Miracle Lessons

I have heard it said that every time Jesus performed a miracle, he did it in order to teach a specific lesson or make a specific point. He used his healing power not only to mend bodies but to illustrate his lessons and to help heal broken thinking.

Just crack open the Gospels and you’ll see it. Jesus healed a woman who reached forward to touch his cloak, and told her that faith had made her well. Jesus healed ten lepers, and one came back to say thank you. Jesus touched sick people, breaking unseemliness taboos. Jesus healed on the Sabbath, to show that the law serves us and is a tool to help order our lives, but the law of love is higher.

Each person Jesus healed came away not only with a healthy body but also an important message ringing in their hearts and minds. You are touchable. Your faith is sufficient. You are worth more than the law. The crowds and apostles who followed Jesus and saw his healing learned to look at life differently.

Yet each miracle also carried the same massage, one unified message that is bigger and more important than all of the little lessons taught in each individual instance.

Each person Jesus healed came away know this. You are loved. Life can change.

This is the core of Jesus message. You are loved. Life can change for the better.

This is the message that draws us in and opens our ears to everything else Jesus has to say. Everything else Jesus has to say is about these two simple statements. Just as the law and the prophets are summed up in two commands, love the lord your God and love your neighbor.

God demands these two simple things of us, and he gives us two simple things; love and the healing power to change our lives. This is the biggest miracle of all, the miracle that each one of us can receive. Not all of us need physical healing, but every single one of us has a broken life. None of us are living exactly as we want to, perfectly happy, perfectly content. We all need something--two important things. To know that we are loved and the power of love can change and reshape our lives.

This is what Jesus does, he gives us love and show us the way to a new life, a better life. He takes what is broken in all of us and fixes it. As we work through the process of healing we turn to God and others with new love and fulfill the greatest two commandments.

So next time you’re praying for a miracle, remember the greatest miracle, the constant miracle, the message of every miracle. You are loved. Life can change, life can be better. Just hang on to Jesus and he’ll show you the way.