This post isn’t about what you might be thinking. In fact, its probably about the opposite of what you’re thinking. Tonight was community group night. I love community group. It’s a place to just dig into each other’s lives and put away the facade, to let others see just how messy things really are, preach the Gospel to each other, rebuke one another, celebrate with one another, weep with one another, encourage one another. To put it another way, it’s an indictment against sinful independency and a movement toward Biblical interdependency. We depend on each other, we depend on the Gospel, we depend on God. It’s a place where walls and barriers are shattered… if you’ll allow them to be.

And each of those things are miraculous.

Let’s face it, we are drawn to the spectacular, probably far more than we’d like to admit. We tend to add layers to Christianity- there’s the basic Christianity, when people get the Gospel, and then there’s super-spiritual Christianity that manifests itself when God really begins to work. Friends, this is a lie. We never get past the Gospel. We never get past grace and the transforming power of the Holy Spirit in our lives. But instead, we bargain with God. “God, if you just do x I’ll trust you again. If you just heal this person, if you just make me feel your power, if… if… if…” And so we come with our laundry list. But what happens if x doesn’t occur? If “this person” isn’t healed? Does that somehow make God less God? Does that make faith less real?

Why must we search after signs to realize faith?

The Gospels record a group of people who asked for such signs. You can read about it in Matthew 16:1-4 or Mark 8:10-13. Jesus refused to show them signs and miracles. Why? I see two reasons, one implied, the second explicit. The first reason is that even if Jesus did what they asked, they would not have believed. How do I know this? The entire Gospel narrative up until this point has Jesus doing several signs (The Gospel of John is written around seven specific ones) and miracles, yet they did not believe when they witnessed these things. People healed, demons cast out… and they chalked it up to magic. They even went so far that it was by the power of the devil that Jesus did these things. Nothing would convince them otherwise. I’ll speak to this more in a bit. The second, explicit reason is that they would in fact witness the greatest miracle- the sign of Jonah. The reference given here is the story of when Jonah was swallowed by a great fish, and then vomited back up. It’s a picture of death and resurrection, a shadow that points us to the death and resurrection of Christ. These people were there. Some of them might have even been at the secret Sanhedrim meeting. Most of them still did not believe. What makes us think we are any better than they were? Apart from the grace of God, we too would think of any and every excuse we could to get around the reality of a miracle. And if it’s by God’s grace that we would have “eyes to see,” why would there need to be a middle step involved in the granting of our faith?

Here’s the root of the problem. Turning water into wine is merely external. Instead, we should seek to have stoney hearts turned to flesh. Seeing a demon cast out would certainly be the spectacular event we find ourselves craving, but in the end if the heart remains untouched, that just allows seven more to take its place. The miracle we really need is that enemies of God, who are utterly hostile to him, be reconciled with the One they hate. If that does not happen, then the external things are nothing. Without regeneration, we are merely out of tune trumpets trying to play different songs in harmony, and call it “super-Christianity.”

The Gospel is a miracle. Watching as desperate people forsake their sin is a miracle. Hearing Christians testify about how they finally overcame a sin is a miracle. Having someone regain their love for the Gospel after feeling cold is a miracle. Broken addictions are miracles. Joy in the midst of sorrow is a miracle. Having people from different backgrounds and lives unite around a homeless Messiah is a miracle. These are the miracles of the 400 years of silence between the close of the Old Testament and the coming of Jesus. These are the miracles of every day life. One author has said that the extraordinary is not found in the Bible so that we would seek it out every day, but to prepare us for the ordinary.

Now here me out. I’m not saying that we forsake miracles. I’m definitely not saying that we should cease praying for them. Our God is a miraculous God. What I’m saying is that we need to recapture the wonder of the Gospel. We need to see the miraculous where we only see ordinary. Let us celebrate healing- healing of the body, but also healing of the soul and healing of relationships, the acceptance of a sinner by God, the breaking down of walls, the victory over sins, and the change that causes God-haters to live their lives in pursuit of God’s glory over their own. May we seek the Kingdom, celebrate the Gospel, and rejoice at all things He gives us- ordinary or extraordinary.