On Miracles

I was reading some articles today and came across this. It struck me as rather bizarre:

I’ve had many discussions with Christian friends about [how Jesus walked on water], and I constantly run into a problem with how believers view biblical miracles. When I ask how Jesus was able to walk on the water, I’m often given the answer, “Jesus did it because He is God.” Another variant is, “Jesus did it because nothing is impossible with God.”

I strongly dislike this type of answer because it is not an answer at all. It’s an intellectually lazy way of dealing with a complex quandary. I’ve read dozens of articles on the subject of miracles, and in most cases, I’m frustrated by the authors’ lack of clarity. They speak of miracles in mythological terms, putting God on par with Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, and the Tooth Fairy. They could be more concise by just saying, “I don’t know how Jesus walked on water, but somehow He did it.”

Something obviously transpired to allow Jesus to walk on the surface of Lake Galilee. He could have changed the properties of water molecules so that they locked together with a bond that was strong enough to support Him. Or Jesus could have altered the gravitational weight of His physical body, allowing Him to walk with just the water’s surface tension as support.

I’m kind of shocked that anyone would be upset over this issue. I mean, seriously. With all of the problems that are plaguing the church today, THIS is what upsets you?

But there is a bigger problem. I side with the people who say “He did it because He is God”. The author of this piece seems to believe that Jesus was bound by the laws of physics, and in order to do miracles He had to somehow work things out within that system. That is not the case. Jesus is not part of the creation; He is its Author. That puts Him in an entirely different situation from everyone else.

In computer terms, He has administrative access to the system. Normal users have to live by the rules that the administrator sets. Administrators, however, can do whatever they want. They can change the rules. They can override them. They aren’t bound by the rules because they created the rules in the first place. The only reason the rules even exist is because they put them there. They don’t apply to administrators at all.

As a software developer, I can create complex systems that enforce certain rules. The people who use those systems are forced to live by those rules; the software doesn’t give them a choice. But, since I’m the developer, those rules don’t apply to me. I can change them, or override them, or force the software to do something completely out of character. I control the code, so I can make it do whatever I want – and I can do it in such a way that the change only works for me. I have Authority.

Or think of it in terms of an author writing a book. The characters in the book are bound by whatever the author writes, but the author isn’t bound by the text at all. If he wants he can insert a giant pink bunny into a scene, just because he can. His Authorship allows him to do completely impossible things.

I think it is an error to look at miracles in terms of physics. It is really a matter of Authority. The whole point of the “Jesus walks on water” passage is that Jesus was much more than a man; He was God. He had the Authority to change the weather, simply by speaking. He did not have to reach into the system and follow its laws, and find some physical way to disperse the clouds. His Authority supersedes it all – just as I can choose to override the software I write.

We know exactly how Jesus was able to calm them storm: He spoke, and the very elements obeyed. He created the Universe in the very same way – He spoke, and it was so. Jesus did not need to figure out some way to use physics to walk on water. He has Authority. He need only speak, and it happens.

Those who say “He did it because He was God” are much closer to the truth than those who look to physics for an explanation.