Stephen
Terry, Director
Miracles
Around the Lake
Commentary
for the August 3, 2024, Sabbath School Lesson
"He took her by the hand and said to her, 'Talitha koum!' (which means 'Little
girl, I say to you, get up!').'" Mark 5:41
We are in wildfire season here
in the Pacific Northwest. In Eastern Washington, where I live, the climate is
especially arid. The low humidity and dried out landscape are the perfect conditions
for fires to easily kindle and grow if given the opportunity. There are years
when we have abundant storms, and lightning kindles conflagrations that roar
through forest and scrubland growing to ten or even hundreds of thousands of
acres, destroying homes and wiping out generations of family mementos in the
process. Last year a wildfire wiped out sizable portions of the nearby
community of Medical Lake. They are still in the process of rebuilding the
homes from the ashes. We recently attended a housewarming for friends who were
finally able to move back into a new home that replaced the one they lost in
that fire. It was a reminder of the sadness of loss and the hope of a better
future.
This year, we have had little
lightning from storms, but there are just as many fires, which indicates that
the fires are from arson rather than naturally sparked. Yesterday, they
announced on the news that two children, one thirteen and the other, age eleven,
had been arrested and charged with igniting one of the worst fires of the
season. However, the most terrifying fire for the local Seventh-day Adventist
community was one that threatened Palisades Christian Academy. From the moment
when Ponderosa Pines began lighting up like Roman Candles along the ridgeline
above the school, a call for prayers went out and we all began praying for the
protection of the school. Despite the active presence of firefighters and
planes dropping water and retardant, the outcome seemed certain as the fire
moved rapidly down the hillside. Someone reported the fire was within one
hundred feet of the school. Then the report came that it was within thirty
feet. That is six feet less than the distance from my garage door to the city
street. Then word came that the fire had been stopped and the school was safe.
Those who believed in the power of
prayer rejoiced at this answer to prayer. But some, even Adventists, questioned
if a miracle from God saved Palisades Christian Academy, where was he for the
people of Medical Lake? Jonathan Haidt, in his book, "The Righteous Mind"
questioned whether the idea of miracles is more a matter of mindset than divine
intervention. In short, if we have a righteous mindset, we will interpret events
as being miraculous. But those who do not have that mindset would see only the
human intervention that stayed the course of the wildfire. With the difference in
outcomes between the fire approaching the school and last year's Medical Lake
Fire simply being a matter of available resources to dedicate to the effort.
We see this issue raised
repeatedly in the Gospels. In one instance, Jesus asked, "Do you have the faith
(the mindset) that this miracle can happen?" (Matthew
9:28) A mindset that believes in the possibility of miracles and the
existence and the ability of the one who is the source of miracles must be a
precursor to miracles. When Jesus returned to his hometown, the people could
not see anything special about him. They only saw a local carpenter who had
grown up among them. Because there was no faith, no right mindset, he could do
little for his former neighbors. (Mark
6:3-6) Prayer is an essential contribution to the development of that
mindset. Jesus modeled this in his own life. He also encouraged his disciples
to pray, delineating proper and improper prayer during his Sermon on the Mount.
(Matthew
6:5-15) If we would be like Jesus, prayer is an essential part of that
model. If we believe, prayer can bring miracles, and the biggest miracle that
prayer produces is the change it brings to our own hearts and our relationship with
others.
In chapters four and five of
Mark, we have several miracles. The miracle of Jesus calming the storm
illustrated that lack of faith does not negate God's divine will. At this time,
Jesus' disciples had not developed the love for him that would lead them to willingly
lay down their lives for him one day. When the storm arose, fear filled their
hearts. Fearful hearts are not loving hearts. (1
John 4:18) but this was early in Jesus' ministry, and they had much to
learn. Another miracle was the healing of the Wildman living among the tombs in
the land of the Gadarenes. Possessed with myriad demons, the man still had
enough faith to come and kneel before Jesus. The demons within the man
recognized Jesus' power and his authority over them. The implied question in
this encounter is even the demons believe, so why don't you? There comes a
point where one must answer that question. Either the Bible is right and prayer
and miracles are a part of the experience of the believer, or if rejecting that
idea, we must challenge the veracity of the Bible to resolve the cognitive
dissonance that arises when we claim a belief in God but deny the possibility
of divine intervention in our daily lives.
It is not hard to find reasons. The
Bible has contradictions as one might expect from many authors writing over
almost two millennia about their religious understanding developed across not
only that vast time but across cultures. It is a story of a faith handed down
to us through the generations. Jesus made the astounding claim to be truth
itself. (John
14:6) It is a statement that demands a response. If we choose, we can deny
the truth of someone claiming to be truth. Despite the statement being
unambiguous, we can assert that the truth as embodied in Jesus is only one of
many truths. We can decide that the Bible writers were men with agendas for power
and control, and such a statement, if fabricated (thus denying the very claim)
would serve those agendas. Because we know the evil and falseness that wants to
grow in our own hearts, it is not hard to convince ourselves that this is the
case. Or we can accept his assertion at face value. This latter perspective is
the path to faith and miracles. For even in the absence of such miracles, it
persists. Jesus announced that those who persist in this way, despite the lack
of any evidence would be more blessed than those who cannot believe without
proof. (John
20:29)
The amazing thing about miracles
is that they can play out over lifetimes and even generations before revealing
the power of God. In the cases of the bleeding woman and Jairus' daughter in
Mark, chapter five, both miracles began to develop twelve years prior when the
woman developed an incurable disease causing her to hemorrhage. At that time, a
child was born, and both headed toward a nexus twelve years later when the
child died before becoming a woman and facing her own monthly period of uncleanliness
and the woman who could not return to purity and cleanliness because of an
unremitting flow of blood. The woman, because it was against the cultural
understanding of clean and unclean and her presence could make everyone else
unclean, decided to approach Jesus with stealth lest others drive her away because
of her impurity. Notably, when Jesus felt her touch and turned to speak to her,
she knelt before him and he pronounced her healed without revealing the nature
of her illness, sensing the ire that such a revelation could stir up in those
in the crowds she may have touche. But the twelve-year circle was not yet
complete. Although it was taught that being in the presence of someone who had
died would also bring uncleanliness, he tactfully told those present at Jairus'
house that his daughter was only sleeping, thus removing the onus that any idea
of uncleanliness could taint what he was about to do and bring shame on the
family. He then raised the girl to life, saying "Little lamb, wake up!"[i] He
thus demonstrated his love for the family of Jairus and his daughter.
Jesus' miracles often focused on
those who were unclean, the woman who was bleeding and the lepers where the uncleanliness
could be "proven" from the Pentateuch. But in every case, even when he told
them to go and sin no more, he never pointed out the nature of their sin, leaving
that between the individual and God. With a loving Savior who has such kindness
and tact, miracles can be happening all around us, and even as believers we may
never know about it. Others may picture God as a thundering force railing at
sinners and condemning them to damnation and destruction. But he is speaking
into each of our lives with love and a still, small voice, not coercing, but
drawing us to him with love. We can come to him knowing his purpose is not to
betray or shame us, but to lovingly heal us and bring peace to our troubled
lives.