One of the greatest friendships recorded in the Bible is that of David and Jonathan. Outside the Bible, one of the greatest friendships ever remembered is that of Anne Sullivan and Helen Keller. I doubt that many would be familiar with this friendship had William Gibson not given it the spotlight through his writing. Based on letters written by Anne Sullivan, Gibson wrote a play that in 1962 became the Oscar winning movie entitled “The Miracle Worker.”

Though the movie is now over forty years old, many still remember the plot. At nineteen months, a fever took young Helen’s hearing and sight. Without those senses, she never developed the ability to speak. Helen’s parents hired Anne Sullivan to come and work with their frustrated six-year-old. By the time Helen had turned ten, Anne Sullivan had broken into her dark and silent world and taught Helen how to communicate. Anne Sullivan had done what others thought was impossible, and thus Gibson called her, “The Miracle Worker.”

I doubt any of us would slight the accomplishment of Anne Sullivan, for what took place in Helen Keller’s life was truly miraculous. However, when you compare the work of Anne Sullivan to the work of Jesus Christ, Anne Sullivan and Helen Keller would both agree that Jesus Christ is the true miracle worker.

Jesus’ accomplishments as the miracle worker have not benefited just one, but many. They have not been limited to one type of need, but many. The miracles have not stopped with one generation, but continue today. Because Jesus Christ is still the miracle worker, He still draws a crowd. He still draws a crowd for the following reasons.

Responding to Our Needs

As the miracle worker, Jesus responds to our needs. Genesis 3 reminds us that because of Adam and Eve’s sin against God, we will always be in need. In verses17-19, God articulates the consequences of their sin.

17 To Adam he said, "Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, 'You must not eat of it,'

"Cursed is the ground because of you;
through painful toil you will eat of it
all the days of your life.
18 It will produce thorns and thistles for you,
and you will eat the plants of the field.
19 By the sweat of your brow
you will eat your food
until you return to the ground,
since from it you were taken;
for dust you are
and to dust you will return."

Prior to their sin, Adam and Eve were perfect and so was Eden. They were healthy and all their needs were provided. Yet after their sin, God cursed their bodies to decay, and cursed the ground so they would have to work for their food.

Today we are still paying the consequences of Adam and Eve’s sin. Our bodies are still cursed. Americans spend 2.8 billion dollars each year just to relieve the symptoms of our colds.¹ The ground is still cursed and our work is still painful. Annually, 28 million Americans suffer from migraines resulting in 150 million workdays lost and $13 million of lost productivity.² Life is hard, we hurt and long for a miracle worker.

The variety of our hurts has not changed much with time. During Jesus’ ministry people came to him hurting physically, such as the ten lepers. Others hurt emotionally, like the woman at the well. Still more were hurting spiritually like Nicodemus. As a result, Luke 5:15 records, “Yet the news about him spread all the more, so that crowds of people came to hear him and to be healed of their sicknesses.”

Today, Jesus still draws a crowd as He did then. As long as we continue to hurt, and as long as we see Jesus as our hope, He will still draw a crowd.

Revealing God’s Greatness

Yet it is not just needs that draw the masses to Jesus. It is the miraculous way Jesus meets needs that causes the people to come. One of the primary aims for Jesus’ miracles is to reveal the greatness of God. Jesus explains this in John 9. Prior to healing a man born blind, Jesus’ disciples ask Him if the man was blind because of some sin in his life or that of his parents. Jesus answers in verse 3, "Neither this man nor his parents sinned," said Jesus, "but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life.” This man was blind so that his healing might display the greatness of God. Jesus repeated this principle to His disciples on another occasion. Upon hearing that His friend Lazarus had died, Jesus told His disciples in John 11:4, "This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God's glory so that God's Son may be glorified through it." Second only to His own resurrection, raising Lazarus from the dead became Jesus’ crowning miracle. It revealed the greatness (glory) of God in, upon, and through Jesus Christ.

I have been a pastor now for over twenty years and have seen God heal bodies, relationships, emotions, hopes, and more. For those who would say Jesus was their miracle worker, they hold the following in common. First, they cannot stop thanking Him for their miracle. Though it may have happened years ago, they still pray with tears saying, “Thank you.” Second, they cannot stop telling others about their miracle. If someone brings up some heartache, they tell them about their healer. If someone sounds hopeless, they will talk about their helper, Jesus Christ. Those who have been in great need and experienced one of Christ’s great deeds cannot help but talk about the greatness of God in Jesus Christ.

Jesus is still the miracle worker whose miracles still reveal the greatness of God. That is why Jesus still draws a crowd.

Releasing God’s Grace

Just as there are many who would tearfully tell of their miracle and God’s greatness, many more could say, “I prayed for a specific miracle, but God did not give me what I asked for.” The Apostle Paul could have said that. However, he would have said, “Though God did not give me what I asked for, He gave me more than I hoped for. He gave me His grace.”

Jesus the miracle worker responds to our needs by either revealing His greatness or releasing His grace. Paul experienced the latter in 2 Corinthians 12:7-10,

7 To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. 8 Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. 9 But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. 10 That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

There are many who would say, “If I had the choice between getting a miracle and or receiving God’s grace, I would rather have the miracle.” What they forget is that receiving God’s grace is a miracle. God’s mercy is when He withholds what you deserve to give you what you need. God’s grace is when He gives you what you need instead of what you deserve. That in itself is a miracle.

Scripture records that God releases His grace for one of three reasons. God releases it “to save you” (Ephesians 2:8-9), “for you to serve Him” (Romans 12:6-8), and “to strengthen you as you serve Him” (2 Corinthians 12:9-10). Here, God would not heal Paul and reveal His greatness. Instead, God would strengthen Paul by releasing His grace.

Some scholars believe that the “thorn in the flesh” Paul prayed about was his failing eyesight. God refused to change Paul’s condition because He wanted to change Paul through this condition. Instead of personal pride in what he could do, God wanted Paul to display perfect power in what only God could do. No one looks when you do something anyone can do, but heads turn when you accomplish something only God can do. That is why we still marvel over the life of Helen Keller.

Before she died in 1968, Helen Keller graduated magna cum laude from Radcliff College, had written multiple articles and books, had met every President from Grover Cleveland to Lyndon Johnson, received numerous awards, and throughout her lifetime remained atop people’s “most admired” list. Without her handicap, I doubt anyone would have noticed her. Yet because of her handicap, kings and presidents listened to her. On one occasion she said, “I thank God for my handicaps, for through them, I have found myself, my work and my God.”³ Jesus had released His grace upon her.

When Jesus releases His grace instead of changing your condition, you experience the following. You experience Jesus’ power. Verse 9 teaches that God’s power is made perfect in our weakness. You also sense Jesus’ peace. Verse 9 says that Jesus’ power “rests” on you. This word “rest” means “to spread a tent over.” Jesus covers you with His power, giving you His peace. Furthermore, you gain Jesus’ perspective. In verse 10 Paul understands that calamities keep you close to Jesus, and difficulties display the power of Jesus. When you are weak, Jesus releases the grace you need to make you strong.

Today, people still come to Jesus with their needs. For some, He may reveal His greatness and change your condition. For others, He will release His grace and allow your condition to change you. On both accounts you win, and for that reason, Jesus still draws a crowd.

Restating Good News

Though the people wanted Jesus because of His miracles, Jesus wanted the people because of His message. The people wanted to be healed by Him but Jesus wanted them to hear Him. Jesus made this clear in Luke 4:40-43,

40 When the sun was setting, the people brought to Jesus all who had various kinds of sickness, and laying his hands on each one, he healed them. 41 Moreover, demons came out of many people, shouting, "You are the Son of God!" But he rebuked them and would not allow them to speak, because they knew he was the Christ.

42 At daybreak Jesus went out to a solitary place. The people were looking for him and when they came to where he was, they tried to keep him from leaving them. 43 But he said, "I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns also, because that is why I was sent."

At first the people saw Jesus as their miracle worker. Yet His miracles were a means to an end. Soon, they would listen to Him as God’s messenger. Through His miracles, Jesus would restate His good news of salvation to them, and then hopefully through them.

Good News To You
You can almost divide the gospel of Luke into thirds. In the first third, Jesus draws the crowds through His miracles. In chapters 4 – 9, every chapter records a miracle. In the middle third, Jesus teaches the crowds using parables. In the last third of Luke, Jesus’ sacrifice for the crowd is undeniable. Jesus drew the crowd, taught the crowd, and died for the crowd with the hope to save the crowd—not physically, but spiritually. Tragically, most in the crowd came only for His miracles, not His message.

Too often today, many seek Jesus for the same reasons. You want to be healed by Him without having to hear Him. You want the miracle without the message. Yet what many fail to understand is that the greatest miracle of all can only be found in the message.

Romans 6:23 teaches that sin is spiritually fatal. The result of sin is death. John 1:2 says that in Jesus alone is life. Just as people can exist in physical comas but not be alive, you can exist in a spiritual coma and not be alive. The only way to come alive is for Jesus to perform a spiritual miracle in your life. All the physical miracles you have experienced, such as God’s protection, provision, and direction have been the minor miracles. God has used them hoping you would experience His greatest miracle - the miracle of moving you from death to life spiritually. Let the miracles remind you of the message Jesus has been trying to tell you for years. You can be saved.

Good News Through You
Though you have experienced God’s greatest miracle, the miracle of salvation, you will continue to experience physical miracles. However, these miracles are performed so that Jesus’ good news can be repeated, not to you but through you. Again, Helen Keller proved to be the perfect example of this.

At one time, Bill Mann was one of the great singing voices in the Christian church in this nation. Years ago, he told about the most memorable concert of his life. He held it in his dressing room after a concert. There, Helen Keller was waiting for him. She asked if he would sing for her the last song he sang in the concert. When he agreed, Ms. Keller moved five inches from his face. Placing her fingers on his lips and on his vocal cords, he sang again, "Were You There When They Crucified My Lord?" When he finished singing, he saw a tear trickle down her face as she repeatedly said through her interpreter, "I was there! I was there!"⁴

William Gibson may have seen Anne Sullivan as Helen Keller’s miracle worker, but to Helen Keller, her great miracle worker would forever be Jesus Christ. She would tell the world of the minor miracles of God, such as when God brought Anne Sullivan to her home. She could tell of that minor miracle because she was there. Yet she would use the stories of God’s minor miracles to tell of the greatest miracle of her life, the day Jesus came into her life. She could tell of that miracle as well because she was there.

Reflection

There will always be a need in your life for Jesus, the miracle worker. On some occasions, He will reveal His greatness and solve your problem. On other occasions He will not solve your problem. Instead, He will release His grace giving you what you need to get through it. He performs these minor miracles in your life hoping you will respond one of two ways. One is that you will hear the good news that He can meet your greatest need. He can come into your life, forgive you of your sins, and lift you from spiritual death to spiritual life. That is His first desire for you. His second hope is that after you have surrendered your life to Him, you will use every other miracle He performs in your life to tell others about His good news for Him. Remember, you are the best person to share this good news. Like Helen Keller, you were there during the minor miracle, and you were there during the greatest miracle. Therefore, use God’s miracles in your life to tell Jesus’ good news.

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[1] US News & World Report, September 15, 1997.
[2] Houston Chronicle, June 18, 1998, 6A.
[3] As quoted in Bob Phillips, Phillips' Book of Great Thoughts & Funny Sayings, (Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc, 1993), p. 11.
[4] James S. Hewett, Illustrations Unlimited (Wheaton: Tyndale House Publishers, Inc, 1988) p. 277.