So for Luke the miracles were vitally important they were signs of the kingdom of God and of God's infinite power and love. People use the word miracle in many different ways. Was the mission to the moon a miracle or technology, is the birth of a baby a miracle, would cloning a person be a miracle? The dictionary defines the word miracle as being 'something that cannot be explained by rational means'. However there are many things that we can explain today (space flight, television, the movement of the planets etc..) that could not have been explained 50, 100 or 200 years ago and there may be things that we cannot explain today that will be explained in 50, 100 or 200 years.
So are miracles things, which we consider 'impossible' such as a person who has been brain dead for 24 hours suddenly getting up or if your cat started doing the housework! In the bible miracles are seen as something else they are seen as signs of the power of God. The Jews believed in miracles, they believe that God delivered them out of slavery in Egypt by parting the Red Sea (exodus 14). There are also many miracle stories in the teachings of the prophets in Elijah and Elisha.
Also in the bible there are many stories of the miracles of Jesus. The people who Jesus lived with had no problem in believing in miracles. They would have believed that there are forces of good and evil that could help or harm them. Many other people also claimed that they could do miracles, the important thing in the miracles of Jesus is the meaning of these miracles.
There are almost as many answers to this question as there are people! Many people agree on the meaning of the miracles but they disagree if they actually happened. Some of the opinions on miracles are:
"Yes the miracles happened just as they are recorded in the gospel of Luke. Jesus was the son of God and so had God's power"
"No the miracles are just stories to show that Jesus was a powerful person. The were added to the stories about Jesus later after his death"
"The miracles happened and the stories have been carefully chosen to reinforce meanings about the power and character of Jesus. They were there to reinforce what he was there to teach i.e. the kingdom of God"
"Some miracles happened, others did not. It is possible that Jesus healed people but not that he walked on water"
"The miracles did not happen they are merely stories to illustrate Jesus' teachings on the kingdom of God."
Whatever we think of the miracles they were important to Luke. In his gospel there are many miracle stories. This is where we get the story of Jesus' birth as a virgin birth. Through the miracles in Luke we see that Luke saw Jesus as:
- the Messiah
- the Son of God
- the fulfilment of the Old Testament promises
He also shows that Jesus
- brings salvation to the world
- preaches and teaches about God
- announces the kingdom of God
- attacks the influence of the devil
To conclude, either the miracles happened or they didn't. Maybe we should look at the questions 'Are miracles still happening?’ Many people would argue that miracles only happened before we had science to explain things. However science only tells us 'How' and not 'Why' and anyway the definition of a miracle is something that cannot be explained by rational (scientific) means. Also many churches claim that miracles are still happening, especially healing miracles. Consequently I believe it is for the individual to decide upon.
