Wonder 2 - Purpose ...

Tuesday, August 25, 2009. A week about the topic “wonder”. What is the purpose of wonders? We want to think along some well established lines today and some rather unconventional ideas about the God and creator of the universe.

Both in the Old and New Testament wonders often happen when God is confirming authority. Wonders accompany the path of the big fathers of faith. When Moses took the people of Israel out of Egypt, there are many wonders. God is helping them - that is one of the purposes of the wonders. But these wonders also confirm the authority and mission of Moses. In the Old Testament wonders are used to discrimitate between false prophets and the true prophets of the Lord. They are used to discrimitate between the true God of the universe and false Gods (powers who are not God, but pretend to be and excercise influence over humans).

In the New Testament wonders confirm the authority and mission of Jesus. The key wonder here is the cross and the resurrection. We have spoken about this recently: the sign which is given to “this generation” is the sign of Jona (Matthew 12, 39), meaning here that Jesus will be dead for three days, then be brought back to life. The apostles and many disciples of Jesus then testify this event, the beginning of a new creation by the resurrection of Jesus.

There are various types of wonders during the lifetime of Jesus, which have more purpose than just the confirmation of authority. Some wonders are healing wonders. They indicate the goal of healing which God has for every human. These wonders are signs. They indicate what God wants to do, in the middle of a world which has been given the freedom of choice to live for a limited time a life without God. Some wonders show the power and might of Jesus. He is transforming water to wine. He is walking on the sea. He is commanding the storm and the waves to calm down. He has power over nature.

There is more to say about “wonders”. The bible knows the wonder of a pure heart. It knows the wonder of nature. It knows the beauty and wonder of the character of God. When our mind is opened for the presence of God, the world starts to become quite wonderful. It is, in fact, full of wonders which are not recognized as wonders. Everything in this creation is wonderful. The way life works, the plants, animals and humans on this planet, they are creations which are fantastic. When we call something wonderful if it is full of beauty and if we do not fully understand it, we should use the phrase for the whole creation. We often focus on some particular “wonders” - but that is a very limited view!

For God wonders are normal. I think that for Got there is not a big difference to make something happen by “natural” means or by “wonders”. God has power to do what ever he wants, when ever he wants. He can do a wonder by wonders or by his own natural laws. He can follow the natural laws and move something by his will, like we move our arms and write some text on the internet. Or he can break his natural laws, let the time stand still or do many wondrous things. He does not need a reason to do wonders, he can do them just for fun, or just because he wants to reach some particular goal. God does not care too much about wonders, he has much better goals. He can show-off if he needs to, but that's not really what he wants. But truth, mercy, sincerity and love are on his agenda yesterday, today and tomorrow. [R.W.E.P., jesusnetwork.eu]

... more texts