One of the inevitable questions a Christian of any stripe encounters is: were the miracles of Jesus real? Did he really walk on water? Raise the dead? Help the blind to see and the lame to walk? Did he really feed five hundred people with just a few loaves of bread and a few fish?
The answer is actually quite simple: it doesn’t matter.
One of the early principles of miracles – the first section of the ACIM text – states simply that “miracles as such do not matter. The only thing that matters is their source which is far beyond evaluation.”
It is helpful to think of the miracles of Christ – those assigned to him in the bible – as more in the nature of metaphors. Think about walking on water, for example. One way to think about that is to consider that Jesus was available to his disciples in all circumstances and at all times. If they were out at sea, then he was there as well. When we are in Christ, nothing can separate us from him because Jesus – Christ – can bridge any gap. In light of that, it doesn’t really matter if Jesus physically went for a stroll over the waves or not. He was there for his followers. And he still is.
A lot of us – me, too, sometimes – want the miracles to be real. That is, we want them to be observable and measureable in the world. It’s not enough to know that Jesus is with us always, we want to see some physical manifestation of that fact as well. But looking to the world to heal us or assuage our fear is a mistake. The problem is in our mind – not out there in the world – and it’s in the mind that it needs to be healed.
In other words, we don’t need Jesus walking on water or strolling out of the clouds. We need him where he is – with the Holy Spirit – in our minds.
When we are looking for physical evidence of miracles, we are being unfaithful – we are in a place of fear and projecting accordingly. That’s not to say that a miracle won’t have observable effects. It might. But it might also be nothing more than a shift in perception that only you notice. Lately, I have become increasingly aware of this. I pray for a miracle and instead of radical dramatic changes outside of me, there’s a little click and I just feel safer and more loving and more open.
That peace – that inner peace – is really the point of miracles. When we have that, nothing external can mess with us. Sickness, loss of a job, no money, whatever. They don’t affect us because we are simply in the present with the Holy Spirit. We’re at peace. We don’t need a sudden cure or a winning lottery ticket. Good news, bad news – it can’t touch us when we’re with Jesus.
Remember the other miracle principle – “miracles occur naturally as expressions of love. The real miracle is the love (the source) that inspires them.” We perform miracles when we think lovingly – when we align our thinking with Jesus and the Holy Spirit.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
This is a lie. It does matter very much. One of the reasons I was led to this site was to search how the miracles of Jesus determines the faith of some people today. There are thousands of people and many huge religious organizations that rely so much on the miracle of Jesus that they refuse medical help when needed. They believe in divine healing because they believe their Jesus “is a healer.” And thousands die with hope in a belief. So it does matter and we should know the truth. Were his miracles real? Can we trust in them? And does he still heal today? Should we take medicine or should we believe in divine healing? Should we trust the faith healers who tout the miracles of Jesus to sell their theology? IT DOES MATTER.
Hi Malik.
Thank you for your comments. I appreciate that you took the time to read and offer your thoughts.
I agree with you actually: we should look at those miracles and ask whether they were true and whether we can rely on them and whether we can take medicine or just let Jesus “heal” us. It is important to ask the question – as I have done and you have clearly done – whether or not the miracles of Jesus matter. And my answer to that question is: the historical miracles of Jesus do not matter. A personal relationship with Jesus here and now matters. For me, I am close to Jesus and it does not matter to me whether he walked on water or whether that was just a story spread by his followers to make him look better. In general, I think shifiting our focus from the historical Jesus to the personal relationship we have in this moment – as parents, teachers, neighbors, lawyers, doctors, friends, whatever – is what matters. We can experience the truth today – we don’t need to go digging for it in the ancient past.
So far as healing goes, I am on record that taking aspirin for a headache or chemotherapy for cancer is entirely reasonable and appropriate. I don’t think people have to choose between Jesus and an MD.
I hope I have not misunderstood your point.
Ultimately, we all make our own choices in this regard. I understand that plenty of people don’t agree with me – I’m not trying to persuade them of anything. I just want to share my own thoughts, which evolve over time and – as I point out throughout the website – are driven by A Course in Miracles and Christians from a sort of Vedantic tradition. I know what’s right for me might be wrong for someone else. If you look at my site, most of the “miracles” that I experience and talk about are simply changes of mind – being nice to people that I was feeling impatient with, helping family members that make me grit my teeth so hard my head hurts. That sort of thing. I hope we can all have that in our lives – it makes for more happiness, more peace, more love.
Thank you again for your note – please feel free to stay in touch, via the comment stream or email. I’m always happy to try and better understand other people’s position or clarify mine.
Take care, Malik.
Sean
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