What Miracles and Parables Have in Common

Miracles and parables are both instructive for followers of Christ because they both point to something greater and they both lead to repentance. Mark’s gospel majors on the activities of Jesus, which were all linked together to reveal God’s Messiah, Jesus Christ. The miracles of Jesus were one of the major activities of Jesus in Mark’s gospel. But like the parables, who many heard but did not receive, the miracles, for many, were just “magic tricks.”

Herod was one of those who wanted to be entertained by Jesus, “When Herod saw Jesus, he was very glad, for he had long desired to see him, because he had heard about him, and he was hoping to see some sign done by him.” Luke 23:8. Jesus did not come to entertain us, but to save us from becoming the kind of people that need to be entertained all the time with more and more glitz, smoke, and special effects.

There are churches today that have more special effects than sound doctrine. When the lights go out, special effects also go out, but sound doctrine will keep a light shining in the dark, driving back the darkness from the inside out! Church, keep the Light on in the lives of people by giving them sound doctrine from God’s word, and less tricks!

In Matthew 11:20, an instructive statement is made about the purpose of the miraculous, “Then he (Jesus) began to denounce the cities where most of his mighty works had been done, because they did not repent.” One of the things this verse teaches is that the purpose of a miracle is to lead a person to repentance, to change their mind about something. The cities of Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum had witnessed many of the miracles of Jesus, but they did not repent. John 12:37, says, “Though he had done so many signs before them, they still did not believe in him.”

Having faith in Jesus means losing faith in something or someone else. This is the definition of repentance. The people in those cities and the people that John was talking about only saw the activities of Jesus, but never saw or heard Jesus. They only saw and heard what they wanted rather than what they needed. To see and to hear what you need from God’s perspective, rather than what you want from your perspective is the definition of humility.

When Jesus healed the leper in Mark 1:40 – 45, He gave him strict instructions of what he needed to do next, “See that you say nothing to anyone, but go, show yourself to the priest and offer for your cleansing what Moses commanded for a proof to them.” The instructions Jesus gave the healed leper were the biggest part of the miracle, which the healed leper missed, because rather than obey Jesus, he went out and spread the news openly.

Why wouldn’t Jesus want everyone to know what He just did for the man? The answer is because the main experience of the miracle was the worship experience following the miracle, according to God’s word, which would include a priest. The leper was still healed, but Jesus wanted to reach a priest with the miracle! It never happened.

When you hear of some miracle, do you say, “Wow!” or do repent, knowing that miracles are God’s gift of repentance for you. When His mighty power is demonstrated it means that He is present, and that He desires to do something even greater with the emphasis upon Him, not me. When that happens, a changed life is the result, not entertainment.