Greater and Lesser Miracles

Recently - perhaps over the last year or so - I've been thinking a lot about the church and the Bible, which should seem natural given my status as a seminary student. But specifically, I've been thinking about how the accounts of Jesus in the gospels and the apostles in Acts compare to many of the churches I've attended in the United States over the last 10-15 years.

Read through the gospels and take count of the things that Jesus does in them. He's curing the sick, healing the wounded, and casting out demons everywhere he goes. In fact, the only place that it is recorded that he specifically did not perform many of these signs is in his hometown of Nazareth (Mt 13:58). It seems that everywhere else Jesus went, the miracles were sure to follow.

The story is similar with in the Acts of the Apostles. Although the stories of the initial church healing people are less prevalent than they are in the gospels, they are still noticeably present (cf. Acts 3:6-8; 5:12ff; 9:33-34).

Having read these things in the Scriptures, I look at most of the churches I've attended over the years and these sorts of things are most definitely absent. There have been a couple where some very sick folks have been healed instantaneously and other incredible things have happened, but the majority (and from my interactions with others at the seminary, these are far more common) do not show even a hint of the miraculous. Why is this?

I have hear it said from time to time that the greatest miracle of them all is when an unbelieving sinner finds forgiveness and salvation in Jesus Christ. In fact, a Benny Hinn book entitled The Greatest Miracle is promoted on his website: "The Greatest Miracle is not physical but spiritual. It is when the lost soul comes to know the glorious, saving grace of God's Son, Jesus Christ, and the forgiveness and cleansing from sin that only HE can give." Now, I'm not much of a fan of Benny Hinn. The point is simply that this sentiment is rather common among evangelical Christians.

On one level I agree. It is certainly an act of God anytime someone's heart is warmed to Christ to the point that they receive Him as Lord and Savior and choosing to trust Jesus for all things in all areas of life. But I'm wondering if we have taken this notion of the "greatest miracle" and used it to limit ourselves from the "lesser miracles" performed by Jesus and the apostles. If divine forgiveness is indeed the "greatest miracle," shouldn't we expect that simple healings would happen all the time? After all, conversions seem to take place fairly regularly in our American churches.

I suggest that we've used this "greatest miracle" as a binding consolation for the fact that we never do see healings or exorcisms as described in the scriptures. As a result, we've kept ourselves from pursuing them with vigor. Perhaps we are actually missing out on many of the blessings of the Kingdom, where all things ought to be restored to God and functioning as they were meant to function - a place of health and vitality where the powers of darkness have no dominion.