Miracles! What Do We Learn?

Matthew 8:23-34

The Gospel of Matthew really has an interesting writing style. Once the writer begins to tell us about Jesus he will give us a section of teaching, like the Sermon on the Mount, and then he’ll give us a section on Jesus inter action with people. For Matthew, it seems like the miracles give validity to the teaching and the other way also. That makes sense doesn’t it? When we bought our coal stove, the salesman told us that this model was capable of heating us out of the house; that was the teaching, the proof was in its actual working – believe me, it has that capability – Friday I woke up to a house of 87 degrees. We have windows opening and fans running; you would think it was mid summer.

We learn a lot about who Jesus is, his personality by reading his teaching – what he said was most important, but we learn as much, maybe more by what he does. It is one thing to preach, it is another to live. When your deeds and words don’t match, the faith level of others becomes low.

So, let’s take a look at a couple of pictures of Jesus in action and determine what we learn, “What kind of a man is Jesus?”

Action under pressure tells you a lot about a person; I have often said, “Ministry occurs by interruption.” The images of firemen and police rushing into the collapsing twin towers on 9/11 are forever seared into my memory. They were protectors of the public safety. They lived what they were taught and what they taught others.

Mother Teresa bathing a leper of India is a story of love that doesn’t need words. It is a story that has taught the world the truth, the power of God’s love for the least.

Have you ever been bone weary tired? Jesus was tired; so he climbed into the fishing boat, found a spot out of the way and let the sea give him that refreshment his body needed. He had shared God’s love through teaching and healing and now he sought the gift of rest; if you will, it was his Sabbath.

Without warning, suddenly, in an action that catches seasoned fishermen by surprise, “Without warning, a furious storm came up on the lake, so that the waves swept over the boat.” On Galilee, on Erie, on small lakes that happens; and when the lake is surrounded by high hills it can be really wicked.

Now at least Peter, Andrew, James and John were fishermen, they handled boats for a living – storms were not new to them; but Matthew says they were taken by surprise; what do you do in a Tsunami?

These men, these fishermen who had fought storms all their life ran to Jesus. It wasn’t so much that they needed his expertise in sailing, a storm is no time to learn how to handle a boat and as a carpenter he might have gotten in the way; no listen to how the story is told, “Lord, save us! We’re going to drown!” In a storm that overwhelmed their abilities, these men turned to Jesus.

Where do you turn in the storms of life that threaten to cause you to drown? You’ve battled and used all the skills of living you know – now the storm is poised to swamp your life – where do you turn, to whom do you turn?

Do you have a safe haven? Have you been with Jesus long enough to wake him up? Do you trust him?

Sometimes his followers get in the way of that don’t we? Sometimes we so confuse Jesus with our culture that the sudden storms of life swamp us – we aren’t really prepared for their ferocity.

Several of us attended the United Methodist Women Day apart on Thursday – I was the only man with 69 women and we watched a video and discussed spousal abuse. I could feel the energy as those women watched and reacted to stories of abuse. You just knew that none of them would ever stand for that, and yet, and yet statistics tell us that even in the church, even among the clergy 1 out of every three women are in abusive relationships. Out of 69 women, 13 of those present could have been hearing stories of their storms.

And do you know what was equally sad? Some of their stories were of the church not hearing their cries, not listening with the heart. They came to Jesus, but the church wouldn’t wake him!

What kind of man is this? What can we learn from this miracle?

To our ears Jesus response may seem a little out of touch with reality. “You of little faith, why are you so afraid?” But understand, he has been teaching about God’s love; he has been teaching to ask, seek and knock; he has been teaching about their value – and they don’t get it! In the middle of the storm, do you get it? Do you hear and practice his teaching or are you caught up in life as it has always been, broken.

What kind of man is this? What can we learn from this miracle? “Jesus got up and rebuked the winds and the waves, and it was completely calm.” When the storm was at its most powerful, Jesus was its master. Do you hear the message? Do you believe it? When the storm of your life is at its peak will you live it?

What do we learn? Is there good news today? Jesus not only hears our cries; he responds with power. He speaks with the authority of the creator; the darkness and chaos of the storm calms at his command. Jesus cares about your storm. My prayer is that I, we the church, do not get in the way of his speaking to the storm of your life.

I say that because we learn from Scripture of the love of Jesus for us individually, but we also learn from history the failure of his people to hear the cries of those who hurt.

What kind of man is this? Even storms obey him; when we go to him, he is present.

Matthew follows this story with another story of Jesus compassion; this is the story of the healing of two demoniacs.

Now there are a couple things to note; Matthew wants us to know that we are no longer in Jewish territory, we are on “the other side.” Thus the herd of pigs is not unclean; they are a source of economic income. They are job and food producing, of great value.

But the demon possessed men are unclean, they live among the dead. No Jew would be in their presence, Samaritans and Gentiles viewed them with disdain, perhaps a bit of fear. Yet Jesus enters the life of the4 demoniacs, and he brings the church with him. For Jesus, the distinctions of clean and unclean, of Jew and Samaritan and Gentile, of male and female are gone. Jesus looks and sees the need of the person, whether it is a storm at sea or possession by evil Jesus sees the need of the person and acts out of God’s love.

So important are the needs of these two men that Jesus destroys the economy of the village, an economy built on their demon possession. Jesus action sends the whole herd of pigs crashing into the sea and drowns. And the villagers, seeing the men healed but also seeing the pigs drowned, ask him to leave.

Sometimes following Jesus forces us to act against our own self interest. Sometimes Jesus puts persons ahead of what culture has deemed important.

It is quite obvious the people of t he town aren’t happy. Who are these two men and especially who is this Jesus that he would destroy their livelihood simply to heal them?

Miracles! What can we learn?

From these two miracles we learn that Jesus is willing to use his power and his compassion on behalf of people. When he teaches that you are more valuable than anything else he lives that teaching by calming the storms of life and by challenging the very foundation of culture. Neither the chaos of the storm or the demon can withstand his love for you.

But there is another thing, and we need to hear it well. Just as the firemen and the police lived their teaching by rushing into the collapsing towers; just as Mother Theresa gifts the least with love – you and I as the Church are called to be Jesus to the world.

All of our actions are to show the love of God and the value of people. We are the ones God has called upon to calm the storms that threaten to swamp our brothers and sisters. We are the ones God has called upon to enter the lives of the possessed to bring sanity and worth.

That we involves me as an individual, it also involves the resources of the whole church. You and I as the Church are conduits to the power of God’s love. Jesus says, “When you love the least of your brothers and sisters, you have loved me.” That’s what we learn from these miracles. Amen