Teachings,+the+Secret+message+of+Jesus+(7)

The Demonstration of the message
(Kai Stormwalker)

“Did Jesus communicate the message of the kingdom of God in any way other than secretly through parables? The answer is no, if you limit yourself to words. But the answer, beyond words, is yes; he also communicated the message secretly through signs and wonders. “The term we typically use for these phenomena is not signs and wonders but rather miracles. Yet too often these days, the word miracle unwittingly roots us in a worldview that is foreign to the world of Jesus. To understand how miracles worked as vehicles for Jesus’ message, I think we’re wiser to immerse ourselves in Jesus’ worldview rather than drag him into ours… “Most of us on the modern West - religious or irreligious - have inherited a worldview that was formed largely in the seventeenth century. In this perspective, our world is best compared to a machine… “In this worldview, miracles - if they occur - would involve interference from outside. God reaches in and fiddles with the gears.., God is the outsider; natural causes create effects mechanically and automatically unless God intervenes. “But Jesus lived long before…machines of any kind…Rather God was connected to the universe, present with it, and intimately involved in it. So the universe was less like a machine and more like a family…The very word kingdom suggests as much: kings are relationally involved in their kingdoms. They are present, active, participatory, and engaged… “On the other hand, kings are not, strictly speaking, in absolute control. They don’t control their kingdom the way a kid playing a video game operates the controls of the game, for example… The king may give orders, but the citizens may disobey… Then the king may respond to their incivility and so on, in an ongoing interactive relationship.”

-Brian D. McLaren

A. What were some of the miracles Jesus performed?

Read the following: Matthew 8:5-13; 9:27-31; 12:9-14 Mark 1:40-41; 5:21-43; 8:23 Luke 7:11-17 John 5:2-9

B. What are some of the similarities between these miracles?

1. healing rather than destruction 2. faith - sometimes in response to faith and sometimes to stimulate faith 3. symbolic - restored hearing so as to have ‘ears to hear’ etc. 4. secret - in many cases Jesus tells the one healed to be quiet about it 5. signs that the kingdom of God is at hand

“In fact, this is in large part what I believe the signs and wonders of Jesus are secretly telling us: that God, the god King, is present - working from the inside. The King is in the kingdom, and the kingdom is among us here and now - for those who have eyes to see and ears to hear…What secret message could be clearer than that?”

- Brian D. McLaren