Mark 8 tells what seems to be a very similar story to the feeding of the 5000 recorded just 2 chapters earlier. I say seems to be similar because there are some key differences that help us understand what Jesus’ mission entails.

The most obvious difference is that Jesus feeds 4000 men in chapter 8, slightly down from the 5000 men of chapter 6. But this figure seems to be somewhat arbitrary in light of the other glaring difference. The focus this time is not so much on how many but on who.

This miraculous feeding takes place in Gentile territory!

The first feast was given somewhere slightly north and west of the Sea of Galilee – prime Jewish hill country. This second feast is hosted in the region of the Decapolis, south of the Sea and east of the Jordan river. This crowd of 4000 men would have been predominately Gentile for not many Jews lived east of the Jordan.

It’s also possible, when comparing the two stories, that the Gentile crowds had stayed with Jesus longer and traveled farther than the Jewish crowds had. They were truly hungry for the Bread.

Another interesting, more subtle difference is that in chapter 6 the disciples were the ones who brought to Jesus’ attention the need for the crowds to eat something. In chapter 8 Jesus is the one who first brings up the physical needs of the people. Could it be that the disciples cared more about their fellow Jews while Jesus cared equally for both Jews and non-Jews?

In both events Jesus had compassion on the people, which was the motivating factor behind the provision. In both events Jesus took a small lunch and turned it into enough to feed thousands. In both the crowds ate until they were stuffed. And in both Jesus actually provided more than enough to meet the need.

One crowd was Jewish. One crowd was Gentile.

It’s brilliant that this miraculous feast in Gentile territory comes almost immediately after Jesus’ run-in with the Greek woman in Tyre. Jesus told her that it’s not right to take the children’s food and toss it to their dogs. The woman answered that even the dogs eat the crumbs from the table.

In a way we’re all dogs, simply begging for whatever scraps God might toss our way. We believe that we’re not worthy to sit at the table with him and eat a whole meal – so we become content with low expectations. But even the crumbs from God’s table are more than enough. The crumbs healed the woman’s daughter. The crumbs fed thousands of men until they had to loosen their belts.

If that’s what God’s crumbs can do, imagine the day when we get to sit down with him and share in the ultimate feast!

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve probably noticed that this is an election year. There are currently four men trying their best to secure the Republican presidential nomination to run against President Obama. One reality about which every single candidate is fully aware is the intense scrutiny they face for every word that comes out of their mouths. Every sentence is subject to intense dissection and criticism. It could be the death of their campaign to let something slip that is not deemed “politically correct.” One misplaced word, one misspoken phrase, could turn thousands of people against a candidate.

Somebody forgot to tell Jesus that.

In his bestselling book, How to Win Friends and Influence People, Dale Carnegie includes a section “Six Ways to Make People Like You.” Here’s what he says it takes:

1. Become genuinely interested in other people.
2. Smile.
3. Remember that a person’s name is, to that person, the sweetest and most important sound in any language.
4. Be a good listener. Encourage others to talk about themselves.
5. Talk in terms of the other person’s interest.
6. Make the other person feel important – and do it sincerely

So, he completely ignores her. He doesn’t even ask her name or anything about her daughter. He doesn’t take stock her her feelings or interests. And then he uses a severely degrading term. By all accounts, this is a PR disaster! We would expect this from the Westboro Baptists, but not from Jesus.

“Yes, Lord,” she replied, “but even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.”

 Then he told her, “For such a reply, you may go; the demon has left your daughter.”

 She went home and found her child lying on the bed, and the demon gone.

The disciples didn’t get it. Herod didn’t get it. The Pharisees and religious leaders didn’t get it. This Greek Syrophoenician woman got it. She understood Jesus’ mission and power more than any other human thus far in Mark. That’s because her only expectation was healing. She didn’t have any baggage. She didn’t have any rights to stand on. She didn’t consider herself to have special privileges. She simply and humbly placed herself and her daughter at the mercy of the one who could help.

For some reading this, “tradition” might be a four-letter-word. Even thinking about the word makes your skin crawl, just like the terms “doctrine,” “systematic theology,” or “plan of salvation.” And in some sense, your distaste is warranted.

For others, the word “tradition” gives you the same reaction as a big plate of meatloaf, mashed potatoes, and macaroni and cheese. It’s a source of comfort. It gives you ties to a beloved past. And in some sense, your comfort is also warranted.

Jesus has some interesting things to say about traditions of men, especially when it comes to the church.

There are some who think that traditions were made to be broken. Traditions are stifling, restrictive, boring, and out of touch. They want to move forward in a direction that seems best to them, leaving the past (and the missteps of prior church-going generations) far behind. They want to take Christianity and their faith into the 21st Century and beyond.

But there are those for whom tradition has been an anchor for their faith through some harsh seas. If it weren’t for those traditions and “doing the same old same old,” their faith may have been swept out from under them. When all around them life was chaos, tradition brought order and peace. And now to say that we should just do away with all these things and stir the pot…it’s essentially saying that those truths they held onto for so many years are just an illusion, a lie. They experience God in the way they know how, and to say that it is wrong would be detrimental.

So who is right?

The answer seems to be…Yes.

Tradition: The Good
Traditions are set in place for a reason. Even those who want to break away from what they consider to be outdated traditions will for themselves create NEW traditions – which will eventually become outdated and discarded.

But those lasting traditions – those events and rituals you can count on week after week, year after year – those actually give a sense of continuation from one generation to another. They preserve family history. They promote identity and community. They are the grounding wire in an electrically charged world.

For the Jews, traditions were not everything, but they played a HUGE part in preserving Israel as a nation throughout the times of exile and oppression. In fact, some of the “traditions or the elders” (Mark 7:3) were instated by the Pharisees to bring people closer to God. For instance, the first dispute in Mark 7 is over ceremonial hand washing. In the Jewish Law the only persons commanded to wash were the priests. The priests were expected to keep their bodies, eating utensils, bowls, cups, and food pure. The Pharisees expanded this command to apply to all of Israel. In doing so they were reminding the population that they were indeed a kingdom of priests and that the average Joseph can approach God during the course of an ordinary day.

Traditions can be good and healthy. There is no teaching explicitly against traditions. Were it not for the traditions and the rituals set in place by the Pharisees, the Jewish religion may have all but vanished well before Jesus came onto the scene.

Tradition: The Bad
Traditions can have a dark side to them. If we let them, our traditions can begin to divide people into groups – who’s in and who’s out. WE follow these traditions that we believe are right. THEY follow other traditions were are directly contradicting what we know. Tightly held traditions can begin to build walls instead of bridges because other people do things differently.

You may begin to hear, “This is how we’ve always done it;” “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it;” or even “It’s always worked in the past.” When traditions begin to block people out instead of inviting people in, they can begin to surpass Scripture itself in importance.

When this begins to happen, Jesus gets very angry. We see some of his harshest words yet in Mark’s gospel on this very issue.

He replied, “Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written:

One reality that most ministers face is that people can sometimes be really thick-headed. You try and explain the gospel to them – who Jesus is, what salvation is about, what kind of lives God wants us to live, etc. – but they just don’t get it. It can be so frustrating to see people about whom you care deeply worshiping God on Sunday and then falling back into old habits on Monday.

It makes you want to grab them by the shoulders and shout, “What are you thinking?! Don’t you get it yet?!”

I’m sure Jesus must have felt that way with his own disciples quite often. They may not have been the best and brightest theologians of that era, but they were with Jesus 24/7 for three years! What I wouldn’t give just to be with Jesus for one day during his earthly ministry. Sheeesh…

However, one feature of the gospel accounts that speaks to their authenticity is this very fact. The disciples, the earliest leaders of the church, were just as flawed, prideful, and clueless as the rest of us. If these were made up stories for the sake of gaining a respectable following, they probably wouldn’t have made the leaders of the movement look so ridiculous! Mark, especially, holds nothing back. Time and time again we see the disciples lacking faith, doubting, arguing, and failing to understand who Jesus is and what he came to do.

In Mark’s account, the disciples look like idiots, especially when compared to the random people whose faith Jesus commends.

The end of Mark 6 is precisely one of those moments. I can just imagine Jesus shaking his head, saying, “Really, guys? Really?”

Jesus had just finished feeding 5000 men. It had been a long day, so Jesus wanted some alone time to reconnect with God. He sent the disciples across the lake while he stayed behind to pray. Evening came and they had only made it about halfway because the wind was against them. Jesus waited several more hours for some reason, but then around 3am he decided to make his way across the lake – without a boat.

The disciples were probably exhausted, mentally and physically, from trying all night to get across the lake. It’s 3am, pitch black, and then they see a figure walking across the lake! I’d probably have a little freak out moment, too. “It’s a ghost! Are you getting this Zak Bagans?!”

I love the little detail Mark gives that Jesus was about to pass them by. He was just going to keep going! Ha.

“Chill out, guys. It’s me.” And Jesus climbed in the boat with them and the wind stopped dead (sound familiar).

Then Mark says they were amazed, not because they just saw a human walking across the water, but because they had not understood about the loaves. **What?** Yeah, because if Jesus can make 5 loaves and 2 fish feed a small army with some left over, then naturally he can defy the laws of physics and take a late night stroll across the water.

I think the point is that they still had no idea who he was. After all that he had done and said, they still didn’t have the slightest inclination that Jesus might actually be God in the flesh. In the vary beginning we see the Spirit of God hovering over the surface of the waters (Genesis 1:2). If Jesus is God, then of course he can move across the surface of the waters.

They had no idea.

But then they came to the other side of the lake and people started flocking to him. They brought their sick so that they could be healed. We’ve seen this before. But now the crowds knew that they only needed to touch the edge of his cloak! It worked once, it could work again.

Random crowds were understanding more about Jesus than his own disciples. They had heard about the woman healed by touching the edge of his cloak, so they wanted to give it a try. The disciples had seen Jesus calm a storm, drive out demons, heal diseases, raise someone from the dead, and feed thousands of men in the middle of nowhere…but they still weren’t making connections like this!

In fact, they’re not going to make these connections until after the resurrection. It’s going to take the miracle of miracles to make them finally realize who Jesus is.

But now the question turns around on us: What is it going to take for you to believe?

My goal (not resolution) for 2012 is to read an average of 2 books each month, or at least 24 books over the course of the year. So far I’ve done pretty well. Here’s where I am:

By this time, I hope you are beginning to notice just how clever of a writer Mark really is. The way sews the story of Jesus together is so fluid and full of motion. This story is going somewhere and you can tell it. But then in chapter 6, he devotes a large portion of the text to a flashback!

We are told in Mark 1:14 that John was put into prison, but it’s just left at that…until now.

I think it becomes clear that Mark has purposefully held off the story of John’s death until now in order to compare Herod’s feast with Jesus’ feast. Let’s take a look.

Mark begins in 6:14 by introducing “King” Herod. This must have been a bit tongue-in-cheek because Herod at this time was not a king. When King Herod the Great died around AD 6, Rome divided the territory between his sons. The Herod in this story was not a king, but more of a viceroy over about 1/5 of the kingdom. His title was Herod the Tetrarch.

Herod was not truly a king, yet threw a big party in his palace.

Jesus was the true King of the Jews, and he provided a feast in the desert.

It was Herod’s birthday when he threw this party. Jews didn’t typically celebrate birthdays, chalking it up as a pagan practice. So from the beginning, this feast is wrought in paganism.

Jesus provided a feast for hungry people out in the wilderness which was in line with the prophecies in Jeremiah 31 – that Israel would find rest in the desert.

Herod’s party guests included governors, military leaders, and all sorts of high-ranking, well-to-do men.

Jesus held a feast for peasants – working class, rugged, peons with no political power whatsoever.

Herod made sure to have plenty of wine, alcohol, rich food, and even provocative female dancers to entertain the men.

Jesus could only give them grass to sit on, some bread and fish to eat, his teaching, and his compassion. And that was enough.

Herod, in a drunken stupor, abused his authority and made extremely regrettable decisions.

Jesus never let his power and authority get to his head. He could have taken advantage of his authority on a number of different occasions, but he never did.

Herod’s party could never offer any kind of lasting satisfaction.

Jesus gave enough that everyone was satisfied, both physically and spiritually.

Herod’s party ended in bloodshed and the death of a prophet.

Jesus’ feast ended in peace and the rise of The Prophet from God.

Herod’s party actually resembles the festival put on by King Balshazzar of Babylon in Daniel 5. The very night of this party, the Meads and the Persians invaded, overthrew the Babylonian Empire, and set up their own dynasty.

Jesus’ feast closely resembles the story in 2 Kings 4:42-44 when Elisha, the prophet of God, took 20 loaves and divided the bread among 100 other prophets until all were satisfied (and there was more left over!). It is also reminiscent of the time when David and his men were on the run from King Saul and ate the holy bread from the Tabernacle (1 Samuel 21:1-6).

Herod’s party represents the absolute BEST that the world has to offer – “Let us eat and drink for tomorrow we die!” (1 Corinthians 15:32) It’s a life that will never satisfy. It’s food that will always leave you hungering for more. It’s wine and drink that will only leave you thirsting. It’s hollow and empty.

Jesus’ feast represents the absolute BEST that heaven has to offer – “I am the Bread of Life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty” (John 6:32-35).
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The invitation to both feasts is open to you right now. Which party will you attend?

The miraculous feeding of the 5000 is the only miracle other than the resurrection that is recorded in all four gospel accounts. It can be found in Matthew 14:13-21; Mark 6:30-44; Luke 9:10-17; and John 6:5-15. The fact that this miracle is in all four gospels not only testifies to the authenticity of the event but also to its importance. And by reading each account on its own merits, it seems like an interesting miracle but hardly something as exciting or powerful as, say, raising someone from the dead. But when you piece them together, you begin to understand what exactly is going on.

First, Matthew tells us that there were 5000 men “besides” women and children. The word translated “besides” more frequently means “without” or “apart from.” That understanding makes a lot more sense given that Matthew is the only one to mention women or children – simply to say that these men didn’t have them! If women and children had been present, it would have been more in line with Luke’s style to mention them.

So, there were 5000 men who did not have wives or children.

Secondly, Mark and Luke tell us that the men sat down in groups of fifties and hundreds. Now image there are 5000 strangers at a concert and the band wanted everybody to organize into groups of 50s and 100s before they could pass out free t-shirts to everyone in the crowd. How long would that take?! You’d be there for hours! Unless you are already organized somehow into your groups…

So there were 5000 unmarried, childless men who were probably pre-organized into groups of 50s and hundreds.

Third, I bring a snack with me to the office when I come into work. When I’m taking a road trip, I always bring something with me in the car. I make absolutely sure I have provisions for myself at all times. Why in the world would 5000 men go out on an all-day excursion without bringing any of the necessary provisions? Maybe they thought they shouldn’t carry any more than was absolutely necessary…

5000 unmarried, childless men who were pre-organized into groups of 50s and 100s without any extra or unnecessary loads to carry.

Finally, John tells us at the end of his account that the men wanted to make Jesus their king! Okay, I’ve NEVER wanted to place someone in authority over me and thus place myself into submission to someone simply because they gave me a free meal. Miraculous or otherwise, it would not make any sense whatsoever for these men to make Jesus king after getting a meal. Unless they had already decided that they were going to make him king beforehand…

When you put all the accounts together, we see that there were 5000 men without wives or children who had already organized into groups of 50s and 100s who brought no extra provisions and who were going out to meet their King.

Jesus fed an army.

These guys were militia men who had organized from all the little towns scattered throughout Galilee. They were ready to crown Jesus their king and march on Jerusalem to overthrow the Roman occupation in their country!

As we’ve seen throughout Mark’s book, people have been asking the question, “Who is this guy?” That very question has been asked twice already in chapter 6 – by folks in his hometown and by Herod the Tetrarch. And now it is being asked by men across the region – men who are fed up with the way their country is being run, who are done with being oppressed, and who want nothing more than to take up arms against the Roman Empire. Who is this man? He is the Messiah, the One whom God would send, the descendant of David and rightful heir to the throne of Israel in Jerusalem. And now is the time to make him King, bring our forces together, and take Jerusalem back by force!

The text says that each of them ate and was satisfied, literally stuffed. But I’m sure they went home with dissatisfied spirits. Jesus broke the bread, distributed the meal, and dismissed them. That was that.

I can imagine it was a little disheartening.

Jesus would go on to say to Pilate before his crucifixion, “My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jews. But now my kingdom is from another place.”

It always seems to happen.

That youth rally, that summer camp, that mission trip was AWESOME! God was truly at work. The worship was incredible, the speakers were passionate, the service projects were inspiring and humbling. Now you’re on the top of the world. God’s Spirit is alive and active inside you. You feel like you can do anything through God’s power, and you’re ready to change the world!

And then you go home.

Back to where people know your past. Back to where people have seen your failures. Back to where the worship is just routine, the preacher is old and irrelevant, and life is WAY to busy to volunteer or serve.

And the fire dies.

I’m positive that everyone who is involved in youth ministry – students, ministers, and volunteers – has experienced this sometime is his/her life. For some it happens multiple times every year. You are taken from this great spiritual high, then you suffer withdrawal-like symptoms, and if you are not careful it can even spiral down into a deep sense of loneliness and depression.

If it’s any consolation, Jesus had a similar experience in Mark 6.

Jesus had just performed a series of the most amazing miracles anyone has ever witnessed. He gave proof to those around him that he is Lord over disaster, demons, disease, and death. He raised a little girl from the dead! Do you realize what the means?!

I don’t know what was going through the minds and hearts of the disciples at this point, but I know I would be thinking, “This guy is unstoppable! There’s nothing he can’t do. We’re really going to change the world!” That miracle-infused 24 hours would have blown any summer camp out of the water. I would be on top of the world if I were one of the Twelve!

And then Jesus goes home. He and his disciples pay a visit to Nazareth, where Jesus grew up. These people knew him. They knew the scandal surrounding his conception. They knew he didn’t go through the rigorous rabbinical training. They knew he was trained as a carpenter – the equivalent of a modern construction worker.

He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath and began teaching. Nothing too out of the ordinary for Jesus. However, this was not Jesus the Rabbi. This was not Jesus the miracle worker. This DEFINITELY wasn’t Jesus the Messiah. The was Jesus the Carpenter!*


Some were amazed at his teaching, but others simply got offended. That’s just like some people, isn’t it? Who are you to be telling me what to do?! What makes you so special?

And then Jesus speaks a truth that resonated to preachers throughout the centuries: “Only in his home town, among his relatives, and in his own house is a prophet without honor.”

And then we’re told that Jesus could not do any miracles there. Not that he wouldn’t. He couldn’t because of their lack of faith. He had just come from stopping a storm in its tracks, defeating an army of demons, curing and incurable disease, and even bringing a dead girl back to life…and now he can’t do anything more than heal a few sick people.

A lot of us may have been tempted to throw in the towel. That would have been enough to make me question my entire ministry. It can be devastating to our faith when we come back home on fire for God and we’re met with a sense of apathy or even pessimism.

But it didn’t stop Jesus. It didn’t even slow him down. And he wasn’t going to let it slow down the Twelve, either. Jesus kept on preaching and performing miracles, and he even sent the Twelve out in groups of two to keep spreading the message about the kingdom to whomever would listen (6:7-13).

So what should we do when we come back from a retreat or youth rally with a spiritual high? Keep on keeping on. Don’t let people keep you from worshiping God with all your heart. Don’t let eternal pessimists pull you back down to their level. Don’t let the mundane and the routine keep you from looking for the extraordinary work of the Holy Spirit.

And most importantly, don’t lose sight of God and his purpose for you.
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*[A couple additional notes on this passage. The Catholic Church exalts Jesus’ mother, Mary, as an eternal virgin. They refer to her as “The Virgin Mary,” implying that Mary remained a virgin even after Jesus’ birth. But clearly from this passage and others (See Matthew13:53-58 and Luke 8:19-21), Jesus obviously had physical brothers and sisters. If they had been the children of Joseph and another woman (which was not a common practice in Jesus’ day, plus Joseph could not have afforded more than one wife), then they would not even be Jesus’ half-siblings. There would have been no relation whatsoever. So Mary had other children – none of whom were conceived miraculously like Jesus.


Also, Matthew says the crowds referred to Jesus as the carpenter’s son (Matthew 13:55), whereas Mark’s account simply says, “the carpenter.” There has been some speculation that Joseph died somewhat early on in Jesus’ life. This would explain why only Mary is mentioned, and she is almost always with her other sons. Jesus, as the oldest, would be in charge of providing for the rest of the family in the absence of the father. It can be assumed that Jesus was indeed apprenticed to his father in the carpentry skill and took over the family business when Joseph died. Jesus began his ministry around the age of thirty – probably because his brother(s) were now old enough to take over in his absence. This would also explain why Jesus assigned John to watch over his mother as if he were one of his own brothers (John 19:26-27).]

¹³ For you created my inmost being; 
   you knit me together in my mother’s womb. 
¹⁴ I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; 
   your works are wonderful, 
   I know that full well. 
¹⁵ My frame was not hidden from you 
   when I was made in the secret place. 
When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, 
 ¹⁶ your eyes saw my unformed body. 
All the days ordained for me 
   were written in your book 
   before one of them came to be.

Psalm 139

All of this talk about The Komen Foundation and Planned Parenthood has really got me (and a lot of people) thinking again about the issue of abortion. I had somewhat unclear views and beliefs about abortion for a while, but recently I have settled on my stance.

Transport yourself back 2,000 years into the first few centuries AD. The Greeks, the Romans, and many other Pagan cultures practiced rampant infanticide. It was legal, and even encouraged, to dispose of babies with any birth defect or were simply deemed “weak.” It was also common practice to dispose of female babies.

They would get rid of these babies by various methods. Some parents would go so far as to sacrifice their child to whatever god they were worshiping. Parents–burning their children alive–on an altar–to a false god.

Other parents would slit their child’s throat and let him/her bleed out. Some would drown their baby so that the water would muffle his/her screams. Still others (more commonly) would simply take their child out to the town dumb and leave it to die in the elements.

If your stomach is churning right now, good. That means you have a heart and a soul. You are probably thinking, “I can’t believe anyone would do that!” or “What were they thinking?”

And this was a normal/expected part of life. Why? Because a child was viewed as the property of the father to do with as he saw fit. If the child was diseased, disfigured, weak, or the wrong gender, he could simply eliminate the problem. Children were the property of the parents.

I would encourage you to read this article: Pagans, Christianity, and Infanticide, by Christopher Price. It’s an eye opener!

As horrible as those practices were, have we really come any farther in the last 2,000 years? Unfortunately, no. A baby is still viewed essentially as the mother’s property to do with as she pleases, at least until the third trimester! Don’t want the baby? Does the baby have a birth defect? Would this baby ruin your life? Dispose of it.

Browsing through Planned Parenthood’s website is just as sickening as reading through the infanticide practices of the ancient Greeks and Romans. They try to sugar coat it, but it’s truly disgusting once you look past that.

• A tube is inserted through the cervix into the uterus.
• Either a hand-held suction device or a suction machine gently empties your uterus.

I’m no expert. I haven’t studied miracles in depth. I don’t claim to know all the answers when it comes to the power of God to act in real time. I’ve never witnessed something I could truly call a “miracle.” But there are a couple of things that have helped me get a better grasp on the idea of miracles, and I hope it helps you, too.

1) The two most important miraculous events to believe in would be the creation of the universe and the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. Consequently, these are the two most hotly debated miracles.

There is more evidence for these two miracles than any other. Just look around you. There are signs of created order all over the place! Scientists try and debunk the idea that the universe was designed by a Creator, but they do and always will fail to answer the question, “Why is there something rather than nothing?”

As for the resurrection, there is more historical and logical evidence for its occurrence than you may think. Most obviously is the fact that we don’t know where his tomb is! No other religion can say that about its founder. He’s not there! How else do you explain the complete 180 the disciples took from fear and disbelief to boldness which led to their deaths (see Luke 22:54-62 and Acts 5:41-42)? When Paul was writing to the church in Corinth, he mentioned there were over 500 witnesses to the resurrected Jesus (1 Corinthians 15:3-8). Don’t believe me? Ask one of them! 500+ witnesses can make a pretty good case.

I could go on about that one, but that will come later.

My point is that if you can believe that God created the world and that God raised Jesus from the dead, then why would you doubt that he could heal someone’s disease? If you believe in the creation and the resurrection, all other miracles pale in comparison. The two biggest are also the two with the most evidence. If God created the world and Jesus was raised from the dead, what else could be possible?

2) It is important to understand what a miracle is. Unlike the common understanding, Jesus did not break the Laws of nature – he was simply restoring them. We know that Jesus was with God in the beginning and that he was part of the creation process himself (John 1:1-5). So when he came to earth performing signs, wonders, and miracles, he was simply ushering in the restoration of the created order.

Blindness, disease, hunger, pain, demons, and natural disasters were not a part of the original design. Sin came into the world through man and we took the whole creation down with us (see Romans 5:12ff). But when Jesus came, one of his jobs was to bring about the Kingdom of God – showing people that God is indeed in control of things and is working around the clock to put things right.

So a miracle is not anything unnatural at all. In fact a miracle is restoring creation back to its original natural state as God intended things to be!

Do you believe in miracles?