I do believe that Jesus actually did miracles, as I also believe miracles can and do happen today. I also believe there is the “gift of miracles” (1 Corinthians 12:10, 29), where God through His Holy Spirit, and in His time and in His purpose, grants individuals the ability to heal (1 Corinthians 12:28) or other miracles as part of what He does through a community of faith. I do not believe that Jesus was a “miracle-worker” or “performer of miracles” simply to gain popularity or hold power over His audience. In fact Jesus did not use miracles to install or build faith. Quite the contrary, actually. Miracles were not and are not “for show.” I have always been at odds with those who just think by making some form of pious prayer (almost akin to an incantation) or by claiming a miracle that healings and miracles were/are at the command of men and women. Miracles were not and are not for power, but for teaching, confrontation, and for subverting the powers of “this present age.”
As I mentioned in the previous post to this thread, miracles, like their cousins the parables, function in a similar way. They are miracle-parables, or maybe more properly identified as deed-parables. Here I would just like to propose two reasons why Jesus’ miracle ministry are actually miracle-parables. And then in the final post, why miracles are subversive to unhinge the power of man and his unrighteous systems that hold power over others, leaving them vulnerable, helpless, and dependent on those who hold or claim that power. And in that final point, I will—every so briefly—explain why I believe social action can be similar to the miracles of Jesus.
First, as I have studied Mark, I noticed that Gospel’s structure puts word-parables and deed-parables in parallel consideration. This structure is made clear in how Mark lays out his material. We first hear that the Gospel is about “Jesus the messiah, the Son of God” (1:1). As we read, we find at Mark 3:11-12, while confronting a possessed individual, the demon acknowledges that Jesus is the “Son of God.” This helps identify that Mark 1:1-3:12 is most likely a section, with what follows being a new section to the structure of Mark’s material.
This allows us to look for structural clues to the next section which will help, obviously, with discovering the meaning and purpose of the stories and narrative itself. There is an interesting chiastic structure built into the span between Mark 3:13 and Mark 6:13. Here is that chiastic framing:
A) The twelve and their kingdom task of word and deed (3:13-19)
B) Hometown skepticism and the Beelzebul story (3:20-35)
C) Word-parables (4:1-34)
D) The authoritative, mysterious One (4:35-41)
C) Deed-parables (5:1-43)
B) Hometown rejection (6:1-6)
A) The twelve and their kingdom task of word and deed (6:7-13)
You will note—if you have your bible—that the commission of the twelve (A) frames the stories and narrations that occur in-between (B, C, D). Interestingly, the commission is to repeat the pattern of Jesus in word and in deed—preaching the kingdom and having authority over demons, casting them out. This is significant for 1) it makes sure we understand that word and deed are indeed parallel in task (note C in the structure), and 2) the “casting of demons” is the big miracle—the longest story-narration in Mark’s Gospel—that helps frame the purpose of the exorcisms done by Jesus. (I will get to that in the next post.) Here it is sufficient to point out that word and deed, proclamation and action are cousins in the ministry of the kingdom with parallel functions.
Second, the miracle-stories (miracle-parables) produce similar reactions of faith and resistance as does the “purpose of the parables” described in the parable of the Sower who sows. There is amazement, awe, confusion, hatred, division. In the Mark 5 pigs-demons story, the miracle-parable frightens the people and in fact they “implore” Jesus to leave their region (v 17). Later, in the next section, after Jesus “performs” the miracle of the bread and fish, he notes the unbelief after the miracle in similar terms as He does the reaction to His parables (in Mark 4: Their hearts become hardened (6:52). And previously—in the section we are considering, 3:13-6:13, we hear after Jesus heals, unbelief is linked to the hardness of their hearts (3:5). And you should note, even the miracles are shrouded in mystery, where Jesus often, even demands that they not reveal the occurrence to others.
These two observations alone should help us to see that parables and miracles are indeed cousins with similar functions and effects. And as such, applying the meaning and purpose of them in our contemporay context should open us up to a wide range of deed-parables.
In the next post to this (now) 4-part thread, I will conclude as to the subversive nature of miracles and then why, as such, I think social action can be a similar deed-parable today (post # 4). (Read all the posts on this thread, 1, 2, 3, 4.)
Posted by Chip Anderson at 08:16 AM. Filed under: Wasted Evangelism •
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