Chapter 30 — Did Jesus Do Miracles?
The Incarnate Christ and His Critics (Komoszewski & Bowman, 2024)
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The miracles of Jesus are among the most debated aspects of the Gospels, and among the most important. Did they actually happen? And if they did, what do they tell us about who Jesus was?
Chapter 30 of The Incarnate Christ and His Critics steps back from the specific miracles and asks a more basic question: what's the historical evidence for Jesus' miracles, and how should we categorize the kind of miracle-working he did?
The Historical Question
Most skeptical scholars accept that Jesus had a reputation during his lifetime as a healer and exorcist. It's one of the best-attested facts about the historical Jesus. It shows up not only in the Gospels but in sources outside the New Testament, including the Jewish historian Josephus, and even in hostile Jewish sources from the first few centuries that tried to discredit Jesus while still admitting his miraculous reputation.
The Mishnah and Talmud record accusations that Jesus practiced sorcery. That's actually a backhanded acknowledgment of his miracles. If Jesus didn't do extraordinary things, there'd be nothing to accuse him of. The sorcery accusation is the ancient equivalent of "yes, he did it, but through the wrong power." That's precisely the accusation the Pharisees made in the Gospels (Matt. 12:24): "It is only by Beelzebul, the prince of demons, that this man casts out demons."
Even Jesus' enemies didn't argue that he did no miracles. They argued about the source of his power.
Who Does the Miracle? Three Categories
Chapter 30 borrows a useful framework from the scholars Werner Kahl and Eric Eve for categorizing miracle workers in the ancient world.
A Petitioner asks God to do the miracle through prayer. The miracle is God's doing; the person is just interceding. This is the kind of miracle Elijah performed at Mount Carmel: "Answer me, O LORD, answer me" (1 Kings 18:37). Elijah prayed; God sent fire.
A Mediator channels God's power, acting as a conduit. Moses performing signs before Pharaoh is an example. The power isn't Moses's; it comes through him from God.
A Bearer inherently possesses the power. In the Old Testament, this category applies only to YHWH himself. God doesn't need to pray or channel. He acts on his own authority.
So which kind of miracle worker was Jesus?
Jesus Heals on His Own Authority
The Gospels are careful here. When Jesus heals, he doesn't pray for healing. He doesn't invoke God's name or ask God to act. He simply commands.
"I will; be clean," to the leper (Mark 1:41).
"Be opened," to the deaf and mute man (Mark 7:34).
"Get up and walk," to the paralyzed man (John 5:8).
"Lazarus, come out!" to the dead man (John 11:43).
Compare this to Peter healing the lame man in Acts 3: "In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk!" Peter explicitly invokes Jesus' name and authority. He's a mediator. Jesus, by contrast, speaks and acts on his own authority. He's the source.
This distinction isn't subtle, and the Gospel writers understood it. Jesus acts as YHWH acts in the Old Testament: directly, without invoking a higher power, because there's no higher power to invoke.
The Response of Faith
Throughout the Gospels, what Jesus requires and receives from those he heals is faith, and not in God abstractly, but specifically in Jesus himself. "Your faith has saved you," he tells people repeatedly. He asks the blind men, "Do you believe that I am able to do this?" (Matt. 9:28). He tells the centurion that he hasn't "found such faith" in all of Israel (Matt. 8:10).
This matters more than it looks at first. In the Old Testament, those who were healed or saved put their faith in YHWH. When the New Testament keeps presenting Jesus as the object of that same healing faith, it's placing him in the position of YHWH, the one people are meant to trust.
What About Miracles Through the Apostles?
The apostles also performed miracles (Acts 3:1-10; 5:12-16; 14:8-10). Doesn't that show miracle-working wasn't unique to Jesus?
Yes, but the apostles always perform miracles in Jesus' name, explicitly invoking his authority. They're mediators. Their miracles are evidence of Jesus' ongoing power through his church, not of their own inherent authority. Jesus performs miracles in his own name. The apostles perform them in his.
The source and the channel are two different things.
The Deeper Question
Miracles don't automatically prove deity. But miracles performed on one's own inherent authority, as the source of the healing rather than a mediator of someone else's power, are a different matter.
In John 5:19, Jesus says: "Whatever the Father does, that the Son does likewise." The Father heals; the Son heals. The Father raises the dead; the Son raises the dead. They do the same works because they share the same divine nature.
The miracles of Jesus aren't proofs tacked on to make us believe something we wouldn't otherwise accept. They're expressions of who he is, the actions of someone whose whole nature was oriented toward life, wholeness, and redemption.
He healed because he is life. He gave sight because he is light. He raised the dead because he is the resurrection.
The miracles weren't tricks. They were glimpses.
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