Do you believe in miracles?

Here’s another question a lot of people might ask: How do we believe in miracles, especially if those closest to Jesus and saw him in person had trouble believing the validity of those miracles?

Is there some sort of explanation for the miracles, short of Jesus being God? How did they happen, why did they happen, and are we certain they happened? And is belief in those miracles necessary if we are to proclaim ourselves as Christians?

The quick, short and sweet answer is: yes. But, it goes much deeper than that.

By acknowledging, understanding and believing all the miracles Jesus Christ performed, we are recognizing His true divine person. Only God is capable of performing the miracles that Christ performed. They are not magic tricks; they are not sleight of hand, or a deception of the eye. They are true, genuine, life-altering, faith-bending miracles that can only come at the hands of God.

We should also acknowledge the crescendo nature that Christ’s signs and miracles took. It began with turning water into wine at the wedding in Cana. From there, Jesus continued to forgive sins, told the paralyzed to get up and walk because they had been healed. He stopped a woman’s bleeding she had been dealing with for 12 years and cured leprosy. He gave a blind man sight. Later, he eventually even dabbled in showing his power over nature by calming a frightening storm at sea while in a boat. And then there was the resurrection of Lazarus.

It was an interesting path of miracles, which just got bigger and stronger and more believable the deeper Christ ventured into His ministry. By performing those miracles, Christ fulfilled a number of prophecies that were preached in the Old Testament.

One of the most important aspects of all these miracles is the fact that they give us an amazing glimpse of what the true Kingdom of God might really look like. Meaning, the Kingdom of God is a place where paralysis is non-existent. The Kingdom of God is a place where disease ceases to cause pain, suffering and grief; and it actually ceases to even exist. The Kingdom of God is a place where natural disasters will be a thing of the past, a place where sins will be forgiven, and the wine will never run out.

The resurrection of Lazarus was also a subtle hint at things to come. Mary and Martha were both understandably upset about his death. Based on their knowledge at the time, they believed that death was permanent and that even Jesus couldn’t pull a fix out of his bag of miracles. They thought their beloved Lazarus was separated from them forever.

But God had a different idea. It was the perfect time, before his own death and resurrection (which was just around the corner) to show everyone that Jesus, too, had the power to conquer death. It was at that point that all past assumptions were altered.

No longer did people have to look toward the future with fear and trepidation. Instead, now humanity has hope, all thanks to God and His miraculous Kingdom.

Back to the question: Do you believe in miracles?

I suppose technically you do not have to believe that Christ performed all of these miracles, but if you don’t, you lose out on some of the wonderful and amazing qualities of Jesus Christ that point toward both his humanity and his divinity.

Also, how negatively could that affect your faith if you fail to believe the one and only perfect human to ever roam this planet was not capable of mending the ill and broken-hearted, calming the storms, and resurrecting the dead?

If those failed to be true, then our hope in God and eternal life might as well be non-existent. How can we remain faithful if God were merely just another prophet that roamed the earth?

If we fail to believe the Bible and Scripture, what then can we believe and have faith in? Certainly not miracles, certainly not the Bible, and certainly not God.

So, yes, Christ performed these miracles. Yes, Jesus was fully capable of doing this. And yes, we can have hope in a God that weeps and grieves with us, and also a God that has given us the gift of grace and eternal life.