What is a miracle?
The dictionary tells us that a miracle is:
“An event beyond the laws of nature”. A miracle is something very amazing or unusual which we cannot explain.
In the New Testament, the Bible tells us about the amazing miracles Jesus did. Jesus was given a special power from God, his Father in heaven.
Four men who followed Jesus wrote the first four books in the New Testament. These men were Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. They wanted everyone to know that Jesus was a very special person. We have already learned that Jesus was the Son of God, born from a human mother (Luke 1:30-33). Jesus was human, just like us, but he had a very special and very close relationship with his Father. Jesus lived in the land of Israel almost 2000 years ago, and he spent three years teaching the people about God. To prove that he was from God, Jesus would ask God to help him perform miracles.
Jesus was able to ask God to make blind people see; to make sick people well; to make deaf people hear. No one except Jesus had been able to make hundreds of fish swim into a net, or to turn water into wine, or to walk on the top of a lake!
Doctors today can do some amazing things. When we are sick, they can usually make us better. However, after we are dead, there is nothing more the doctors can do. Jesus made a man who had been dead for three days alive again! Jesus needed only the power of God and the touch of his hands.
If we knew how to heal people, make water into wine, or make someone alive again, we could be rich and famous! Jesus was different. He took no money and he did not want to be famous. He wanted people to serve his Father.
The love of Jesus
When we read in the Bible about the miracles that Jesus did, we learn some important things about Jesus and God his Father.
Jesus loved people. He loves everyone! The rich and the poor; people who were sick or disabled; those who were mentally ill. He felt sorry for families that were hungry, and for the people who were dying. Jesus must have been very tired during those three years, because he wanted so much to teach the people about God’s love for them. He wanted to take away the illnesses and pain of the people who came to him.
Jesus did not turn anyone away – not even the enemies of the Jewish people. Jesus healed a Roman soldier’s servant because the soldier believed that Jesus could do it.
Another time, more than 5000 people were given a meal. Did Jesus have hundreds of loaves of bread? No, he used 5 bread rolls and 2 small fish to feed them all!
One day a storm came up when Jesus was in a boat with his disciples. The disciples were afraid that they would all drown. Jesus told the storm to stop, and it did!
Truly, the things that Jesus did were so amazing! People who can do magic tricks can fool us – but the miracles of Jesus were real. God made the world, He made the laws of nature, and so He can change them if he wants to.
The faith of Jesus
If we look at all the miracles that Jesus did, we find something in most of them: faith. Faith is believing that something will happen. We believe that God cares for us – this is faith. Jesus never lost faith in God. Often, before he healed someone, Jesus would ask them what they needed. He did this to see if they had faith that Jesus (with God’s power) could do it. Sometimes another person – a mother or father, a friend or relative, showed the faith.
The Jewish leaders hated Jesus so much that they killed Jesus. The leaders did not want to lose their power over the people, and so they crucified Jesus. Jesus was dead for three days. The greatest miracle of all then happened. God made Jesus alive again! God made Jesus alive again to show you and me that He could do the same for us if we love Him. We can be part of the miracle of the resurrection. The resurrection will happen when Jesus returns to the earth. Jesus has promised this to all who will follow him.
Some of Jesus’ miracles.
Turning water into wine (John 2:1-11)
A man with leprosy (Matt 8:2-3, Luke 5:12-13)
Peter’s mother-in-law (Matt 8:14-15, Mark 1:30-31)
Stopping the storm (Mark 4:37-39, Luke 8:22-24)
The daughter of Jairus made alive (Matt 9:23-25, Luke 8:49-56)
Jesus walks on the lake (Mark 6:48-51 , John 6:19-21)
5000 people fed (Matt 14:15-20, Mark 6:35-44)
A man with an injured hand (Matt 12:10-13, Mark 3:1-5)
Many fish caught in a net (Luke 5:1-11)
Two blind men (Matt 9:27-31)
Lazarus made alive (John 11:1-44)