Miracles are a preview of a greater wholeness coming

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McCrorie [email protected]

In the Gospel of John, which we’re studying on Sunday mornings at Heather Hills right now, we recently reviewed the miracle Jesus performed on a man who had been paralyzed for 38 years.

As with many of his miracles, Jesus focused on one person out of a large crowd, had compassion on the individual, and did an amazing, supernatural work — the man could walk!

This is what Jesus does: He deals with people personally. He came looking for this man. He knew all about him. He understood his background. He knew what his needs were. He knew what his heart longings were. He knew him through and through.

Maybe you need to know today that that the Lord Jesus knows you. He knows you thoroughly, all about you. There is nothing you can hide from him — no burden you’re carrying that he doesn’t see or understand or know, no anxiety in your heart, no pain in your life, no memory from the past, and no skeleton in the closet. He knows you.

Nothing about the man stood out; he wasn’t pursuing Jesus. Jesus just saw the misery of the man and decided to make this man better. The miracle came out of Jesus’ compassion, not out of the man’s faith or righteousness.

About nine times in the Gospels it is recorded that Jesus was “moved with compassion” or “pity.” He is moved by the misery you feel.

His solutions are not always what we want in our lives, of course, but he is our sympathetic High Priest. He has compassion on people. There is no heartlessness in Jesus at all. He loves you.

Sometimes, we wish Jesus would fix our problem, and he doesn’t. He didn’t always heal everyone when he was on the earth, either. But make no mistake: Jesus has come to be the resurrection and the life.

And these miracles that he did, sometimes he did heal multitudes of people — just to show that he could do it. But that wasn’t what he was here for. Those healings were like the previews of the feature film to come.

Because a day is coming when there will be no more pain, no more disease, no more depression, no more death. That day is coming, ironically, because Jesus actually died for our sins. But he didn’t stay dead for long.

Jesus explained in John 5 that he has life in himself; his life is not contingent on oxygen or food or water or anything else, like our lives are. And he proved that when he rose from the dead.

He offers that life, resurrection life, to those who will believe in him, that he is the Son of God.

So, the next time you witness a miracle, remember it’s a signpost pointing us to the day that is coming, when Jesus will return and make everything new — when all who believe will only know life forever.

Will that include you?

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The miracle came out of Jesus’ compassion, not out of the man’s faith or righteousness.

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Brian McCrorie is senior pastor of Heather Hills Baptist Church. This weekly column is written by local clergy members. Send comments to [email protected].