{"id":7113,"date":"2021-09-07T15:58:08","date_gmt":"2021-09-07T22:58:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/?p=7113"},"modified":"2021-09-07T15:58:09","modified_gmt":"2021-09-07T22:58:09","slug":"the-anti-miracle-miracle-john-61-35-41-51","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/?p=7113","title":{"rendered":"
The Anti-Miracle Miracle (John 6:1-35, 41-51)<\/div>"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Click here for a pdf version.<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

A sermon for the Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Old Testament Book of Judges tells the story of Gideon, who led the people of Israel out of captivity and slavery. The text describes how a messenger came to Gideon and said: \u201cYou are supposed to lead the people.\u201d And he said: \u201cWait a minute. Let me go and make some food, and if you\u2019re still there after I\u2019ve made the food, then I\u2019ll know you are really who you say you are.\u201d The messenger was still there when the food came.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then when Gideon was called to lead the army, he defers: \u201cI\u2019m not so sure about this. I\u2019d like to really know. Let\u2019s do a test: Let\u2019s put out a piece of fleece (a piece of skin with the wool on it) on the ground overnight, and if in the morning the fleece is wet, and the ground dry, then I\u2019ll be convinced.\u201d And that\u2019s what happened.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But then he adds: \u201cLet\u2019s try it the other way, just to be sure. If in the morning the fleece is dry, and the ground wet, then I\u2019ll be convinced.\u201d And that\u2019s what happened. Then he led the army to victory (Judges 6-8).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m not at all sure that I would have been convinced. We know that when flipping coins, you can have a whole run of heads or a run of tails, but over a thousand flips it evens out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s suppose in the second place that we were there in Jerusalem after the resurrection. In Luke and Acts it says there were 40 days after the resurrection during which Jesus appeared. We might think that if he were walking around, there might be thousands of people who would be convinced. But they knew about dreams, delusions, fraud, look-alikes, and other kinds of trickery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Luke writes that for those forty days, he appeared \u201cnot to all the people, but to those who were chosen by God to be witnesses\u201d (Luke 10:40-41). Not to thousands, which obviously could happen in those forty days, but to those who were chosen as witnesses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What if Jesus were to appear right here in the middle of us today with a clap of thunder? A flash of light. Would you be convinced? Or would you think it\u2019s a hologram? Or it could simply be something you couldn\u2019t explain. It would not mean that you would say: Yes, this is the resurrected, living Lord.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1977 an Orthodox Jewish scholar, Pinchas Lapide, wrote a book called, The Resurrection of Jesus<\/em>. In this book he expressly states: \u201cOf course Jesus rose from the dead. But that doesn\u2019t mean I know how to explain that.\u201d It didn\u2019t make him into a Christian. We ask ourselves: \u201cWhat do people make of the resurrection account?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This brings us to the feeding of the five thousand in the sixth chapter of the Gospel of John. The people are quite enthusiastic because they have somebody to feed them and take care of their medical needs. Jesus, however, withdraws. The leaders come to him and say: \u201cWell, who are you really?\u201d And then they say to him: \u201cDo a sign. Do a miracle for us.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It wasn\u2019t enough that there had been this feeding of the five thousand. They said: \u201cDo another miracle\u201d (John 6:30). Because, after all, there were all kinds of healers and fakers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What about miracles? In Augustine everything is a miracle. In the Enlightenment there are no miracles. Many who were religious embraced Deism, which spoke of God as the watchmaker who winds up nature like a clock and does not intervene. In the twentieth century the God-of-the-gaps, that is, using God as a stop-gap for the incompleteness of scientific knowledge, was hotly debated. The temptation is always that I must understand God in a way that convinces me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Which brings us back to the New Testament and what it says about miracles. In the original language of the New Testament, the words \u201csign\u201d and \u201cmiracle\u201d are the same word, semeion<\/em>. All signs and miracles are ultimately ambiguous.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

For example, even a simple sign, like a street sign can lead one astray. Decades ago a common teenage prank was to take a pipe wrench and turn a street sign a quarter of a turn. Drivers new to the neighborhood would get all confused. All signs, all miracles are ambiguous.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Mark 3:22-23, the Pharisees say to Jesus: \u201cYou\u2019re doing this by the power of the evil one.\u201d They knew about other powers, other spirits. They knew that basically miracles and signs are ambiguous.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do the gospels actually say about signs and miracles?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Matt 16:1 it says: \u201cThe leaders came to Jesus and to test<\/strong> him they asked him to show them a sign from heaven.\u201d Jesus: do a sign, do a miracle. In this way they could judge him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Asking for a sign or a miracle is a way of saying: \u201cLord, you have to jump to my requirements, and then I\u2019ll believe.\u201d Asking for a sign is really testing, judging God, which is ultimately what sin is about.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Matthew 16:4 says: \u201cAn evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign shall be given to it, except the sign of Jonah.\u201d Luke 11:29 repeats these words: \u201cThis generation is an evil generation; it seeks a sign, but no sign shall be given to it except the sign of Jonah.\u201d Mark 8:12 is even more radical. He says no sign will be given. What is the \u201csign of Jonah\u201d? It is a metaphor for three days dead and coming back to life again. It is referring to the cross and resurrection (Luke 11:30).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are we then supposed to have faith in faith? To believe in believing? No. Or is faith a matter of believing impossible things? In Alice in Wonderland the Red Queen tells Alice that when she, the Queen, was a girl, she made it a practice to believe six impossible things before breakfast!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No, Christian faith is not a matter of believing in believing, but when you come down to it, faith is blind. In fact, faith has to be blind. Otherwise it would be based on saying: \u201cI can judge. It\u2019s evident to me, and I\u2019m judging who and what God is about.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s an age-old problem. Protagoras, a philosopher who lived in the fifth century B.C., famously said: \u201cMan is the measure of all things.\u201d Plato mocked him in a Socratic dialogue for saying this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Doesn\u2019t Protagoras represent the prevailing view of truth today also? Everybody has his own truth, and everything is relative. Different strokes for different folks. Different truths for different tribes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Into this world of relativism, God has given the cross. Our basic Christian faith is summed up in 1 Cor 1:22-25. It starts out: \u201cFor Jews seek signs<\/strong> and Greeks seek wisdom. . . .\u201d We can substitute the word, \u201cmiracle,\u201d for the word \u201csign\u201d in the text and read it as follows:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFor Jews seek miracles<\/strong> and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The cross is the anti-miracle. (How does one grasp that God dying is a miracle?) The resurrection is beyond our understanding. Talk about an ambiguous sign! Yet that this is what God does, and that\u2019s the key for what Christian faith is about.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The common mistakes are to say that salvation is a gift<\/strong>, and you have to accept<\/strong> it, or that it\u2019s a call,<\/strong> and you have to respond<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Apostle Paul, knowing this problem, writes a significantly direct answer. Most of his letters were dictated to a secretary. Thus in Galatians 4:9 he starts out: \u201cNow that you have come to know God<\/strong>,\u201d but then he corrects himself, \u201cor rather to be known by God<\/strong>.\u201d He corrects himself because \u201cknowing\u201d means you have some perception and therefore decide. No, we are \u201cknown\u201d by God, or as it says in Philippians 3:12: \u201cthat he has already made me his own.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Lord has made us his own, as is repeated throughout the Gospel of John: 1:13: \u201cwho were born not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God\u201d; and 6:44: \u201cNo one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him\u201d; 6:65: \u201cno one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Luther writes in the Small Catechism, the Third Article of the Creed: \u201cI believe that I cannot by my own reason or understanding believe.\u201d The Holy Spirit is the one who calls, gathers, enlightens, and sanctifies us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is not something Luther imposed on us, as he says a number of times: \u201cThe Lord snatches us from the jaws of the devil.\u201d (Large Catechism, IV:83; Tappert 446; Kolb\/Wengert 466). The Lord is the one who makes us his own. It is not because of us, but in spite of us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This brings us back to John 6:35: \u201cJesus said to them, \u2018I am the bread of life. He who comes to me shall not hunger, and he who believes in me shall never thirst.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Gospel of John water is the living water of the Holy Spirit and baptism, and of course, our Lord himself, but also the body of believers today, and as he comes to us in the Lord\u2019s Supper. We come together because he comes to us and makes us his own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is all beyond our understanding. As Paul writes (Rom 11:33-36):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

O the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! \u2018For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?\u2019 \u2018Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?\u2019 For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A sermon for the Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost. Select here<\/a> to read more or here <\/a>for a pdf document.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7113","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7113","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7113"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7113\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7119,"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7113\/revisions\/7119"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7113"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7113"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7113"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}