I really enjoy the miracles of Jesus, but not for the obvious reasons. Most would enjoy the miracles of Christ because they show his power, over nature or situations or people. To me, the miracles of Jesus reveal the gospel. Take the feeding of the 5000, for instance. The disciples come to Jesus and tell him to send the great crowd away to get food, since it was late in the day and some had come from a distance to hear him. This is when the story gets interesting. In Matthew’s version of the story (14:13f) Jesus looks at his disciples and says, “They don’t need to go away; you give them something to eat.”
Now what strikes me here is this. Jesus knew that the disciples did not have the resources to do what he told them to do. In fact, even the disciples knew this. Mark’s version said that it would require 200 denarii—200 days’ wages—to feed that many people. Certainly the disciples didn’t have this, neither the money nor the food. And Jesus knew that, but he told them anyway. “You give them something to eat!” My point is this. Jesus never fears commanding the impossible. Jesus told them to do something that he knew they could not do, so that they would feel their need for him. You see, when Jesus commands the impossible, he requires us to need him.
Really, I would say that Jesus always commands the impossible, at least the humanly impossible. God never gives us a command that we can accomplish without him. He just doesn’t. All of God’s commands require his help, his involvement, his work on our behalf. He tells husbands to love their wives like Christ loved the Church. That’s humanly impossible. He tells wives to submit to their husbands as unto the Lord. That’s humanly impossible. He tells us to put the needs of others before our own. That’s humanly impossible. He says, “Be holy, even as I am holy.” That’s humanly impossible. God never tells us to do something and then simply expects us to do it ourselves. But at the same time, he never backs off. He doesn’t give any other options. He doesn’t cut any slack. God never feels the need to lessen the strength of his commands simply because those commands are impossible. He just doesn’t. Why? He knows that, at the same time he has given the commands, he has provided every resource needed to carry out those commands. He has provided the truths of his word and the encouragement of his people and the power of his Spirit. We have every spiritual resource needed to obey humanly impossible commands.
Now the key word there is “spiritual.” The commands of God are spiritual, not physical. And so what that means is this. Spiritual commands require spiritual resources. Or, to go back to the miracle story, impossible situations require spiritual solutions. Both Jesus and the disciples were confronted with the same situation, but they came up with different solutions. The disciples came up with a physical solution: send the people into the nearby towns. Jesus came up with a spiritual solution: multiply five loaves and two fish. Interestingly, the disciples had just come back from a mission trip, where Jesus sent them out with his power, and they healed the sick and cast out demons. So they had done miracles themselves. But now they forgot. They forgot the resources at their disposal. They forgot Jesus.
We are all confronted with humanly impossible situations, all the time. Every command that God has given us is humanly impossible and requires his resources. He has designed his commands in such a way that they require his work to be fulfilled. And that’s the very definition of grace. What God requires, he also supplies. He never lessens his requirements, he just increases his supply. And the more difficult the requirement, the greater will be the supply.
Well said sir!!!
Please keep writing these. And then one of these days, write a book!
Thanks, Ellen.