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The Ministry of Jesus, Part 1: His Mighty Deeds

His mighty deeds - these clearly stood out!

Section titled “His mighty deeds - these clearly stood out!”

  1. Mt 4:23-25 (cp. 9:35): “And he went throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction among the people. 24 So his fame spread throughout all Syria, and they brought him all the sick, those afflicted with various diseases and pains, those oppressed by demons, epileptics, and paralytics, and he healed them. 25 And great crowds followed him from Galilee and the Decapolis, and from Jerusalem and Judea, and from beyond the Jordan.”

  2. Lk 24:19: “a prophet mighty in deed and word.”

  3. Acts 2:22: “Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works (dunameis) and wonders (terata) and signs (semeia) that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know ….”

Words used for “miracles”

Section titled “Words used for “miracles””

  1. Dunameis - mighty works, deeds of power

    1. This is the main word used in the Synoptics; but never in John.

    2. Mt 11:20-23: “Then he began to denounce the cities where most of his mighty works had been done, because they did not repent.”

    3. Mt 13:54, 58: “‘Where did this man get this wisdom and these mighty works?’ … And he did not do many mighty works there [Nazareth], because of their unbelief.”

  2. Semeia - signs

    1. This is John’s favorite term: 17x (2:11, 18, 23; 3:2; 4:48, 54; 6:2, 14, 26, 30; 7:31; 9:16; 10:41; 11:47; 12:18, 37; 20:30-31: “Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; 31 but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.”)

    2. But rarely in the Synoptics, possibly because of the negative implication. Mt 12:39; 16:4: The Jews asked Jesus for a sign from heaven. “A wicked and adulterous generation looks for a sign.” (1 Cor 1:22: “Jews demand signs”).

  3. Terata - wonders (1x Jn 4:48)

  4. Erga - works, deeds (mostly in John, on lips of Jesus himself)

    1. Jn 5:36: “The works that the Father has given me to accomplish, the very works that I am doing, bear witness about me that the Father has sent me,” referring to the healing of the invalid at the pool of Bethesda on the Sabbath (Jn 5:1-9).

    2. Jn 7:21: “I did one work [Jn 5:1-9], and you all marvel.”

    3. Jn 10:25, 32-33, 37-38: see below

    4. Jn 14:11: “or else believe on account of the works themselves.”

    5. Only two occurrences in the Synoptics:

      1. Mt 11:2: “when John heard in prison about the deeds of the Christ.”

      2. Lk 24:19: “a prophet mighty in deed and word.”

All the miracles of Jesus

Section titled “All the miracles of Jesus”

  1. The Healings

    1. A leper (Mt 8:1–4 / Mk 1:40–45 / Lk 5:12–16)

    2. The centurion’s sick servant (Mt 8:5–13 / Lk 7:1–10)

    3. Peter’s mother-in-law (Mt 8:14–15 / Mk 1:29–31 / Lk 4:38–39)

    4. Many sick at evening (Mt 8:16–17 / Mk 1:32–34 / Lk 4:40)

    5. A paralytic let down through the roof (Mt 9:1–8 / Mk 2:1–12 / Lk 5:17–26)

    6. A man with a withered hand (Mt 12:9–14 / Mk 3:1–6 / Lk 6:6–11)

    7. Two blind men (Mt 9:27–31)

    8. A woman with a flow of blood (Mt 9:20–22 / Mk 5:24–34 / Lk 8:43–48)

    9. Two blind men at Jericho (Mt 20:29–34 / Mk 10:46–52 / Lk 18:35–43)

    10. A woman who had been bent over for 18 years (Lk 13:10–17)

    11. A man with dropsy (Lk 14:1–6)

    12. Ten lepers (Lk 17:11–19)

    13. The royal official’s sick son (Jn 4:46–5)

    14. The paralytic at the pool of Bethesda, miracle performed on the Sabbath (Jn 5:1–9)

    15. The man born blind (Jn 9:1–7)

  2. The Exorcisms (casting out demons)

    1. The demoniac in the synagogue of Capernaum (Mk 1:21–28 / Lk 4:31–37)

    2. The Gerasene/Gadarene demoniac(s) (Mt 8:28–34 / Mk 5:1–20 / Lk 8:26–39)

    3. A mute demoniac (Mt 9:32–34)

    4. The Syrophoenician woman’s daughter (Mt 15:21–28 / Mk 7:24–30)

    5. The boy with an unclean spirit (Mt 17:14–20 / Mk 9:14–29 / Lk 9:37–43)

    6. The mute and blind demoniac (Mt 12:22 / Lk 11:14)

    7. Summary of many exorcisms (Mt 8:16 / Mk 1:32–34, 39 / Lk 4:41)

    8. No exorcisms reported in John

  3. Nature Miracles

    1. Turning water into wine at Cana (John 2:1–11)

    2. Calming the storm (Mt 8:23–27 / Mk 4:35–41 / Lk 8:22–25)

    3. Feeding of the 5,000 (Mt 14:13–21 / Mk 6:30–44 / Lk 9:10–17 / Jn 6:1–14)

    4. Walking on the water (Mt 14:22–33 / Mk 6:45–52 / Jn 6:16–21)

    5. Feeding of the 4,000 (Mt 15:32–39 / Mk 8:1–10)

    6. Miraculous catch of fish (Lk 5:1–11; cp. Jn 21:1–14)

    7. The coin in the fish’s mouth to pay Temple Tax (Mt 17:24–27)

    8. The cursing of the fig tree (Mt 21:18–22 / Mk 11:12–14, 20–25)

    9. The restoration of Malchus’s ear (Lk 22:50–51)

  4. Raising the Dead

    1. Jairus’s daughter (Mt 9:18–26 / Mk 5:21–43 / Lk 8:40–56)

    2. Widow’s son at Nain (Lk 7:11–17)

    3. Lazarus (Jn 11:38–45)

OT background

Section titled “OT background”

  1. Moses and the Exodus

    1. Moses as miracle-worker and deliverer is a type of Christ: Acts 7:36-37: “This man [Moses] led them out, performing wonders (terata) and signs (semeia) in Egypt and at the Red Sea and in the wilderness for forty years. 37 This is the Moses who said to the Israelites, ‘God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers’” (Deut 18:15).

    2. Plagues of Egypt (Exod. 7–12): water to blood, frogs, hail, darkness, death of firstborn, etc. → Jesus’s nature miracles, e.g., turning water into wine.

    3. Parting the Red Sea (Exod. 14:21–22) → Jesus calming the storm and walking on water (Mk 4; Mt 14).

    4. Manna from heaven (Exod. 16:4–36) → Jesus feeding the multitudes (Jn 6:31-32, 48-51: Jesus is the bread from heaven).

    5. Water from the rock (Exod. 17:1–7; Num. 20:7–11) → Jesus gives living water (Jn 4:10; 7:38).

    6. Serpent lifted up in the wilderness (Num. 21:6–9) → Jesus’ crucifixion as the true source of healing (Jn 3:14–15).

  2. Elijah

    1. Multiplying food: jar of flour and jug of oil for the widow of Zarephath (1 Kgs. 17:8–16) → Jesus multiplying loaves and fishes.

    2. Raising the dead: raising the widow’s son at Zarephath (1 Kgs. 17:17–24) → Jesus raising the widow’s son at Nain (Lk 7:11-16).

    3. Calling down fire from heaven on Mount Carmel (1 Kgs. 18:36–38) → Jesus’ authority over nature, storms, and demons.

    4. Crossing the Jordan by parting its waters with his cloak (2 Kgs. 2:8) → Jesus’ mastery over water.

  3. Elisha

    1. As Elijah’s successor, Elisha performs many miracles resembling Jesus’ works.

    2. Multiplying food: twenty loaves feeding a hundred men (2 Kgs. 4:42–44) → Jesus feeding the 5,000.

    3. Healing Naaman the Syrian of leprosy (2 Kgs. 5:1–14) → Jesus cleansing lepers.

    4. Floating the axe head (2 Kgs. 6:1–7) → Jesus’s provision of coin in the fish’s mouth (Mt 17:27).

    5. Raising the Shunammite’s son (2 Kgs. 4:32–37) → Jesus raising the widow’s son at Nain (Lk 7:11-16).

  4. Theological Continuity and Escalation

    1. The OT miracles are redemptive, showing the exodus as a new creation

    2. Going under the waters and coming out the other side = death and resurrection.

    3. Jesus’ miracles both recall these OT miracles in order to show that he is:

      1. The new Moses bringing a new exodus (Lk 9:31)

      2. The greater Elijah/Elisha bringing life and cleansing

    4. But Jesus is not merely a human prophet through whom God worked, but the divine Lord over creation and death.

Evangelists’ commentary on the meaning of Jesus’ miracles

Section titled “Evangelists’ commentary on the meaning of Jesus’ miracles”

  1. Matthew

    1. Matthew 8:16–17 – Healings and exorcisms were done to fulfill Isaiah 53:4: “He took our illnesses and bore our diseases.”

    2. Matthew 12:15–21 – Jesus’ withdrawal and healing fulfills Isaiah 42:1–4, the Servant who brings justice.

  2. Mark

    1. Mark rarely comments directly. He takes the “show and tell” approach.

  3. Luke

    1. Luke emphasizes the salvation-historical meaning of miracles.

    2. Luke 4:16–21 – Jesus’ ministry of healing is explicitly connected to Isaiah 61:1: “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me.”

    3. Luke 24:19 – On the road to Emmaus: Jesus was “a prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people.”

  4. John

    1. John’s Gospel is more explicit in drawing out the theological significance of the miracles - indeed, John calls them “signs” that manifest his divine glory.

    2. John 2:11 – Water to wine: “This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana…and manifested his glory. And his disciples believed in him.”

    3. Several of the miracles in John are accompanied by Jesus’ claim to be doing these works as God the Son.

      1. John 5:19-21: After healing invalid at Bethesda: “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise.”

      2. John 10:30-38: After healing the man born blind: “I and the Father are one … The Father is in me and I am in the Father.”

    4. This claim is what makes the miracles of Jesus different from those of Moses, Elijah, and Elisha.

Astonishment in reaction to Jesus’s Staggering Power

Section titled “Astonishment in reaction to Jesus’s Staggering Power”

  1. Note the Christological implications:

    1. They wondered what sort of man this was.

    2. They glorified God.

  2. Healing the Paralytic (Mt 9:1–8 / Mk 2:1–12 / Lk 5:17–26)

    1. Response: “When the crowds saw it, they were afraid, and they glorified God, who had given such authority to men” (Mt 9:8)

    2. “They were all amazed and glorified God, saying, ‘We have never seen anything like this!’” (Mk 2:12)

  3. Raising the Widow’s Son at Nain (Lk 7:11–17)

    1. Response: “Fear seized them all, and they glorified God, saying, ‘A great prophet has arisen among us!’ and ‘God has visited his people!’” (Lk 7:16)

  4. Healing of the Mute after Exorcism (Mt 9:32–33)

    1. Response: “And when the demon had been cast out, the mute man spoke. And the crowds marveled, saying, ‘Never was anything like this seen in Israel.’”

  5. Calming the storm (Mt 8:23–27 / Mk 4:35–41 / Lk 8:22–25)

    1. Response: “And the men marveled, saying, ‘What sort of man is this, that even winds and sea obey him?’” (Mt 8:27 / Mk 4:41 / Lk 8:25).

  6. Walking on water (Mt 14:22–33 / Mk 6:45–52 / Jn 6:16–21)

    1. Response: “And those in the boat worshiped him, saying, ‘Truly you are the Son of God’” (Mt 14:33).

    2. “And they were utterly astounded” (Mk 6:51).

  7. Healing of the Blind (Mt 20:29–34 / Mk 10:46–52 / Lk 18:35–43)

    1. Response: “Immediately he recovered his sight and followed him, glorifying God. And all the people, when they saw it, gave praise to God” (Lk 18:43).

  8. Healing in the Temple after Triumphal Entry (Mt 21:14–16)

    1. Response: “And the blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he healed them. 15 But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children crying out in the temple, ‘Hosanna to the Son of David,’ they were indignant. 16 and they said to him, ‘Do you hear what these are saying?’ And Jesus said to them, ‘Yes; have you never read, “Out of the mouth of infants and nursing babies you have prepared praise”?’”

  9. Healing of the Deaf and Mute (Mk 7:31–37)

    1. Response: “They were astonished beyond measure, saying, ‘He has done all things well. He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak’” (alluding to Isaiah 35: “Behold, your God will come …”).

  10. A healing session (Mt 15:29–31)

    1. Response: “The crowd wondered, when they saw the mute speaking, the crippled healthy, the lame walking, and the blind seeing. And they glorified the God of Israel” (Mt 15:31).

The Christological and Soteriological Significance of Jesus’ miracles

Section titled “The Christological and Soteriological Significance of Jesus’ miracles”

  1. Validation of true Prophet

    1. Miracles validated Jesus as a true prophet sent from God. Of course, he is more than a prophet - he is the divine Son of God - but this is a good first step.

    2. “When the people saw the sign that he had done, they said, ‘This is indeed the Prophet who is to come into the world!’” (Jn 6:14).

    3. “The works that I do bear witness about me” (Jn 10:25).

    4. “Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs” (Acts 2:22).

  2. Pictures of Salvation

    1. Miracles serve as enacted parables of what salvation means, and how the Messiah is bringing salvation.

    2. Examples:

      1. Healing the blind = spiritual illumination.

      2. Cleansing lepers = forgiveness and removal of sin’s defilement.

      3. Raising the dead = gift of eternal life.

    3. Lk 19:10: “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”

  3. Inbreaking of the Eschatological Age to Come

    1. Miracles are signs that the eschatological Kgdm of God is breaking into the present age, the age to come has dawned in the Messiah.

    2. They preview the final renewal when creation will be healed, demons banished, and death destroyed.

    3. Examples:

      1. Feeding miracles anticipate the messianic banquet

      2. Raising the dead anticipates the general resurrection.

  4. Victory over Evil

    1. Especially in the exorcisms - these miracles show Jesus’ power over Satan and the demonic.

    2. “If it is by the finger of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you” (Lk 11:20).

    3. “And ought not this woman, a daughter of Abraham whom Satan bound for eighteen years, be loosed from this bond on the Sabbath day?” (Lk 13:16)

    4. “The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil” (1 Jn 3:8).

    5. Each exorcism is a skirmish in the ultimate victory of Christ over Satan through his death-and-resurrection.

  5. Signs Revealing that he is the Divine Son of God

    1. John 1:14: “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

    2. When did the disciples “see his glory”? Transfiguration, resurrection, yes. But also in his miracles, e.g.: when he turned the water into wine. John 2:11: “This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory. And his disciples believed in him.”

    3. John 5: Healing of the invalid at Bethesda: “And this was why the Jews were persecuting Jesus, because he was doing these things on the Sabbath. 17 But Jesus answered them, ‘My Father is working until now, and I am working.’ 18 This was why the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him, because not only was he breaking the Sabbath, but he was even calling God his own Father, making himself equal with God. 19 So Jesus said to them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise. 20 For the Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing. And greater works than these will he show him, so that you may marvel. 21 For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will. 22 The Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son, 23 that all may honor the Son, just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him … For the works that the Father has given me to accomplish, the very works that I am doing, bear witness about me that the Father has sent me.’”

    4. John 10:25-38: “‘The works that I do in my Father’s name bear witness about me … 30 I and the Father are one.’ 31 The Jews picked up stones again to stone him. 32 Jesus answered them, ‘I have shown you many good works from the Father; for which of them are you going to stone me?’ 33 The Jews answered him, ‘It is not for a good work that we are going to stone you but for blasphemy, because you, being a man, make yourself God’ … 37 ‘If I am not doing the works of my Father, then do not believe me; 38 but if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works, that you may know and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father.’”

Did Jesus perform his miracles by his divine power or as a man anointed by the Spirit?

Section titled “Did Jesus perform his miracles by his divine power or as a man anointed by the Spirit?”

(Hint: false dichotomy)

  1. Commonly held view: Jesus performed his miracles as a man anointed by the Spirit, not relying on his deity

    1. Luke 4:18: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me …”

    2. Mt 12:28 / Lk 11:20: “If I cast out demons by the Spirit of God (or by the finger of God), then the kingdom of God has come upon you.”

    3. Acts 10:38: “God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him.”

    4. Gerald Hawthorne, The Presence and the Power (1991, 2003)

      1. Argues that Christ’s miracles were fully human acts empowered by the Spirit.

      2. Jesus did not act primarily by prerogatives of his divine nature in his earthly ministry; rather, he operated through the enabling, abiding presence of the Holy Spirit in his human life.

      3. Jesus was “a human filled with the Spirit without measure” (i.e. perfectly, completely) and that the Spirit is the means by which he overcame human limitations

      4. Jesus’ miracles are not to be ascribed to independent divine authority, but to Spirit-empowerment in his humanity.

      5. Jesus voluntarily refrained from exercising certain divine attributes during his earthly life (though not ceasing to have them).

    5. J.R. Daniel Kirk, A Man Attested by God: The Human Jesus of the Synoptic Gospels (Eerdmans, 2018)

      1. Acts 2:22: “Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst.”

      2. Kirk argues that the Synoptic Gospels (not John) present Jesus as an idealized human figure.

      3. Jesus’ authority and power over demons, sickness, and nature are portrayed in the Synoptics as functions of his Spirit-empowerment as God’s human agent.

      4. Like Moses, Elijah, Elisha - they were not divine; rather God worked through them.

  2. Better approach: Applying Chalcedonian Christology

    1. One person of the Son operating in two distinct natures.

    2. Athanasius, On the Incarnation of the Word §18 (NPNF2 4.46): “Accordingly, when inspired writers on this matter speak of Him as eating and being born, understand that the body, as body, was born, and sustained with food corresponding to its nature, while God, the Word Himself, Who was united with the body, while ordering all things, also by the works He did in the body shewed Himself to be not man, but God the Word … For His charging evil spirits, and their being driven forth, this deed is not of man, but of God. Or who that saw Him healing the diseases to which the human race is subject, can still think Him man and not God? For He cleansed lepers, made lame men to walk, opened the hearing of deaf men, made blind men to see again, and in a word drove away from men all diseases and infirmities: from which acts it was possible even for the most ordinary observer to see His Godhead.”

    3. Hilary of Poitiers, De Trinitate 2.28 (NPNF2 9.60): “In all the varied acts of power and healing which He wrought, the fact is conspicuous that He was man by virtue of the flesh He had taken, God by the evidence of the works He did” (cp. 3.5-7).

    4. Christ’s miracles are theandric acts—works of the one divine Person of the Son, who acts through both natures.

    5. Maximus the Confessor (c. 580–662)

      1. All of Christ’s actions are theandric — that is, actions in which divine and human energies operate together harmoniously in the one person of the Incarnate Word. This does not mean a single, blended operation but rather a new mode of existence in which each nature acts according to its own peculiar properties yet in perfect harmony. His divine and human energy coincided in a single person, Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God.

      2. Kevin M. Clarke, “Preserving the Whole Theological System: Maximus the Confessor’s Dyothelitism as a Bulwark for Trinitarian Theology, Christology, and Soteriology,” Vox Patrum 37 (2017) 479-500.

    6. John of Damascus (c. 675–749), Exposition of the Orthodox Faith 3.15 (NPNF2 9.60-64).

      1. “We hold that there are two energies in our Lord Jesus Christ. For He possesses on the one hand, as God and being of like essence with the Father, the divine energy, and likewise, since He became man and of like essence to us, the energy proper to human nature …. We must, then, maintain that Christ has two energies in virtue of His double nature” (pp. 60-61).

      2. Flaming sword illustration (p. 62). It has two natures and two energies – steel that cuts and wounds, and fire that burns. When flesh is struck by a flaming sword there will be a single result: a cauterized wound. Distinct but inseparable energies.

      3. Jesus’s raising of the daughter of Jairus: “The effect of His human energy was His taking the child by the hand and drawing her to Himself, while that of His divine energy was the restoring of her to life. For the one is quite distinct from the other, although they are inseparable from one another in theandric energy” (p. 62).

      4. “While His divinity performed the miracles, they were not done apart from the flesh, and while His flesh performed its lowly offices, they were not done apart from the divinity … The flesh acted as the instrument of His divinity” (p. 63).

      5. “He revealed His human energy in a superhuman way, walking with earthly feet on unstable water, not by turning the water into earth, but by causing it in the superabundant power of His divinity not to flow away nor yield beneath the weight of material feet. For not in a merely human way did He do human things: for He was not only man, but also God, and so even His sufferings brought life and salvation: nor yet did He energize as God, strictly after the manner of God, for He was not only God, but also man, and so it was by touch and word and such like that He worked miracles” (p. 64).

  3. Role of Spirit in relation to the theandric person

    1. Christ’s miracles, in the economy of redemption, were wrought by the Spirit-anointed theandric Son with both the human and divine nature working together in perfect harmony.

    2. John 3:34-35: “For he whom God has sent utters the words of God, for he gives the Spirit without measure. 35 The Father loves the Son and has given all things into his hand.”

    3. John 10:17-18: “For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. 18 No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.” Rom 8:11: “the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead.”

  4. Inseparable Operations

    1. Definition: All external divine works (opera ad extra)—e.g., works of creation and redemption—belong inseparably to the three divine persons.

    2. Adonis Vidu, “Trinitarian Inseparable Operations and the Incarnation,” Journal of Analytic Theology 4 (2016) 106-27.

    3. Stephen Wellum, God the Son Incarnate (2016): The person of the Son acts according to both natures, but the mode of operation in the economy of salvation is Spirit-empowered.

    4. Miraculous actions fall under divine opera ad extra

      1. Every divine action (opus ad extra) proceeds from the one divine essence, shared will, and shared power.

      2. The Son’s assumption of human nature and the operations accomplished through that nature (praying, healing, dying, etc.) are not isolated personal actions of the Son apart from the Father and the Spirit

      3. Thus, Jesus’ miracles fall within the same category: they are external divine operations in which all three persons co-act.

      4. Church fathers appealed to John 5:19ff to support this doctrine of inseparable operations:

        1. Hilary of Poitiers, De Trinitate 7.15-21 (NPNF2 9.124-27).

        2. Augustine, Homilies on the Gospel of John, Tractate 20 (NPNF1 7.131-37).

    5. Key distinctions:

      1. Originating Cause - As to principium, miraculous works have their originating cause in the one will of the triune God.

      2. Terminating Effects - As to terminus, the effects appear in the humanity of Christ and are therefore ascribed to the Messiah—since his human nature is uniquely united to the divine person of the Word.

        1. The Father, Son, and Spirit cause the miracle together, but the effect (a healed body, stilled storm, etc.) is mediated through the Son’s human nature and is thus said to be done by him.

        2. This preserves both the unity of divine action and the Son’s distinct personal manifestation.

      3. Immediate Operator - John Owen: “The Holy Spirit is the immediate operator [or perfecting cause] of all divine acts of the Son himself, even on his own human nature” (3.162).

    6. Therefore, when Jesus works miracles

      1. The originating cause is the whole Trinity.

      2. The terminating effect is manifested in the incarnate Son acting through his human nature.

      3. The perfecting cause is the Holy Spirit empowering and effectuating in creation the works of the Messiah.

    7. Conclusion

      1. Jesus’ miracles cannot be treated as autonomous exercises of his divine nature apart from the Father and the Spirit.

      2. Neither can they be reduced to mere Spirit-empowered human acts apart from the Son’s divinity.

      3. Rather, they are inseparable trinitarian operations revealed through the incarnate Son’s human nature.

      4. The whole Godhead acts through Christ’s humanity; what we witness historically as “the miracles of Jesus” are the concrete termini of those common divine operations.

      5. They are divine works in which Father, Son, and Spirit jointly operate, yet the effects terminate in the incarnate Son who performs them visibly in his human nature, while the Spirit serves as the immediate, perfecting agent.

The ultimate mighty deed: the death-and-resurrection of the Messiah, the Son of God

Section titled “The ultimate mighty deed: the death-and-resurrection of the Messiah, the Son of God”

  1. Recognition by Enemies

    1. The taunt “He saved others; let him save himself” (Lk 23:35 / Mt 27:42 / Mk 15:31) is remarkable because it shows:

      1. Even Jesus’ enemies acknowledge that his ministry was marked by saving power (σώζειν often referring to healings and deliverance).

      2. The healings, exorcisms, and raisings of the dead had left such an imprint that they were common knowledge.

      3. Even his opponents cannot deny his miraculous works.

    2. This shows that the miracle tradition was not peripheral: it was integral to how Jesus was perceived.

  2. Theological Irony

    1. The scoffers miss the fact that Jesus cannot save himself and save others at the same time.

    2. To save the world, he must refuse to come down from the cross.

    3. Irony: their words are true at a level they do not grasp.

    4. The one who “saved others” precisely by his mighty works is now “saving others” in the fullest sense by not saving himself.

    5. He who had saved others, healing and restoring, is now enacting the ultimate salvation.

  3. Miracles and the Cross

    1. The miracles function as anticipations of the cross and resurrection.

    2. Healings foreshadow the forgiveness and restoration purchased by the cross.

    3. Exorcisms anticipate Christ’s decisive victory over Satan at Calvary (Jn 12:31; Col 2:15).

    4. Raisings of the dead foreshadow his own resurrection.

    5. The cross, then, is not a contradiction of the miracles, but their consummation.

    6. His earlier “saves” point forward to the final, ultimate act of saving through death.

  4. The glory of his death

    1. The centurion, amazed at the manner of his death: “Truly this man was the Son of God!” (Mt 27:54 / Mk 15:39).

    2. The Gospel of John - “glorified” (δοξάζω)

      1. Also “lifted up” (ὑψόω) double meaning—pointing to both crucifixion and exaltation.

      2. John 3:14–15: “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.”

      3. John 8:28: “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he…”

      4. John 12:23–24: “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.”

      5. John 12:32–33: “And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” John adds: “He said this to show by what kind of death he was going to die.”

      6. John 13:31–32: “Now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him. If God is glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself, and glorify him at once.”

      7. John 17:1: “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you.”

  5. Martin Kähler famously called the Gospels “passion narratives with extended introductions.”

    1. The miracles belong to the “introduction,” but their function is not to stand on their own.

    2. They establish Jesus’ saving power and identity, which becomes the lens through which the cross must be understood.

    3. In other words:

      1. The miracles show that Jesus saves.

      2. The cross shows how Jesus saves.

    4. The healing miracles and the passion are organically connected:

      1. Miracles = provisional, anticipatory acts of salvation.

      2. Passion = climactic, once-for-all act of salvation.

    5. The scoffers ironically link the two, crystallizing the unity of Jesus’ story: the Savior who healed bodies now refuses to heal himself in order to heal the world.

  6. Summary

    1. The mockery at the cross shows that even opponents recognized Jesus’ miraculous saving power.

    2. Their ironic challenge highlights the paradox: to save others, he must not save himself.

    3. This confirms that the miracles were not random wonders but preparatory signs pointing to the cross.

    4. The passion is the climax, with the miracles serving as an extended introduction that only finds meaning at Calvary.