The Gospel of Mark is famous for its miracles. Jesus drives out spirits, heals sickness, calms storms, feeds thousands at a time, makes the blind see, walks on water, makes fig trees wither, and so forth. But, how much spiritual worth is there to a miracle? Would it be a spiritual experience for you to see a miracle?
As for our thinking about miracles today, I have noticed that we tend to choose one of these two:
1. We don’t believe in miracles. Science is too reliable for us to believe miracles actually are miracles. We may see something we should categorize as a miracle. But then we think to ourselves that it will only be a matter of time before scientists find out what happened - scientifically.
2. We believe too much in miracles. We have any little experience of something we didn’t expect, and we rush to the conclusion that it was a miracle. We categorize anything as a miracle. We see God’s divine signature all over the place, even when there is a logical explanation to what happened.
Thinking about these two extremes, I have one simple set of questions in mind. It is this. Why was it important for the writer of Mark’s Gospel to emphasize Jesus’ miracles? Did he think his readers would find spiritual inspiration in the knowledge that Jesus had the power to do miracles?
Or to put a personal spin on it, would it add value to your spiritual life if you were convinced that Jesus is very much into doing miracles?
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(Photo: Loci Lenar)
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I think it would be a spiritual experience for me to see a miracle. I have always wanted to see a miracle but if God really is God, why does he not perform more miracles in the world? You would think that if there were more miracles around, then there would also be more people who would believe. Maybe Mark wished that if he made sure to tell about all Jesus’ miracles, then more people would believe.