PREPARING FOR SESSION 4 - Healing
Often, people look at the stories about Jesus and say, "The fact that Jesus performed miracles and healed people proves that he was divine."
Yet, consider these examples:
- In Exodus, Moses makes all sorts of miracles happen with the plagues and parts the waters of the Red Sea (or Sea of Reeds);
- In 1 King 17:17-24, Elijah raises a dead boy to life;
- In Acts 3:1-11, Peter heals a lame man;
- In Acts 20:9-12, Paul heals a man who had fallen from a window and died during Paul's sermon.
These are just a FEW examples of others in the Bible (Old & New Testaments) who performed miraculous signs. Do the stories of Jesus' miracles, then, really prove that he was divine? If so, does that mean that the others listed above were divine? If not, what might be the real message / meaning?
One of the LTQ speakers said the Jesus is what God looks like in a robe and sandles. Not that he was "divine" but that he so allowed himself to be filled, inspired, influenced, directed, etc. by the spirit of God that he came to be concidered divine. But he said that his followers would do greater works, because when he was gone they (and us ) would have to 'tap into' that same spirit that is HERE for us.
ReplyDeleteYES! Definitely! I wonder why Christianity in general tends to downplay or forget that we are to do the same as Jesus (such as in Jesus sending out the disciples in pairs to do the same things he did) OR that we will do greater things than Jesus? Are we scared? Do we not trust God's grace? Are we just unwilling to do what Jesus did? Interesting. . .
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