SIGNS AND WONDERS

Signs and Wonders

 

Consider the marriage feast of Cana, as related in the 2^nd. chapter of John’s Gospel. “...there was a wedding at Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding” (vs. 1 – 2). What began as an average feast turned into a celebration of a lively happy-clappy dancing crowd of merrymakers. From dismal to blissful. God is the fullness of bliss. If Jesus were a heavy, boring person, would the children have scrambled all over him? Peter and the disciples had to act security and bodyguard for Jesus against attacks, not from terrorists, but happy children. Jesus assured them, “Let the children come to me; they are not dangerous, they are candidates for the Kingdom; and unless the rest of you become like little children you cannot enter into my country, my homeland.” The people who listened to Jesus were in wonderment. They paid him two beautiful compliments. About his preaching: “All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth” (Luke 4, 22). And about his work:  “They were astounded beyond measure, saying, ‘He has done everything well. He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak’” (Mark 7, 37).  On one occasion the Temple authorities sent their police to arrest Jesus and bring him in. The policemen went but returned with empty handcuffs. They were questioned, “Why did you not arrest him?”The police answered, “Never has anyone spoken like this“(John 7, 32, 45 – 49).

“Gracious words” and “done everything well.”  Words and actions. The words and actions of Jesus were signs, signs that produced wonderment.  Wonderment at the good things happening by the presence, words and actions of Jesus. Look at Jesus. Look at him with the eyes of those children who went for him,  screaming and scrambling to sit on his lap, holding and kissing his hands and face; and Jesus egging them on, placing his hands of their heads and holding them in his arms. That’s what heaven is all about, and it is happening right now. The Marriage feast of Cana was already a sign of the merriment and bliss of heaven – the marriage feast of the Lamb. Changing water into wine, making a paralysed man stand up and walk and dance, making a dumb man sing the latest number from Bollywood, and a deaf man hear the latest gossip, raising a dead child by simply taking her by the hand and sending her back to school, empowering a middle-aged woman to be healed from within of her haemorrhage, feeding thousands with tasty tuna sandwich in the desert, and, best of all, himself rising within three days of his own death. You may call these miracles, but the Gospel writers call them “signs”. Signs of God’s presence, that God is actively establishing his kingdom and taking back his creation to himself now and forever. You may quite rightly say that the great restoration, the great gathering up by God is happening behind the scene of our daily life. Our daily lives may appear boring and uneventful but something is going on, something invisible but very great. And a miracle is like God lifting the curtain just a wee bit to give us an idea of what he is doing, a flash photo of the marriage feast of heaven. Let us take a miracle of healing. Through that miracle God is showing us what heaven is like – a place of health and wholeness...no more pain. Take a miracle of conversion from sin to forgiveness, from evil to good. In that miracle God is giving us a foretaste of the goodness, peace and joy of heaven.  Every miracle brings heaven down to earth. Every miracle is like a lightening flash that illumines the sky. Every miracle leaves us in wonderment and admiration of God for his love for us and his promises that we will be with him forever. Each one of as can say this prayer to our dear Lord: “It’s good to be with you, Lord. May I be with you forever.” And when we are finally all intimately in God forever, there’ll be no more signs, only the reality. No more signs, only wonderment. The signs will have been abolished as having served their purpose.

In nature there is a regularity of behaviour. A miracle is a divine intervention as an exceptional interruption of such regularity. It leads off into the ocean of divine mystery, which has to do with our salvation. Absolutely every event in creation is permeated by the divine presence, energy and purpose. The original and ultimate purpose of creation is our sharing in the life and joy of the Holy Trinity. And it began with the saving activity of Christ in his assuming individuals into the power of his God-consciousness. Christ’s role is to communicate his powerful awareness of God to his fellows and thus to attract them into the community that he founded as his church. Jesus Christ is the beginning of this new community.  Nothing is outside the range of God’s power. Some professed believers deny the possibility of miracles, thus limiting the divine freedom by insisting that they know what is appropriate or inappropriate for him to do! But cannot God enter into his creation? Can he not alter the usual order of reality?         Is not God the God of surprises? Can we not allow God to be God? What we call chance may be the logic of God. The Gospel does not emphasise the marvellous deed itself, but the power of God that was behind the deed. Even the ordinary works of nature are directly attributable to God. The world is the forum wherein God acts on behalf of humanity. The world and all that is in it belongs to him, and he claims it for himself. We would do well to stand under this claim. “God manifests his more-than-normal goodness by more-than-normal signs” (Maurice Blondel). A miracle does not violate or contravene nature; it rather elevates nature by making it more productive and fruitful. It offers a promise and gives a concrete pledge of fulfilment. It reminds us, every now and again, not only who we are but whose we are. Throughout his life, Jesus touched others both physically and emotionally because he had first been touched by their needy situations. The blind, emotionally ill, epileptic, bereaved – each came to him or was recognised by him as bearing the sign of an existence uprooted and thrown into the unfathomable mystery of suffering or death. To those within the dark encasement of pain, life seemed very paltry and meaningless, indeed: it seemed to add up to very little. In each case, Jesus was deeply shaken - and suddenly aware of how God could reach out through him, he acted – acted decisively! This is what God is like. The kindness of God reaches out to the loneliness, the isolation, the grief of the human heart as to nothing else. The only thing that God does to the void left by human loss is to fill it. In the Resurrection of Jesus God demolishes death forever, showing how seriously he takes us in our suffering, redeeming his pledge that all human life is finally saved and introduced into the transcendent existence of the Holy Trinity – the consummate evolute of the process that began with the Big Bang!

 God is no mere master manipulator of blueprints and systems, but the ardent lover of the human heart. And we are enlivened by the nearness of the heart of our God, the God of our heart.

      "The greatest act of faith is when man decides he is not God." God is pure Giver, and man pure receiver.
    DEAR LORD, without you I am nothing.  You are my faithful provider and counsellor.  I rely not on my own understanding but on your perfect plan for me. In all my ways I acknowledge and honour you.  Because I acknowledge you, daily I pray that you direct, make straight and regulate my ways.  I run the race of life confident and sure, for I know you control my life. As I do my best, sustain me with your faith.  Lord, give me steps that are sure, a path that is clear -- a future that is bright and brimming.  Then welcome me at the end of the race, for I have become victorious and faithful in your name.