AN ATHEISTIC SCEPTICAL BIBLE READING – THE GOSPELS – THE EARLY MIRACLES ALLEGEDLY PERFORMED BY JESUS
As well as his general sermonizing and parables, Jesus is believed to have conducted many miracles. A lot of them will receive their own analysis in this collection of essays, and this particular feature looks at the earliest miracle recoded in each Gospel,
MATTHEW 4;23 – Jesus starts off early, as soon as he returns from his sojourn in The Wilderness, curing the sick of all known ailments, and gaining respect and popularity quickly. The sick even travel in from Syria in the hope of meeting him and going home cured.
This sudden dramatic increase in the popularity of Jesus seems out of place with the harsh struggles he faces in the Gospels, with even Matthew showing at times that Jesus wasn’t finding his work too easy to accomplish. His international celebrity status seems to conflict with the quieter episodes described throughout, which would be impossible if Jesus was too popular early on.
There is no description of these miracles. The evidence amounts to hearsay.
In MARK and repeated in nearly the same words in LUKE the first noted miracle captures a sense of some of the difficulties faced by Jesus, rather than showing him affecting everyone he comes into contact with.
Jesus went preaching in Capernaum, on the Sabbath, in a synagogue. Most of the audience was impressed by his charisma, rhetoric and delivery, but one man was less than impressed. He heckles Jesus with demands to know if he is going to destroy everyone.
Jesus is clearly angry and he tells the interruptive challenger simply, but firmly to “be quiet.” The man does.
There’s no miracle so far – just a heckler put in his place by an accomplished public speaker. But Jesus hasn’t quite finished. He shouts out to some unseen being to “come out of him,” at which point a demon erupts from the man with a scream
Witnesses are impressed, though we are not told if the demon was seen as well as it was heard. Anyone can scream as many fraudulent mediums have done.
What are we to make of this story? A drunken interruption silenced? Jesus putting an accomplice in the audience to help stage a publicity stunt? Exaggerating a simple situation into some supernatural activity? A powerful demon achieving no more than disturbing the peace at a synagogue meeting? Its capture makes others follow Jesus, so exactly what it hoped to achieve is unclear.
JOHN – Here Jesus’ first miracle seems to be purely for selfish motives. I refer to one of the best-known events – Jesus turning water into wine.
Jesus, the apostles and Mary (Jesus’ mum), are guests at a wealthy society wedding reception in Cana. At the height of festivities, the wine runs out.
Mary asks Jesus if he can help solve the crisis. Jesus initially protests with “my time has not yet come.”
He means that he has no desire to go public with his identity as God incarnate as yet. He has no desire to draw too much attention to himself, but he decides to intervene anyway. He summons the waiters and advises them to fill several large ceremonial cleansing jars with water. They do so, and again on Jesus’ instructions, the water is taken to the table of the reception’s banqueting master, who discovers that the water is now a fine quality wine. It is a better quality than any wine he has bought in for the party so he is perplexed. Only Jesus, family, Apostles & the waiters know the truth.
This seems to be a parlour trick and some kind of sleight of hand conjuring stunt rather than a miracle.
Jesus is not trying to impress everyone here, as he was in the miracle described above from Matthew. He is selective about who should know his super-powers. He has no desire to be crucified yet. Too much attention from the rich and powerful might make that happen nevertheless.
It is a miracle for the elite chosen few and the working-class waiters.
© Copyright. Arthur Chappell
