Are miracles necessary?
Jesus "gave them authority over unclean spirits to drive them out and to cure every disease and every illness”
Only one prophet would be sent out in the earlier days of Israel. Jesus sent out twelve men, not just one. Then, he sent seventy. God’s miracles confirm his constant presence. Our repentance confirms our sinful nature. Be wary, but know the mercy and loveliness of Jesus. His ultimate response is for those of us who know that repentance is necessary.
Memorial of Saint Bonaventure, Bishop and Doctor of the Church
Exodus 2:1-15a
Matthew 11:20-24
Deep in the heart of Jesus' teachings lie miracles that support him. Are miracles necessary? The prophets prophesied and performed miracles and signs, all of which pointed to God. So, in the cities where his apostles go to preach, Jesus gives them the same powers. Miraculous evidence confirms God’s desire to recapture and restore creation.
Jesus, adding his followers to the Spirit-filled list of ancient and current prophetic witnesses, built an unending future generation of prophets.
We’re in the section of Matthew, Chapter 11. Jesus had already sent out the apostles to announce the coming Kingdom, and they had come back. A few verses earlier than today’s reading, Jesus instilled in their minds and hearts that while the healing and exorcising power of His Spirit would astound entire communities, the call for repentance would not be automatic.
Only one prophet would be sent out in the earlier days of Israel. Everyone from Moses to John the Baptist pleaded with God’s people to repent and follow the law. A new ruling kingdom would take over the earth. These prophets often referred to prophecies of a coming Messiah to take charge of the kingdom.
The pleading largely remained the same after Jesus’ incarnation, but Jesus taught that the future Kingdom was at hand. Repentance remained the foreboding principle, but the landscape was changing. John the Baptist is referred to as the last prophet. What does Jesus do after the days of the prophets are over?
“Then he summoned his twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits to drive them out and to cure every disease and every illness” (Matthew 10:1). The message of the coming Kingdom was urgent. Jesus sent out twelve men, not just one.
It also pointed to a future of many more prophetic witnesses for the world to meet.
The evidence of credibility for the early prophets was a series of miracles and signs, fasting, and hearing the voice of God. Jesus also fasted, but he drank wine, and he gathered his followers in meals; periodically, they were abundantly fed. More telling, the voice of God, as heard by the prophets, now spoke to Jesus, calling him “Son” loudly for many to hear.
Credibility wasn’t entirely successful for the Old Testament prophets. Many were run out of town, and even killed. Jesus explained to his disciples that they would also encounter cognitive dissonance, an inability for hearers to reconcile their beliefs with their experiences, a necessity in converting hearts.
John the Baptist, the last prophet and the one who announced the Messiah’s coming, was not accepted, like previous prophets, and neither would they accept Jesus. “For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they said, ‘He is possessed by a demon. The Son of Man came eating and drinking and they said, ‘Look, he is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners’” (Matthew 11:8-9).
Many in power failed to connect the premise of a holy life, backed by evidence from miracles and signs, to substantiate God's involvement in the lives of either John the Baptist or Jesus. Jesus reminded his followers that “wisdom is vindicated by her works” (Matthew 11:8-9). It’s an oft-repeated axiom: We will be known by our fruits.
Later in his ministry, as revealed in Luke’s Gospel but not recorded by Matthew, Jesus sent out dozens more disciples to preach and perform miracles. The apostles ventured only to Hebrew towns. Seventy disciples would visit the towns of the Gentiles. The system of coming prophets grew exponentially in a few short years.
The miraculous pattern of preaching, driving out evil spirits, and healing stood as evidence of God’s power, God’s active involvement, and orchestration of events in creation. Jesus explodes the tradition of one prophet, extending it to his anointed ones and those filled with His Spirit. It’s without a doubt the most significant marketing achievement in human history.
God’s intervention in miracles has a dark side, too, for those who refuse and reject him. We remember the warnings that Jesus gave to the households and various towns that did not accept his disciples.
“Whoever will not receive you or listen to your words—go outside that house or town and shake the dust from your feet.” (Matthew 10:14)
Jesus is blunt. “Amen, I say to you, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah on the day of judgment than for that town.” (Matthew 10:14) Well, we know what happened to them. Human wickedness receives God’s retribution.
This is not a new warning. Similar warnings were given to the towns visited by the Old Testament prophets—everybody from Jonah shouting to Ninevah and Lot living in Sodom.
Jesus visits the towns where his apostles and disciples lived, where they had announced, “The kingdom of God is near.” This is a call to faith because Jesus would soon visit each village where the apostles and the disciples had preached. Not all went well.
“Jesus began to reproach the towns where most of his mighty deeds had been done, since they had not repented” (Matthew 11:20). There must have been a shaking of dust for several towns for the awful categorization of “no repented.”
“Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida,” Jesus said. This isn’t some distant, unfamiliar city. Bethsaida was the hometown of Philip, Andrew, and Peter. Also, Capernaum, not Jerusalem, was the biblical center of Jesus’ ministry in Galilee. “And as for you, Capernaum: Will you be exalted to heaven? You will go down to the netherworld.”
We know how badly the Sodomites had acted, perversions we are all too familiar with today. Jesus said that the inhabitants of Sodom would have repented if they had seen what Jesus’ apostles and disciples had done in His name. They would have been saved by the overwhelming evidence of Jesus’ miracles.
“For if the mighty deeds done in your midst had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day.” (Matthew 11:23)
Two sides of God’s evidence are clear. Healings and casting out of demons show God’s mercy. Destruction and being wiped off the map are the consequences of God’s wrath. We seldom focus on the unexpected, long-term consequences of sin. Mercy is only necessary because of sin, and we rely on that. Yet, the effects of sin still take place.
Jesus’ miracles should have served as signs inspiring the Hebrews. They were pretty familiar with the prophecies. For several chapters, Matthew fills out the theme of rejection by those who should know better. Matthew has been highlighting the dangers right up to today’s Chapter 11.
Chapter 9:4-6: Jesus knew what they were thinking, and said, “Why do you harbor evil thoughts? Which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Rise and walk’? But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—he then said to the paralytic, “Rise, pick up your stretcher, and go home.”
In Chapter 7, “Stop judging, that you may not be judged. For as you judge, so will you be judged, and the measure with which you measure will be measured out to you.”
The warnings continue through chapters 12–13.
Indeed, Jesus is merciful because mercy is necessary due to the prevalence of so many evils. “If you then, who are wicked, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good things to those who ask him.” Matthew 7:11
The miracles are important to us. “Rise, pick up your stretcher, and go home.” “Be made clean.” “Your heavenly Father gives good things to those who ask him.”
God’s miracles confirm his constant presence. Our repentance confirms our sinful nature. Be wary, but know the mercy and loveliness of Jesus. His ultimate response is for those of us who know that repentance is necessary. It’s no small thing that Matthew ends Chapter 11 with the following:
“Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart; and you will find rest for yourselves. For my yoke is easy, and my burden light.” (Matthew 11:28)