Miracle Ministry

 

    Jesus taught through parables to reach people and to get them to think about what he was teaching.  He also had an action ministry that was actually more subtle, but stands out more to people.  It was his miracle ministry.  He publicly did healings and demonic removal.  However, he did a lot of private miracle to suite the situation and to impact a person or group of people.

    We have to start with the end of John's life.  John the Baptist was arrested for speaking against King Herod's unholy relationship with his brother's wife, Herodias.  She basically had impact on a lot of things that she probably should not have even known about.  On her daughter's birthday she influenced her daughter to ask for John the Baptist's head for her present.  To please the women, Herod beheaded John and his time of ministry was over.  That is why when Herod heard about Jesus, he thought it was John resurrected and was afraid from his paranoia that John was after him.

    His disciples took his body to bury it, then they went to tell Jesus.  Jesus could not stop it because it is an event that had to happen to line up other events to come.  That does not mean that it did not hurt Jesus.  He loved his cousin and knew he would see him again soon, but right in the moment it had to be felt completely.  Jesus went to be alone.  However, people followed Jesus, so he went back to healing.  He was on earth for a reason and the living were suffering.  John was no longer suffering.

    When it was time to eat the disciples wanted to sent the people home, but Jesus said not to send them away.  They gathered all the food they could find.   It came to only five loaves of bread and two fish.  Jesus prayed over the food while the disciples helped the people get comfortable for a meal.  Then they began to give it out.  Everyone there ate until they were satisfied.  When they gathered the left overs, there were 12 baskets full.  They had miraculously fed 5,000 men (not counting the wives and children) with five loaves and two fish.  Add in the women and children, it may had been more like 15,000 people.

    After the miracle, Jesus left the people to go pray.  That was his time of rest.  When he was ready to rejoin his disciples they had already began to cross the Sea of Galilee by boat per his orders.  Jesus saw that the boat was struggling against the waves and walked on water to rejoin his men.  They saw a figure walking toward them early in the morning.  It was probably the beginning of sunrise when everything is still hazy, somewhere between 3am and 6am.  They were terrified thinking he was an evil spirit.

      Jesus sensed this, so he spoke out to them announcing himself and telling them not to be afraid.  Peter was always zealous and impetuous.  He asked Jesus to command him to walk on water too, so Jesus did.  Peter stepped out of the boat without thinking, just on faith, to join Jesus on the water.  Once he was on the water, he felt the wind.  It was only a momentary distraction, but enough to make him realize that what he was doing went against the laws of nature.  He became afraid and called out to Jesus as he began to sink.  

    Jesus caught him and helped him back into the boat. Once they were both in the boat is was obvious that they others were worshipping Jesus in awe: Jesus was the son of God.  It is like it hit them for the first time, but I think it was more of a deeper awakening of the fact having impact on them personally.  As soon as they were ashore in Gennesaret, the sick were there to be healed.

Matthew 14