The Purpose of the Miracles of Jesus Notes from Morna Hooker & George R. Beasely-Murray

The amount of space Mark devotes to miracles: It is important to him. Two broad groups: Healing miracles ‘Nature’ miracles The calming of the storm ( ) Walking on the water ( ) Two feeding miracles The barren fig tree ( , 20-25)

Healings to two individuals (in section ): 1. Each implies that the power of Jesus to heal is universal. 2. The link between Jesus’ authoritative teaching and his power to heal ( ).

The theme of Jesus’ teaching (1.14): The proclamation of the Kingdom of God. --This proclamation involves healing in Jesus the power of God’s Kingdom is at work, destroying the unclean spirits. --Healing miracles means more than mere physical healing (1.44; 5.15, 34: those who were excluded from the community are restored to membership of God’s people).

Out of pity for people? 1.Yes, but still more out of obedience to the call of God. 2. He had a foreordained ministry to fulfill. 3. He had come to reveal the kingdom of God in word and deed. 4. His ministry of healing was an integral part of his deliverance of human beings, and it belongs to his mediation of the kingdom of God as much as his preaching does.

His miracles and his proclamation were integral to the redemptive process whereby the saving sovereignty of God was inaugurated in the world.

The miracles were significant beyond expressing his sympathy for people, and that they were of a piece with his message and even declarative of it. Actions always show a person’s character. They testify to (a) the fact of his messianic lordship, and (b) the nature of the lordship. Both these aspects of their message are indissolubly bound up with his teaching on the kingdom of God.

Miracles not only demonstrate the power of God’s Kingdom but reveal the identity of Jesus himself The authority of the Son of God (1.11).

Healing takes place when his authority is acknowledged (either by the unclean spirit or by the sick). 1.No faith (= no acknowledgment of his authority), no healings ( 6.1-6: his home town; : his refusal to the Pharisees) 2. A healing outside the context of the proclamation of the Kingdom is inappropriate because it does not belong within the context of faith in the power of God ( : the Syro- Phoenician woman).

In Mark’s presentation, miracles are thus essentially christological. 1. They present us with the authority of Jesus and demand a response from us. 2. They are able to serve as symbols for belief in Jesus as the Son of God ( ; : two blind men).

True faith in Jesus is not simply faith in his power as a mighty man of God but faith in him as the Christ who is proclaimed as Son of God through suffering. True faith is born at the very end of the story, but already some in the story see and hear part of the truth about him.

Mark’s miracles function as ‘signs’ like Johannine signs, but Mark avoids the term (e.g.,13.22). The miracles are ‘signs’ of Jesus’ authority. They are not signs which lead to faith, but signs to those who have faith.

“The way of Jesus is not a sequence of exceptions to the ordinary, but a way of living deeply and fully with the people here and now, in the place we find ourselves.” --Eugene H. Peterson

The fact that Jesus heals and exorcises demons is not denied by his opponents, but wrong explanation. 1. They cannot deny the authority of Jesus, but they attribute the authority to the wrong source. 2. Jesus’ authority is unique and points to his identity.

In , the story (the dumb spirit) reminds us of faith for healing. 1. Jesus alone has the faith. 2. Because Jesus’ life is rooted in the Kingdom, he has the faith to grapple with Satan and defeat him; the disciples are not yet wholly committed.