ago I was at a meeting and someone mentioned the feeding of the 5,000 by Jesus where he multiplied loaves and fishes and there were still a bunch of leftovers. This follower of Jesus mentioned that they preferred to view this event as miraculous because what probably happened was that the people just shared their food. Implicitly, I guess this person was saying that Jesus did not multiply the loaves and fishes.

I wonder why some of us as followers of Jesus just have a hard time accepting that Jesus (God with us), the one through whom all things were created, the one raised from the dead, the only Son of God, the Messiah, the leper cleanser, blind man healer of Galilee can perform miracles? Why is it so hard? Good grief!

Call me a rube, or maybe I did not go to seminary long enough and become sophisticated enough, but if Jesus was who he said he was, if the Bible can be taken with any certainty, then why can't we say that Jesus took some bread and fish and multiplied it to feed five thousand plus? Or, that God parted the Red Sea or any other miracle.

I for one am glad that we can move from the "modern" skepticism of the power of the divine and accept the mystery of God's power and resulting grace.

No comments: