Message, miracles and doubt

(One Perfect Life Chapters 56-60) The accounts in the Gospels move us through Jesus’ ministry by the interactions between His messages and His miracles. His words and His works are like the two ends of a kayak paddle. The kayak is propelled forward by using both ends in an alternating pattern. Se we see Jesus teaching through sermons and parables on the one hand and then confirming His message through the performance of miracles.

Immediately after the conclusion of the Sermon on the Mount Jesus confirms His teaching by healing the servant of a Roman centurion (Matthew 8:5-13; Luke 7:1-10) and raising a Jewish woman’s son from the dead (Luke 7:11-17). Jesus demonstrates His words are for both gentiles and Jews. The centurion shows great faith by pointing out Jesus ability to heal without coming into his home. An observant Jew would not enter the home of a gentile. Jesus commends him for his faith, “I have not found such great faith, not even in Israel” (Luke 7:9). Jesus indicates that the centurion is a representative of future gentile believers.

To show Jesus’ primary mission was to the Jews we next see Jesus show compassion of a widow by raising the only son of a widow. A widow without a son most likely would become a beggar at that time in history. He shows compassion and restores her by the raising of her son from the dead. All of Israel would be redeemed when God’s only begotten son is raised from the dead.

Compassion needed to be shown to the people of Israel because of their doubts about Jesus being their Messiah. Even John the Baptist sent two of his disciples to ask Jesus if He was the promised Messiah (Matthew 11:2-19). John saw the Holy Spirit descend onto Jesus and heard the voice of the Father identify Jesus as His son when he baptized Jesus. Still the message and actions of Jesus were not what John expected. Jesus reassured John by claiming He fulfilled prophecy through His miracles (Isaiah 35:5-10) and His Message (Isaiah 61:1).