faitmiracle

Remember the man with the evil spirit at the temple called Jesus “the Holy One of God” and Jesus said “Be quiet” before casting it out. Jesus was in an environment that would have raised so many issues over what the evil spirit was saying through the man for it wasn’t the set time for such revelation to be made known to mankind. (Mark 1:25-26)

When reading the gospels there seem two main challenges Jesus always encountered in terms of ministry and politics. The most dangerous were jealousy and hatred of the religious leaders. Jesus often had to move away from any opportunity where they might be overly aroused and have easy access in apprehending him (Luke 20:20) Jesus seemed to manage the timing of his arrest. The second was crowd control (Matt 8:18). As more and more flocked to Jesus the crowds became too large to effectively minister to them so he had to move away to less crowded areas and even leave to a new region to avoid crowds.

All these concerns might be involved in Jesus wanting to limit his fame depending on the situation, where the religious leaders and their ‘spies’ were, how big the crowd was and how the zealots might have used his fame for their own agenda. Of course, there is no way of hiding a miraculous healing to those who knew the man. To those who would know he was healed he would have to explain what happened.

He was not asked to ‘hide’ his healing, just refrain from telling people who would not already know. Jesus seems to simply want to avoid sensationalism and some political hazards. He did not want the man to broadcast his exciting experience, until perhaps much later on. Jesus managed the political landscape on which he was drawing more and more attention from crowds of people with differing motives of interest.

So not wanting to cast His pearls before swine (Matt 7:6) or to make a spectacle in front of unbelievers (Matt 13:58), Jesus expels all but the girl’s parents. By clearing the room of an excessively noisy, grieving crowd, He brings privacy, peace, quiet, and stillness to the situation. In addition, these neighbors and curiosity seekers had already seen His mighty works, and He does not want God’s gift to be considered entertainment. He never meant His miracles to coerce belief or amaze humanity. Nevertheless, He is quick to intervene when misery and suffering need to be relieved and people need to be exposed to God’s glory.

Jesus resurrects Jairus’ daughter in the presence of five appropriate witnesses: the father, mother, and only three of His disciples, Peter, James, and John. To establish the miracle’s veracity, He uses two unconverted people and three who were being converted (2Cor 13:1).  As the world scorns the reality of resurrection because sin separates them from God, but the day is not far off when the “dead in Christ” will respond to His simple but powerful command, “Arise!” (John 5:28-29; I Thessalonians 4:16).

Above all, the workings of individual faith of those that encountered Jesus seeking miracles was solely on how they understood and believed in His Power to do the impossible.  Jairus believed in Jesus’ presence for his daughter to be restored, the woman with the issue of blood believed just by touching the hem of His garment she would be saved but the Centurion had a higher level of faith that didn’t need Jesus’ touch or presence all he wanted was for Jesus to speak the Word which is always made Life through Him. Remember also when He was in the Temple and the paralytic man was brought (Mark 2:5) “When Jesus saw their faith,…He said Son your sins are forgiven..” yet some of the temple teachers harbored thoughts against Jesus having the authority to forgive sin which Jesus made clear in verses 10-12.

Well, just so it’s clear that I’m the Son of Man and authorized to do either, or both . . .” (he looked now at the paraplegic), “Get up. Pick up your stretcher and go home.” And the man did it—got up, grabbed his stretcher, and walked out, with everyone there watching him. They rubbed their eyes, incredulous—and then praised God, saying, “We’ve never seen anything like this!” Mark 2:8-12 MSG

 

                                                                                     
                                                                                                                                          Excerpts from Church of the Great God, Charlotte NC.

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