Do Miracles Still Happen Today?
Do miracles still happen in our world? The Bible tells us of numerous miracles that Jesus and his apostles performed. For instance, in the Book of Matthew (Matthew 8:28-34), we find a story of Jesus and his disciples journeying to the eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee in an area referred to as the country of the Gerasenes. (Full text of the passage can be found here). This country was predominantly Gentile, and although Jesus’s notoriety had, up to this point, spread quite widely in Galilee and Judah, these people probably had not heard of him or his ministry. Jesus’s purpose for this little side trip is not specifically stated, but we can assume that it was to spread the good news to others and not just the Jewish people of Galilee and Judea. Whatever the mission, it appears to have been sidetracked by the sudden appearance of a demon-possessed man. He exorcises the demons and banishes them into a nearby herd of pigs. The herd then stampedes down the steep bank into the sea and drowns. This was just one of the miracles Jesus performed during his ministry. In fact, there were so many that John said in the last chapter of his gospel,
Now there are also many other things that Jesus did. Were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written. (John 21:25, ESV).
Today, even if one believes these historical events are true, the question frequently asked is, do miracles still happen now in the 21st century?
Of note, all of Jesus’s miracles, including this one, have at least one common thread. They all point to his true identity, that he is the Son of God. This is clearly important, but there is more to it in this particular story. The whole narrative of the possessed man, his cure, and the townspeople’s reaction can be seen as a microcosm of our world today. There are a number of parallels.
Trapped by Demons
Parallel #1 – This demon-possessed man was trapped… trapped by Satan’s minions. Likewise, since the time of Adam and Eve, all of us come into the world entrapped or enslaved to sin. This is not to say that we are all possessed by demons in the manner that this man was, but as the Apostle Paul put it in the Book of Romans:
For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, (Romans 3:22b-23, ESV).
Enslaved by Sin
Parallel #2 – The possessed man and the townspeople could do nothing to free him or cure him of this demon possession. Likewise, we too are not able to free ourselves from enslavement to sin without God’s grace and intervention. We simply cannot do it on our own. And this is precisely why the new covenant is so important.
But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— (Ephesians 2:4-5, ESV).
Prioritizing Faith
Parallel #3 – The Gerasenes did not appear overjoyed by a fellow citizen being cured of demonic possession. In fact, they were frightened by Jesus’s power and asked him to leave. What were they so afraid of? Was it that Jesus manifested great authority and power over even the spiritual world? Or was it that he had cured this man at the expense of their livelihood? That is the interpretation of many Biblical scholars: that the value of the healed man was overshadowed by the economic impact of losing a whole herd of pigs. The parallel here is that there are still many such people in our world today, people who place their job or material possessions before their faith and trust in the Lord, and perhaps even before the welfare of fellow human beings who are suffering.
A New Spirit
Parallel #4 – Jesus gave this man a new spirit. The man was essentially reborn, totally transformed. Similarly, Jesus, through the power of the Holy Spirit, gives a new spirit to all who become believers.
A New Evangelist
Parallel #5 – The cured man became an evangelist, carrying Jesus’s message to others. When we receive the gift of salvation, when we become disciples of Jesus, we are charged with what Jesus charged this healed demon-possessed man with: to go out into the community and spread the word. The Gerasenes may have forced Jesus to leave, but he left a very strong evangelist with them.
But returning to the original question, do miracles still happen today? Does God ever intervene in our modern-day world? Naysayers would say, No. They opine that God has stepped aside since the days of Jesus and the apostles, the analogy being a watchmaker who meticulously makes a watch, winds it up, and then just walks away. This claim is backed up with the argument that for 2000 years there have been no miracles similar to those performed by Jesus and his apostles.
The counterpoint (and the opinion of this author) is that God’s love, mercy, and compassion for us are still as great as they always have been, and he is still very active in our world. We just often overlook or don’t see the miracles around us. In our modern high-tech world, we have grown accustomed to diseases being cured, even to the extent that we sometimes expect any sickness to be curable by medical science.
True Miracles Today
True miracles are events that our worldly logic, laws of nature, or science cannot explain. When such events occur, they can only be explained by divine intervention. The following is an example of a modern-day miracle. It is a true story, a story told to me by a WWII veteran, one who I believe really experienced a bona fide miracle.
A Modern Day Miracle
The story begins in 1945, when this veteran, then a young Navy doctor, returned home from the Pacific War with a clear dream: he wanted to continue his medical education and train to become a general surgeon. After applying to several teaching hospitals, he was accepted into a residency program and soon arrived for his onboarding, which included a physical exam, some routine blood work, and a chest X-ray. However, the day after completing these tasks, the chief administrative physician called him into his office. He said, “Doctor, your credentials look excellent, and we believe you would make an outstanding surgical resident. But we have run into a problem. Your X-ray shows that you have tuberculosis.” It was devastating news. In the 1940s, tuberculosis was a near-certain death sentence; effective treatments did not yet exist, and the disease was almost always fatal. Instead of starting his surgical training, the twenty-something-year-old doctor was told to go home, pack his things, and make arrangements to move to a West Texas tuberculosis sanatorium to live out the remainder of his life. Faced with this crushing sentence, the young man chose not to go to West Texas. Instead, he returned to the comfort of his loving parents’ home, where he stayed to wait out what he assumed would be his final months. But then something quite unusual happened. He noticed he wasn’t getting sicker. In fact, he wasn’t experiencing any symptoms of tuberculosis at all. And so after nearly a year of being in isolation, he decided to return to the hospital where he had been diagnosed to get checked out. There, the same doctors performed a complete re-evaluation, including a new chest X-ray. And then the miracle. To everyone’s profound astonishment, they could find no active trace of the disease. The X-ray showed only a small amount of scar tissue, evidence of where the tuberculous infection had been. He was completely free of disease. The young man went on to complete his training, got married, and lived a long and full life. He, in fact, made profoundly positive impacts on the lives of many people.
And so, do miracles still happen today? Yes, they do indeed! Jesus may not be physically with us today, but the Holy Spirit is… and God still intervenes in our world because he has an unfathomable love for us.
And oh, by the way… as I said, I knew that man… That man was my father.