The Term ‘Miracle’

Ai) Explain The Term 'Miracle'So that the term miracle can be understood and explained as accurately as possible I have looked up the meaning in various places which are shown below with the meaning:* 'Luke- A Gospel for Today' by Linda Smith and William Raeper.

' Years ago people did not understand the laws of nature as we do now. Some things seem miraculous, but are not. A real miracle is something that happens in a different way from the regular laws of nature'* The Concise Oxford dictionary- a miracle is 'an extraordinary event attributed to some supernatural agency.'* The Bible- Even though the bible does not have one separate meaning in order to define the term miracle, it shows many examples of them when Jesus performed several so that he may proclaim His nature and prove and preach the word of God. He also performed them to show he had God's power over nature, mental and physical illness.

The first two definitions portray a similar meaning, although the term can be described variously according to one's personal life experiences. The above definitions clearly state a miracle as being something that cannot be understood. People, now days, tend to use the term 'miracle' rather freely not understanding the true meaning. Despite the fact that the term is used ever so freely I can say that due to my knowledge I can say that not many people I know can say that they have experienced a 'miracle'.

Now that there is such a confused meaning and not just one that the world would agree to, I feel that a 'miracle' is something personal to each individual and that different occurrences may seem miraculous to different personalities.Aii) Describe how Jesus was presented as a worker of miracles in the Gospel of Luke.Many 'miracles' have been written about in the Gospel of Luke that had been performed by Jesus so that his teachings maybe emphasized. Luke's natural interest in Jesus' miracles was completely obvious as they had helped all outcasts in many different ways, e.g.

the needy and poor.Luke uses Jesus' miracles to help support many of his scriptures and to portray the feeling of trust he has in Jesus. Luke's Gospel is written distributing admiration and love toward Jesus and the fact that Jesus had made non believers believe, and how he had fulfilled his task and faced all challenges and not once dismissing the word of God, but in fact had used it to help him an all aspects.Luke had paid special attention to four aspects of miracles; nature, healing, the rising of the dead and deliverance from evil spirits, below is an example of each and the way in which Jesus had been presented.* Being drawn away from the influence of evil spirits- Jesus heals a man from demons- Luke 8: 26-40. This is a story of when Jesus sends the demons from a man and delivers them to a mob of pigs nearby.

This miracles shows that he has all power over demons. It shows Jesus as an accepting person as he had accepted the man ( an outcast) and saved him from being rejected and mocked by the Romans and the local people. The fact that Jesus had accepted the outcast is the reason why the man was healed.* Nature- Jesus ceases (calms) the storm- Luke 8: 22-25.

When Jesus is calming the storm it teaches his disciples to have faith. Jesus is presented as a very powerful person who did hold some supernatural powers that no one else had.* Healing Blind Bartimaeus - Luke 8:35-43. After the man had 'shouted even more loudly' even after when people had scolded him and told him to be quiet ,he was cured due to the faith he showed in Jesus. When people are treated as outcasts Jesus always reaches out to them and let them in, this shows the love and care Jesus attributes toward them.* Rising from the dead- Jairus' daughter- Luke 8:49-56.

Jairus' 12-year-old daughter had died. Jesus had an encounter with him in the synagogue , and he had thrown himself down at Jesus' feet begging and pleading that Jesus would do something. Jesus irrelative of what people had said still visited the Jairus' home, all Jesus did was commanded the girl to get up, and miraculously she did.An important fact to be noted is that these miracles had occurred on the same day and place.

This is so because Luke always portrays Jesus as being a person who performs miracles for he loves and cares for his people, which also in a way is like God himself who has never ending love for his subjects whether they are accepting God or not.God presents his love to the people on Earth through his son Jesus, and through Luke Jesus is presented as a miracle worker. Jesus does not seem amazed or finds the miracles awesome as he talks about Jesus with respect but still not as if he were amazed for he believes that Jesus is filled with the Holy Spirit, and accepted Jesus that way.B) Explain the meaning of healing miracles with reference to present day belief and Christian life.The term Healing Miracles can be explained as the following- It is the term given to the miracles written in the Holy Scriptures (The Bible).

It presents Jesus as the Son of God who heals those who are suffering, so that His love can be shown toward us. The people who were healed by Jesus were either mentally ill or had a diseased and therefore were classified as outcasts by the 'accepted' society. Jesus had set out an example of how to show others to 'accept their neighbor.'The diseases that Jesus had cured are still problems that are faced in third world countries to this very day.

The times then were different to now, as religion is portrayed as to have played a much rather role in daily lives then as opposed to now. Nowadays everybody wants to talk like they have something to comment about their religious duties, but then only to realize that when was the last time they have fulfilled them pure heartedly, and when did they last commit. This maybe due to influential devastating experiences such as; wars, natural hazards and many more. Therefore I have listed my thoughts of example miracles from the bible and compared them to an average persons thoughts to this day referring to Christian beliefs.* The calming of the storm, Luke 8: 22-25.

This miracle clearly informs us that Jesus has God's power over nature in order to calm the storm. The story blatantly influences the was a Christian would think, although many hold doubts, and therefore think that it may have just been a coincidence, this clearly shows that people today do not trust God fully, and will always hole doubts.* Jesus feeds five thousand, Luke 9:10-17. When the disciples were distributing the bread to the crowd, suddenly they only came to find they had enough for everybody, when to begin with they only started with five loaves of bread and two fish. Most Christians always recognize Jesus as the breaking of the bread, he is known to be full of life, and an example to them.

Many people always seem to hold the view that there should be a logical explanation for all miracles, but never seek to search for it, and when they do only come to find that there is never an explanation for a miracle.In the time of Jesus people who are regarded to have mental illnesses in this period of time, would have been thought to be possessed my evil spirits in the time of Jesus. Such people are now able to be cured with medicines and some are accepted as just mentally ill. Little faith, in fact no faith is required while people endlessly use drug prescriptions and do not accept and let God and examples and teachings of Jesus into their lives.

C) 'Miracles do not happen today.' Do you agree? Discuss this statement and show that you have thought about different points of view. You must refer to Christianity in your answer.The term 'miracle' maybe explained in several separate ways.

As I had mentioned before it depends on each individual and their own life experiences as well as their quality of life. As one in a third world country may find the monsoon rains miraculous, where as opposed to a individual in a more economically developed country they may never learn to appreciate the monsoon rains. This is where the question occur ' do miracles still happen today?' this question is rather complex and many aspects may be needed to be viewed, as there is a line to draw to what a miracle is to different people around the globe.Including the fact that I myself have never witnessed a miracle, I still seem to believe in them.

Miracles maybe considered as such; someone surviving from a life threatening situation, they may now be leading a normal life, when doctors would have thought such a situation to critical, and that the only possible occurrence would be death. For all we know they maybe a scientific explanation as in Jesus' time there were no explanations for some healings, where as nowadays there are.In Christianity it has been said that if one has enough faith and trust in God. Therefore when one prays for a miracle and it does not occur it is only because there was not enough faith. His teaching is explained in the following to stories in Luke 8: 43-48 and in Luke 9: 37 - 43.Even to this day there are some well-known miracle workers such as Lourdes in France, Kathryn Kuchlman and Benny Hinn.

Faithful Christians believe in miracles because the follow and believe the Bible, and trust and believe in Jesus' teachings. Jesus had performed the miracles in order to gain people's trust in God, and because Jesus performed such miracles modern day Christians believe in miracles to this day.Every religion has miracles but is only explained in a different form. Although miracles are preached in religions there are still few non believers, and this is completely understandable.

They may not believe due to all the problems the world seems to be facing today, e.g. America one of the world's richest economies was faced with terrorist attacks which had great consequences, this is most probably due to racial and religious conflict, this can be overcome by simply accepting and applying the word of God. Then there are natural hazards, which cannot be helped by humans, but this may just be God's way of reminding us that he has control over all things and out life, and that we should love, respect, accept and follow him. The suffering is a consequence of not accepting God in ones life, and therefore when one does not accept God, it means that they personally have lack of much faith.One should therefore accept God and have enough faith and maybe on the face of this Earth one should be experiencing the type of miracles Jesus had performed in his time.