(6) Perhaps nothing impressed our Lord's dis- ciples more when they first became acquainted with Him than His miracles. The expectation that the Messiah would work miracles seems to have been general. The Gospels leave the im- pression that the common people anticipated that works of a most marvellous description would be performed by the Messiah. The nature of these works was undefined, but they transcended the ordinary endowments of man. The Twelve then may have felt little surprise when they saw their
APOSTLES
APOSTLES
Lord perforin miracles, but every new miracle would ser»-e to strengthen their conviction of His title to be the Messiah. It is not likely, however, that they were prepared for the kind of miracles which He worked. None of them could have fore- told that the Messiah would confine Himself in great measure to the accomplishment of miraculous cures of body and mind ; that He would spend many hours on many days in healing sickness and in expelling demons. The miracles of Jesus were as unexpected as His mode of life. The Apostles were dreaming of miracles of judgment at the very hour when He w as performing miracles of mercy. Even the miracles over nature were not those of which they naturally thouglit.
The Apostles could not fail to perceive the range of the power wielded by their Master and be filled with amazement. No "disease could withstand His word or touch. The very demons yielded to His sway. Death itself was powerless before Him. It is important to notice that some of the miracles were performed before the Apostles only. The miracles in which the Apostles as a whole or some of them were specially concerned are these : the Miraculous Draught of Fishes recorded by St. Luke (5'-'), the Stilling of the Storm (Mk 4=9), the Walk- ing on the Sea (6^, Jn 6'*), the Stater in the Fish's Mouth (Mt 17='), the Cursing of the Fig-tree (Mk 11-°), and the Second Miraculous Draught of Fishes (Jn 21"). These signs had a peculiar value for the Twelve. They were proofs of knowledge and of power fitted to promote faith and to enforce truth. There is a fitness in the circum- stance that most of the miracles on nature were wrought before or on behalf of the Apostles. For they more than others were prepared to embrace the truth that Jesus was the Lord of nature. It was indispensable that they should be taught this fact, and how could it have been better illustrated than by the miracles wrought on the Sea of Galilee? What a revela- tion of the knowledge or power of Jesus ; what a prophecy of the success of the new vocation to which they were summoned, was the first draught of fishes ! What a lesson concerning the might of Jesus was contained in the instant obedience of the raging waves and winds to His command ! What a fresh disclosure of His power was His walking towards them on the .sea as they toiled to make the western shore of the lake ! What in- struction to Peter and to the rest when Peter first succeeded in imitating his Master's walking on the water and then began to sink ! How fraught with suggestions to Peter the coin found in the mouth of the first fish which came to his hook as he lowered it into the lake ! What confirmation of all that tliey had learned was found in the second draught of fishes, that after the Resurrection ! The cursing of the fig-tree occupies a place by itself among our Lord's miracles, but the lesson it teaches is most weighty. A miracle of judgment is as suitable as a parable of judgment. The lesson of the need of correspondence between profession and practice could not have been more impressively taught than by the fate of the fig-tree.
No one can doubt that the number and variety of the miracles witnessed by the Apostles enhanced their conception of our Lord's person and powers. Perhaps, too, they discerned, even if imperfectly, what IS so clear to iis to-day, that the miracles were indeed what He called them, signs : manifes- tations of the character and qualities of the king- dom which He had come to set up. The boundless sympathy and compassion of their Master must have struck them ; His life not less than His teach- ing was mercy and service. His works of mercy were the living embodiment of the principles of mercy He inculcated. He healed all who sought
His aid, making no inquiry into their past, their station, their gifts, but caring only for their needs. It was impossible for the Apostles not to discover that the miracles they beheld with such frequency were signs of the grace and love of the Father speaking to men through Jesus.
As the Apostles saw the miracles and Iieard what Jesus said respecting them, did they form a just conception of their nature and function? Were they able to compare them with the por- tents for which they had at one time longed ? Did they perceive the relation of the signs to the person of Jesus ? Did they discern that the signs could be fully understood only through His char- acter ? Did they recognize that the cbaracter and words of Jesus were greater than His signs, but that these were nevertheless such as to convince every impartial judge that His mission was of God ? They knew that Jesus never regarded His miracles as the chief evidence for the validity of His claims ; they were neither His sole nor His principal credentials ; they were rather a part and element of His message and His work. Did they see clearly that the evidential value of the miracles did not consist in their departure from the estab- lished order of nature, in their capacity as mar- vels, but in their congruity with the character and aims of Jesus, and as illustrations of His spirit and ways? We would gladly learn whether the Apostles ever reflected on the use made by our Lord of His miraculous endowments. Believing in Him as the Lord of nature and of life, aware that He had unnumbered forces at His command, were they surprised that He never employed His powers to promote His advantage or to defend His disciples or Himself from injustice and violence? AVhence this self-repression ? Why was the sphere of the miraculous so strictly limited ? Why were none of the miracles of a character to dazzle, compel, overwhelm ? Why did Jesus refuse so often the request for a sign, and especially for a sign from heaven? Why was the thauniaturgic element wholly absent from His works ? The fact that our Lord observed a peculiar temperance in the emploj^ment of His miraculous gifts must have imprinted itself on the minds of the Apostles, and it is probable that the significance of the fact became more and more obvious as their experience widened. Even before the Crucifixion they may have discerned that this self-restraint was m full harmony with His attitude towards the world, and only the corollary of His conception of the King- dom. See, further, art. MIRACLES.