This page was created on June 1, 2004
This page was last updated on January 4, 2005

Miracles? I thought David Hume gave us all absolute proof that miracles can't happen at least 200 years ago. Didn't he? Well, maybe he was wrong, because at least we know there has been one miracle in our time. After all, the 1980 US men's hockey team beat those evil commies, showing the world that certainly God is on our side. They even made a movie about it entitled -- what else? -- Miracle. What more proof do we need?

A few years ago, there was a news article about a pro football player who was in a horrendous car accident and escaped unscathed. He attributed his close brush with death to a "miracle." Why? Because he used the magic word in the moment of the accident: JESUS! When asked about another pro football player who was killed in a car accident that same month, his response was that the other fellow must not have said "Jesus." When asked about other tragedies, all he could say in response is that they must not have invoked the name of Jesus, either.

Yes, the word miracle is certainly thrown around an awful lot, and the irony is that most often the so-called miracle is accounted for quite readily (e.g., the 1980 US men's hockey team actually won because they were good, worked hard, and played better on that night), or is so selfishly directed that it makes a mockery of the God who allegedly brought forth the "miracle" (a la our famous star athlete). We begin to think that God owes us, because He has done -- and continues to do -- miracles in His timing, in His way. There are entire ministries of healing and miracles that are nothing more than self-centered, self-glorifying pagan rituals using God's name as a mantra to get what we want -- if, of course, we have enough faith, because failure is never the fault of the "healer" producing the show.

First of all, what is a miracle? Well it's not getting an 'A' on your math quiz when you forgot to study! It's simply God's sovereign will over the creation He made. One writer has suggested that Christians believe in one big bold miracle, GOD, and everything else tends to make sense within that framework, while those that deny God need a miracle to prove everything they believe. I don't know if that's totally true, but if God exists, it would seem by definition that He'd be able to suspend the very laws He created without the normal consequences of that intervention (i.e., Joshua's 24-hour sun-fest, or Jonah in a whale, etc.). If He actually made the world, doesn't the rest seem rather simple? God is not only in control of His creation, but He interacts with it, and reveals Himself to it (see Psalm 19:1 or Romans 1:18-22, if you're interested).

Now, David Hume presupposed a god that couldn't interact with his own finite universe. Hume naturally, then, left this weak god out of the equation; but I don't believe we are forced to accept Hume's presupposition. If God exists, He is sovereign over that which He creates!

Secondly, there is a misconception regarding the scope and the regularity of miracles in the Bible. There is this idea that God did miracles all of the time, but in reality He did them quite scarcely throughout history, and often did them in obscurity, swearing the participants to secrecy (as in Mark 5:43). Why did He do that? Because he didn't want a bunch of people following as a side show (see Mark 8:12 or John 6:26ff).

Lastly, as Jenn has already brought out, a lot of the miracles Christ performed ended up in death any way. So what's the point? Miracles were intended to show God's power, and were used judiciously throughout scripture. They were never intended to glorify a "healer," or make God an act in the Gong Show! God can and does still heal. God still intervenes in the world, restraining evil from its ultimate ferocity (as mentioned in 2 Thessalonians 2:6-7).

But His intervention is never equally meted out, from a human perspective, or properly understood. We will still vilify Him for His ostensibly aloof attitude toward evil in our world; and at the same time we will decry His just, omniscient judgment. Whether God chooses to exercise His grace or justice He will be seen as a villain, because in reality we want what we want, when we want it, and God just doesn't work in our time frame.

All too often overlooked, though, is God's greatest miracle, the one he performs on a regular basis: taking those who disbelieve and who hate Him and transforming them into men and women who love and serve Him. It was happening in the early church two thousand years ago, and it still happens in people's lives today. Now, ain't that a miracle?

"All I need is a miracle... all I need is you," played from the speaker in the ceiling as I started reviewing my notes for this month's topic. So, was this a miracle too? Some sort of tip of the tam-o'-shanter from God himself to acknowledge my interest in the subject? Perhaps not. I'm inclined to interpret it as a mere coincidence. I mean, really, how many songs are there out there that use the word miracle anyway? At least I was paying attention to the matter at hand.

I haven't witnessed any miracles that I'm aware of, so I'd have to agree with both Jenn and Mike the word "miracle" has been overused. Throw it on the heap of other emasculated terms such as "luxury" and "deluxe." Ever see an ad for an "undeniably average" apartment? As for Mike's observation regarding the hawking of miracles as so much snake oil, it does seem that hucksters of all stripes are driven more by market forces than spiritual ones. I too tend to question those who benefit by supposedly acting, as they repeatedly tell me, on my behalf. "Stop throwing your money away on rent!" those nice people say, "and throw your money at me, instead!"

Jenn and Mike seem to agree that miracles are really events that suspend the laws of nature, as we understand them, and by doing so reveal a truth. That is, a miracle really is something that defies a purely rational or natural explanation because it is literally "extra-ordinary." By that definition, a miracle is anything but commonplace, and when one occurs it's truly noteworthy. So, that would probably explain why that green light that you got on the way to work didn't make the evening news. Really, if miracles happened as often as people might like to believe they do, wouldn't they be "ord-icles"?

Now, Mike would like to throw changed lives into the mix as well. Granted, the "wake-up call" of a temporary "miracle-cure" can transform the life of the average man, or the lives of his immediate family. I have seen that. But given the imprecision with which we define "human nature," such instances only muddy the definition of "miracle." Since humans defy logic and reason on a regular basis, doesn't that make our very existence miraculous?

Also, if miracles are the exception and not the rule, then it seems pretty clear that some situations, no matter how deserving, cannot be deemed miracle-worthy. Assuming that God exists, even He must triage where to apply His will. As Jim Carrey's Bruce Almighty demonstrated, a winning Lotto ticket for everyone who wants one is a pretty useless miracle. So it's probably best to set down the scorecard and stubby pencil when analyzing this topic.

I'm not entirely pessimistic about miracles, though. Mike and Jenn might agree that the "truth" of a miracle lies in the means and not the end: as if God were saying, "Okay, now that I've got your attention..." From this perspective, an event that only "temporarily" staves off disaster, such as Jenn noted, really makes a better miracle than an event that results in a permanent change. The "miracle" that changes laws rather than suspends them leads us to miss the point, and quickly becomes "science."

So, to summarize: Water flowing uphill to spare a town from imminent disaster? Miracle. Finding Life of Brian at a video store in Florida? Good luck and/or timing. Interpret and act accordingly.

In 2 Corinthians, the Apostle Paul speaks of Christianity as "the ministry of reconciliation."⁵ By this, he means that the central story of the faith is the reconciliation of Man to God through the blood of His Son, Jesus. Christianity, then, is the ministry of reconciliation because all who claim the name of Christ are ministers -- literally, servants in the Greek -- of God's specific conciliatory purpose.

Shaw's Archbishop
On Miracles

They may seem very wonderful to the people who witness them, and very simple to those who perform them.¹

Voltaire
On Miracles

...a miracle is a contradiction in terms.²

Picasso
On Miracles

Everything is a miracle.³

Sancho Panza
Weighs In

Miracle me no miracles.⁴

Chesterton
On Perception
It is a strange thing that many truly spiritual men... have actually spent some hours in speculating upon the precise location of the Garden of Eden. Most probably we are in Eden still. It is only our eyes that have changed.⁷