Bible Speaks by Rev. L. Althouse 

 

(Because Farm World will not publish next week while our offices are closed for the holidays, and Rev. Althouse’s column is used in some churches’ lesson plans, we present this column that would have published on Dec. 24.)

December 28, 2014

Background Scripture: Matthew 14:22-36

Devotional Reading: Mark 9:15-24

When I began to prepare to write this column, I first spent some time studying and thinking about the passage Matthew 4:22-36. But, as I began to write, I discovered the correct passage was Matthew 14, not Matthew 4.

I groaned when I thought about all the time I had wasted on Matthew 4. But, as I got into Matthew 14, I realized although the events were different, the issues were much the same.

Matthew 4 highlights the accounts of the healing ministry of Jesus, a subject that makes increasing numbers of Christians uncomfortable in this age of scientific leaps and bounds. The miracles of Jesus are especially a stumbling block for many.

But Matthew 14 is even more challenging on this issue than Matthew 4: Jesus walks on the water! Jesus stills the turbulent Sea of Galilee! Who can believe that, and what happens to our faith if we do or don’t? Some handle these issues by ignoring them or rushing through them. But you can’t walk on eggshells forever, and eventually we have to deal with this issue and find a resolution. And I believe the sooner, the better.

Some unequivocally believe Jesus walked on the water, turned the water to wine and raised Lazarus from the dead. Some reject these accounts and try to make the Gospel accommodate current scientific standards. Others respond by regarding the miracle accounts as parables or metaphors – symbolic rather than literal.

Still others take the Scarlett O’Hara approach: “I’ll think about that tomorrow!”  But regardless of whether I use Matthew 4 or Matthew 14, I have to deal with it today – and in the space of this column.

The paranormal

The biggest problem is that we severely limit ourselves by reducing the problem to the two terms “natural” and “supernatural.” Those who fasten themselves upon the word “natural” forget the scientific natural is changing all the time. In my lifetime I have witnessed many “scientific truths” that had to be modified or even abandoned.

In the newspaper today was a story about the Oct. 31 break-up of the Virgin Galactic spaceship during a test flight. After an unplanned free-fall, pilot Peter Siebold’s parachute unexplainably opened and he floated safely eight miles down to the Mojave Desert.

In the article, reporters recalled a former Lockheed test pilot, who on Jan. 25, 1966,  while in his SR-71 Blackbird aircraft traveling at three times the speed of sound, was literally torn from his disintegrating aircraft and hurled into unconsciousness of the thin atmosphere 78,800 feet above New Mexico.

When Bill Weaver regained his consciousness in temperatures that reached minus-55 degrees Fahrenheit, he could see only “a hazy white light” and thought he was dead. He was eventually relieved when he realized he was alive and plunging toward Earth.

Then and now: “Weaver attributes his survival to a miracle, as well as the protection his pressurized suit provided as he was ripped from his ejection seat. It kept his blood from boiling under the extreme pressure of the altitude,” as well as providing oxygen and some warmth on his 15-mile fall.

His story brought to light also the account of Juliane Diller who, in December 1971, survived an accidental fall of 1.8 miles without a parachute into the Peruvian terrain. She was the only survivor of the plane’s 92 passengers.

So, what do any of those news items have to do with the question of miracles? Weaver and others attributed his escape to a miracle because, according to the science available at the time, there was and is no way to explain how he escaped death – just as there seems to be no answer as to why Juliane Diller and Peter Siebold survived.

I am not saying these were or were not miracles, but that they lie beyond our present state of knowledge. I would not call them “supernatural,” because that suggests they violate scientific principles. Instead, I would call them “paranormal” –beyond what we normally know and experience. Many of the features of our lives today would have been thought supernatural 200 years ago.

Words and acts

So when the New Testament tells us that the ministry of Jesus consisted of preaching, teaching and healing, we need not apologize for the ministry of healing. Further, I believe ignoring the ministry of healing often weakens and distorts the Good News of Christ.

In preaching and teaching the Gospel we communicate with words. In the ministry of healing we are going beyond words to action: healing disease, memories, relationships, poverty, hunger, communities.

The term “miracle,” which is also often rendered as “mighty acts,” may simply be a term we use for what we do not presently understand, or maybe we never will. That, however, does not leave us with the alternative of “superstition.”

I am not speaking about the super-emotional healing services, the guarantees of cures and the assumption that failure to heal means unbelief or unworthiness. In 1977 Abingdon Press published my book Rediscovering The Gift of Healing, in which I recount the efforts and effects of the 12-year healing ministry that was part of my pastorate in Pennsylvania.

It deals with the usual hard questions: “How do we know this is God’s will?” “Why isn’t everyone healed?” “Is healing magic?” (No, I’m not selling books, but I understand it is still available online.)

In the 1990s my late wife, Valere, and I participated in preparing my denomination’s “An Adventure in Healing and Wholeness – The Healing Ministry of Christ in the Church Today,” and served as one of the teams conducting it across the country. Undeniably, the ministry of Jesus Christ was one of preaching, teaching and healing. Should our ministry today be any less?

The views and opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of Farm World. Those with questions or comments for Rev. Althouse may write to him in care of this publication.