Why did Jesus do miracles?
The last thing Jesus would have wanted was his miracles to be seen as some sort of “magic.” His ambition was not to have people follow him around just to see him do miracles. Perhaps this is why he often told those cured to, “see that no one knows about this” (Matthew 9:30.)
Jesus had compassion for those who congregated before him. He saw their needs and helped them. But on the hillside that day, with over 5,000 people gathered… many of them could have been hungry, yet…
No one would have starved.
Why did Jesus choose to feed them all so miraculously?
He wanted everyone to discover who he was.
Jesus had said that he was the Son of God. He showed people that he came from God by doing many wonderful works. On this particular day people seemed to get the message. Afterwards (perhaps spurred by what Moses had told them) a long time ago, they all said:
Surely this is the Prophet who was to come into the world! (John 6:14)
Jesus’ miracle had made people think: Could this be the one? The Messiah? The one we’ve been waiting for?
It appears that Jesus had accomplished what he’d set out to do: to teach who he was.
So these days, how does Jesus show you who he is?
And this stimulates more questions…
- Are we ready to see more?
- Do we have the same sort of “is this the one?” reaction when we encounter daily miracles?
- Are we prompted to want to follow Jesus?
- Do we seek to desire to know more about Jesus, to live like he did, to perform miracles in our own way, by bringing God’s love to others?
What result will this miracle produce in our hearts and minds?
Photo credits:
Various miracles of Jesus, depicted in stained glass. I created this collage from images shared under various CC licenses. Images on either end by H. Zell. Windows in Iglesia de El Salvador, Santa Cruz de La Palma, Canary Islands, Spain, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0).
2nd image from left by: Nheyob. Windows in Chapel of the Immaculate Conception (University of Dayton), via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).
3rd from the left by: Fr Lawrence Lew, O.P. Window in Leicester Cathedral, UK, via Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0).
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