Miracle/Heroics

It is likely that the general use of the word miracle clouds the biblical use and meaning of it.  We apply this flexibility, sometimes confusing, to many words and ideas they express.  Much of reference to hero, for example, is not really that of a hero, even if the act of the person is heroic (like that of a hero).  The genuine hero is a person who, on his/her own volition, puts self at serious risk to achieve a result presumed to be a benefit to another person, or persons – especially for the purpose of rescue from danger or death.  Persons are heroes when they deliberately put themselves at risk for good purpose – not for profit, adulation, or to fulfill duty.  There are few opportunities to gain hero status.  There are many opportunities to do heroic things.  Society commonly deems a person a hero when that person has done some heroic-like thing.  Many persons protest that they were not heroes in doing heroic things.  Many policemen and firemen have done heroic things, and are rightly honored for their work, but they are acting out duty, and would be considered cowardly if they evaded danger.  They may not be cowardly in such instances.  They just didn’t have what it takes to act heroically.  Many persons, perhaps, do not.  On the birth of our first child, the doctor made clear that the decision may have to be made to save either the child or my wife’s life.  We did not ask her opinion in concern that the situation would settle procedure.  We raced the car through red lights to the hospital to determine there what should be done, if time permitted.  If we had asked her, she (hero) would save the life of the baby.  Happily for us both mother and child were safe in the dramatic efforts of a physician, a neighbor, and nurses.  We discover that much of life will require heroic attitudes that relate to love, humility, ability, values and selflessness.  God calls us to it, and we ought to calibrate ourselves to the context.  What a glory attends heroic conduct to the benefit of others.

We return to miracle in our discussion.  Here God is hero, in that he interferes in some way in a natural event for the good of a person or persons – likely even in the individual event there are others affected beneficially by the interruption.  No one but God can perform a miracle.  All other events are explainable, either presently or can be when related information is discovered.  A miracle has no other cause than God. There is an important point to be made here.  In the miracle clusters found in Scripture the authorship of the miracles was attributed to God, not to the human representative acting for God.  Moses, Elijah and others were acting as God’s servants in the delivery of miracles.  Only in the experience of Jesus did the author of miracles appear.  He performed miracles on his own.  The message got around.  Even King Herod wanted to see Jesus perform a miracle.  Skeptics believed it was some sleight of hand, or planted stories, or anything other than that there was a person among them who could actually perform miracles – because only God can perform miracles.  This Jesus was equating himself with God.  Exactly equal but not falsely as they believed.  Jesus became known in a rather short time as a preacher/teacher and a worker of miracles.  The ministry of Jesus was for a thousand days in a small quadrant of a square that draws a line from the Mediterranean east to the Sea of Galilee, south to the lower boundary of the Dead Sea, and east to the Mediterranean.  From that somewhat barren area there emerged the number one person of all history, whose message demanded attention because it was accompanied by miracles – acts that only God can perform.  He did them on his own recognizance.  He granted some management of this miracle authority to the Apostles.  Some public persons were so moved by the authority that they would place their sick so that even the shadow of Peter might fall over their suffering loved one.  The stories of some of the other miracles make dramatic what occurred – almost beyond words,.  Miracles are part of the heroics of God, for the primary purpose of providing some evidence of God so to support the concept that God works in his creation, and partly to extend his compassion to mankind in the understanding that we can’t make it alone to our desired haven.  It is his heaven and we must meet standards beyond us – unless we follow him as he has directed.  Come, follow me: was his simple message to disciples, ordinary folk, who ultimately changed their lives so to become God’s messengers to the world.  God permits human and heroic participation.