Pastor's Corner
April 2025
Inspired: Fish Stories
In last month’s article, we took a look, along with Rachel Evans, at the gospel stories as a whole. This month, we go even deeper into the gospel stories as we consider the miracles of Jesus, noting, as Evans does, that many of them involve fish. The miraculous catch of fish that led ordinary fisherman to leave their nets and follow Jesus, the loaves and fishes that Jesus used to feed 5000, the fish with the coin in its mouth, are just some of the examples of the fish stories that we find in the gospels.
The miracle stories, many of which include healings, are stories that inspire us as well as confirm, for many of us, that Jesus is the Son of God. After all, only the Son of God can do these sorts of things. Of course, Jesus can walk on water. Of course, Jesus can heal a man born blind. Of course, Jesus can raise his friend Lazarus back to life. He’s the Son of God. Yet, is there more to these miracles than simple confirmation of Jesus’ identity? This is an important question to ask since it appears as though these miracles don’t seem to be a regular occurrence down through the generations of the church. Occasionally, we may hear of one, but not with the same regularity as we do in the gospel stories.
Today, if we ask people about the miracle stories, we are just as likely the get a skeptical response as we are an awe inspired response. Evans, herself, in her book, Inspired, acknowledges her own skepticism, noting that she is, “cautious of attributing supernatural causes to ordinary events.” Yet, as she took a closer look at the miracle stories themselves, she made some interesting discoveries. The feeding miracles, both the 5000 people and the 4000 people, highlight that Jesus’ ministry expands beyond Judaism to include Gentile people as well. When Jesus heals the leper, heals the woman with the issue of blood, and raises to life Jairus’ daughter, all three stories involve human touch. Jesus reached out and touched people who were considered unclean and beyond human touch. Jesus’ very actions brought people back from the fringe and into the life of the community. Why does this matter, because Jesus told us that he was sending us out into the world just as he was sent out into the world.
Just as Jesus’ miracles “overturned social and religious barriers, abolished taboos, and declared God’s love and compassion for everyone, expressed in the systematic inclusion of each class of the previously excluded and marginalized,” so too the church’s ministry is to carry on in the same way. As Evans writes, “The miracles of Jesus aren’t magic tricks designed to awe prospective converts, nor are they tests from the past, meant to sort true believers from doubters. They are instructions, challenges. They show us what to do and how to hope.”
Jesus’ miracles were a demonstration that the Kingdom of God was not for the select few, but was being thrown wide open to include everyone, especially those who had been rejected and pushed to the margins of society, those who were broken and vulnerable. After all, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” In a final thought, Evans includes a quote from Sara Miles, “Jesus calls his disciples, giving us authority to heal and sending us out. He doesn’t show us how to reliable cure a molar pregnancy. He doesn’t show us how to make a blind man see, dry every tear, or even drive out all kinds of demons. But he shows us how to enter into a way of life in which the broken and sick pieces are held in love, and given meaning. In which strangers literally touch each other, and in doing so make a community spacious enough for everyone.”
From the Pastor.....
