How would a Westerner in 2023 answer the question: What is a miracle?

That was a question that came up last Sunday, and I’d like to spend this blog post wrestling with it.

Here’s a definition from the dictionary: an extraordinary event manifesting divine intervention in human affairs {1}

The etymology of ‘miracle’ comes from a latin word meaning ‘wonder, to marvel at, to be astonished’. {2}

So, taking that approach, we have a venn diagram that looks like this:

In our culture today, we would tend to say that “normal” and/or “natural” are things like gravity, dreams while we sleep, pharmaceuticals, and the Seattle Mariners not making the playoffs.

These things are NOT miracles. Instead, we would tend to say that a miracle is a thing that is “not normal” and/or “supernatural,” like when something defies the laws of nature, visions from the Holy Spirit, and physical healings that don’t have a cause we can explain.

Thus, for the purposes of this blog being written to a Western audience, the definition I’m going to go with is:

“a miracle is when God participates in something not normal and/or supernatural.”

That’s pretty simple, right? Well, I offered that up on Sunday, and all sorts of follow-up questions bubbled up. I was fascinated by all the energy in the room, the variety of responses, and the curiosity that was expressed. So very fun!

There are a few elements that will help our imaginations better enter into the landscape of miracles. We covered a very important element last week: Miracles are primarily about deepening our love with Jesus. While there’s lots of other great reasons why miracles might happen, ultimately it’s about our love with Jesus growing.

What is true:

The Bible, and most other Cultures on Earth, do not make as strong a separation between the natural and the supernatural.

Pitfall to avoid:

Western Culture is the best, or only, worldview to enter into the beauty and mystery of miracles.

That Venn diagram at the beginning of this blog? It simply doesn’t make sense to the Biblical worldview or to most other people alive on the Earth today. We are very comfortable separating out the normal from the not normal and the natural from the supernatural. “Many cultures today do not accept the Western dichotomy between natural and supernatural.” {3} So our distinction between normal and not normal is foreign to most other cultures around us today. But because this is the way we see the world, we need to use this as our starting point. And my goal is not to get you to see the world in a different way; my goal is to help all of us fall more deeply in love with Jesus, which will then cause us to see the world in a different way.

We don’t have time to unpack all of this, but I think the next step for us is to pay attention to the overlap in the Venn diagram. For us, entering into that overlap can get, well, squishy. In any given situation, how we make sense of an event and our role in it, and God’s role in it, is fascinating, curious, and sometimes subjective. Like, can good and bad things just happen without divine cause or influence or without God having the chance to weigh in on it?

These are deep and fun (for me) philosophical waters, and I’m bringing this up to highlight that if we’re having a hard time understanding this, maybe our approach would be improved if we entered into that squishy middle bit of the Venn diagram, and listened to what the Spirit had to say in that space.

If you want to do a deep dive into miracles and how to understand them from a Western point of view, I would highly recommend Miracles by Craig S. Keener (details in the footnotes). He’s a top-shelf theologian who is wrestling well with this topic and speaks with clarity and wit about it from a very Western perspective.

Even though this normal/not normal distinction is foreign and, in some important ways limiting, I’m going to keep using it because I’m a pastor of a church full of Westerners. This is how we see the world, so we’re going to need to be honest about the world we find ourselves in. My hope and my hunch is that, over time, this distinction between ‘normal’ and ‘not normal’ will become less important.

What is true:

God acts, and humans act, and both count.

Pitfall to avoid:

Everything is a Miracle

The Bible talks about how everything is made and sustained through God. Doesn’t that make everything a miracle, from gravity to grapes?

This question can steer a Westerner into a pitfall because of what we covered at the beginning of this blog: the word ‘miracle’ comes from a latin word for ‘wonder’ and is something ‘extraordinary.’ Western folks are looking for something extraordinary when we use this word, and if we expand our usage of the word to include ordinary things like gravity then it becomes difficult for us to talk about things like physical healings without medical intervention.

Instead, when talking with Westerners, I think it’s more helpful to put the emphasis on a miracle being a deviation from the normal way the natural world seems to be ordered while still affirming that God is present even when I'm washing the dishes.

What is true:

God acts, and humans act, and both count.

Pitfall to avoid:

Nothing is a Miracle

Nearly everyone I’ve met who is agnostic or atheist believes that miracles cannot exist, which is sad to me, but it makes sense. If there is no god, then there is no divine interaction that is ‘not normal.’ But I meet lots of Christians who also believe that miracles cannot exist, or don’t exist any longer, or just don’t want to think about it. And there are many good people who have been hurt deeply by trauma, or unanswered prayers, or false teachers, or other things. It’s a rough world out there.

But a Western Christian saying, “Miracles don’t happen” is a statement about what that Western Christian sees and does and is not a statement about what God sees and does. And this way of thinking could limit someone’s ability to love Jesus.

What is true:

Sometimes God does miracles, and sometimes God gives us divine power so we can do miracles.

Pitfall to avoid:

Miracles only happen when we ask God to do them.

Petition is a form of prayer, where we ask God to do things that only God can do (the “not normal” and “supernatural” from the Venn diagram above). We might ask God to heal a friend, give us guidance when making a big decision, or anything else. I love “Petition” prayer, where I ask God to do things.

Direct ministry is a form of prayer, where we ask God to give us the power to do things. Direct ministry is when we ask God to give us the power to heal a friend, or we ask God to tell us how to guide someone making a big decision, or anything else. I don’t love “Direct Ministry” prayer (yet), where I ask God to give me the power to do things, because it scares me. And I’d rather watch God work through my prayers than risk having God work through me in our prayers.

This distinction between “petition” and “direct ministry” comes from Jordan Seng in his book Miracle Work {4}. It’s fantastic, scary, convicting, and where I want to be headed.

I’ve prayed for lots of people to be healed (petition). Sometimes I’ve directly prayed that someone would be healed through the power of Jesus (direct ministry). Most of the time, healing hasn’t occurred. But the times it has occurred all happened when I was participating in direct ministry. Seng highlights this distinction very well:

“In the many dozens of recorded episodes of supernatural healings in the New Testament, there is not a single case of a person being healed as the result of petition alone. Every single recorded healing happens as the result of a person applying a supernatural power directly to another person. In a few cases the minister initially petitions God to grant him or her power, but always the healing itself is triggered through a human touch, a spoken command, a transfer medium (like anointed cloth or oil) or some other form of person-to-person application. Demonic deliverances follow this same pattern.” {5}

If miracles are primarily about deepening our love for Jesus, it follows that Jesus wants to heal people with us more than Jesus wants to heal people for us. With and not for.

This should make for an interesting Sunday gathering

This Sunday I’ll be out of town, and sad to miss being with y’all. But we’ll be led by Jessie and Andrea, who will lead us through a time of exploring ‘not normal’ things through petition (asking God to do not-normal things) and direct ministry (asking God to give us his power in order to do not-normal things).

And why are we doing this? Because of what we explored last week: The primary reason for miracles is to deepen our love with Jesus. And because, as a community, we’re actively engaged in living out these invitations from Jesus.

Join us ON SUNDAY at 6:00pm