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Describe, in your own words, the miracles involving Gentiles discussed in this lesson. Why were these miracles important? What implications might there have been if Jesus had not performed any miracles among the Gentiles?
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20 Replies
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It would show Jesus’ love all people—Jew and Gentile. It is His power and His grace that’s revealed in His miracles.
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The cleansing of the Syro-Phoenecian woman’s daughter, of the Geresene demoniac, the feeding of the 4,000–these miracles involving Gentiles are important as they show that God’s power and compassion to deliver people from the power of sin, Satan, and suffering, are not limited to the Jewish people, but are for everyone.
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Jesus goes to His own people first and they rejected Him. The importance of the miracles involving the gentiles was because they had faith that Jesus could do them. This is allowed the gospel to be spread to all nations of the world.
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In Syro-Phoenicia, Jesus exorcised the daughter of a Gentile woman (Mark 7:24-30). It showed that, although Jesus was sent first to the house of Israel, this was only a priority in time and resources. When the right hour came, he also ministered to the Gentiles because God loved all men.
In the Decapolis, Jesus healed a deaf mute (Mark 7:31-37). This is reminiscent of the prophecy of Isaiah 35:5-6 that the ears of the deaf will be unstopped and the mute will shout for joy in the eschatological kingdom of God. Yet in Jesus’ miracle, we already see a foretaste of this kingdom coming to the Gentiles!
When a crowd gathered to listen to him, but they brought no food, Jesus fed these four thousand people (Mark 8:1-10). Jesus’ willingness to perform this miracle for these Gentiles implies that he feeds all who are spiritually hungry, whether Jew or Gentile. Mark continues to report that, in contrast, Jesus refused to show the Pharisees any sign from heaven, because they were merely testing him (Mark 8:11-13).
Jesus healed a blind man in Bethsaida (Mark 8:22-26). When Jesus put his hands on him the first time, the man could only see vaguely. When Jesus repeated the act, he could see everything clearly. This seems to convey figuratively that the Gentiles only saw God vaguely because they did not have the law to instruct them, but even they could be made to see God clearly. In contrast, the Pharisees, who always had the law with them, could not see what was so plain to the Gentiles.
Taken together, these miracles show that the Gentiles have always been included in the salvation plan in God’s mind. The Great Commission given in Matt 28:18-20 to go into all the world was not an after-thought that emerged after Jesus rose from the dead. The salvation of the Gentiles was all along present in Jesus’ earthly ministry.
The occurrence of these miracles among the Gentiles was also a satire on the Jews. Jesus could not do many miracles in his hometown because the Jews did not believe (Mark 6:5-6). As I stated, he refused to do miracles for the Pharisees who came to test him (Mark 8:11-13). But among the spiritually hungry Gentiles who came to him, his miracles fulfilled their evidential and evangelistic purposes. People believed, and the Father was glorified.
#Miracles
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The miracles were healings of physical ailments or conditions and of provision. These show that Christ came to be the Saviour and provider to all including the Gentiles. Had there been no miracles among the Gentiles, the unity of God’s church on Earth would be fractured.