Amazing Miracles Great and Small Isaiah 62:1–5; 1 Corinthians 12:1–11; John 2:1–11 

Grace, mercy, and peace to you, from God our Father, and our Lord, Jesus Christ, who works miracles for us.

We’re going to talk about God’s amazing miracles, great and small.

In the life of Jesus, we see our miraculous God at work.

It started with the miracle of the incarnation of God, God becoming man, or as John puts it in His Gospel, chapter 1, verse 14, the Word becoming flesh and dwelling among us.

How God could become man in such a way that he was still entirely and purely divine, fully God, but also entirely and truly and fully human, that’s a mystery and a miracle.

When Mary asked the angel how this could be, Gabriel said, all things are possible with God… miracles great and small. 

From beginning to end, Scripture is a testimony of God’s great love, and His great power. His miraculous works are motivated and enabled by both.

In His miracles great and small, we see God’s unconditional love, and His unlimited power.

Scripture begins with the original miracle: In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

God, who existed in eternity, which is an eternal miracle, (God always existing but never having been created, how miraculous is that?), He stepped out of eternity, and created time and space; He made the universe, and the miracle of life.

And He made it all in such an amazing way. It started with His good and gracious will; He wanted it to be, and it became. 

By the power of His Word, He spoke the world into existence, saying “let there be”… and it was. No one else has ever spoken anything into existence, only God.

This shows the great power of God’s Word for us to believe in and live by -- His Word that could make something from nothing; only God can do that.

And more than something, everything; everything that exists, God made from nothing, except Himself, His wisdom and love and power; God is all there was, and now there’s all this we see… and a world we don’t see, all made by God.

For the crown of His creation, God used something he had already made and spoken into existence, the earth and the elements, the ground. From the soil, God fashioned a man. 

And then, from what was not created, but eternal, His Spirit, God made the man a living being. Genesis 2:7 says, then the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature. We’ll talk more about this next Sunday as we celebrate the sanctity of life.

God made what He made by His infinite power. And He loved what He made. So much so, that some day He would die to save what He made, so that it would not perish. This would lead to another magnificent miracle, which we’ll talk about later.

Our beginning was miraculous; our existence and our sustenance, that our lives continue, is miraculous; our redemption and salvation is miraculous; our eternity will be miraculous; all this because our eternal God is mighty and loving; a merciful, miracle-worker.

When God would send His Son to save the world that He had created holy, but had fallen away, it would be, as we said, a mighty miracle; God made Himself, His Son, to be one of us, born on Christmas, that He might save us.

In some of the fictional writings about the childhood of Jesus, which were written 2 or 3 hundred years after His birth, Jesus is portrayed as using His miraculous powers even as a young child.

For example, in one story, Jesus is on a rooftop, and someone takes the ladder away, so little Jesus grabs hold of a sunbeam, and slides to the ground. 

In another story, a boy is bitten by a poisonous snake. Young Jesus commands the snake to suck out the poison, which it does, and the boy is healed, and the snake implodes.

In yet another story, Joseph is making a bed, and he measured wrong, so one side was shorter than the other. Jesus took hold of the short side, stretched it out, and both sides were equal. 

Interesting stories, but they it didn’t happen. Unlike the Gospels, which are historical accounts, these childhood stories were written and presented as fiction. 

Not that Jesus couldn’t have done those things; as the Son of God He certainly could have. But He never used His divine power frivolously, as the devil tempted Him to do in the wilderness.

Only for a short time, those three short years of His ministry, did Jesus make use of His miraculous power on earth, and never selfishly or vainly, only benevolently and purposely, when it served His mission of winning salvation for the world, and when it demonstrated His love for the world.

Now having said that, Jesus did many, many miracles during His ministry. John says that if all the things Jesus said and did were written down, the whole world couldn’t contain all the books.

That’s a hyperbole, but the point John is making is that Jesus did many miracles, probably most of them miracles of healing, but also some miracles of feeding or providing, and miracles controlling nature, to keep his disciples safe, and to show them and us who He is, God’s true Son.

All His miracles culminated in the one that is most amazing and impacting, that magnificent miracle to save the world that we alluded to earlier, Christ rising from the dead. 

But there was another miracle and mystery three days before, when the Son of God, who is not mortal but eternal, died for us. This could happen because, as we said, Jesus is truly God, but also truly man, which again, is a mystery and a miracle.

This shows God’s great love to die for us, and His great power to rise for us. Both are great miracles, and both miracles were needed to save us.

In light of all the extraordinary miracles Jesus did, it’s interesting, even surprising, that His first miracle would be rather ordinary in comparison. We heard about it in our Gospel, changing water into wine, a miracle of providing.

It might seem frivolous today, but certainly wasn’t to the host who was spared the shame and embarrassment of running out of drink for his guests. 

In Biblical times hospitality was very highly valued. To invite guests and then not be able to provide for them, would be a horrible humiliation, and seen as terribly inconsiderate. By changing water into wine, Jesus had compassion on the person who had invited and hosted them.

Jesus also showed His approval of the institution of marriage by attending and providing for the guests. This is a timely affirmation to us of the high value, the importance and holiness of marriage in the eyes of God, and the great gift it is to families. 

And like all His miracles, this miracle at Cana showed Jesus’ divine power, that He is indeed, God’s Son, powerful and able to save the world.

All Jesus’ miracles, great and small, ordinary and spectacular, they’re all amazing and essential. Really, all His miracles are great and spectacular, including the ones we see so often.

Every time we celebrate His Sacrament, and He joins His body and blood to the bread and the wine, it’s His miracle done for us and given to us. 

Through the ages, how many times has He done this for His people? More than we can possibly know or count. 

Yet over and over again He does it, never tiring of it, and never failing to bless us through this miracle of His body and blood.

In every baptism, He works His miracle of faith, and He and His angels rejoice over each soul saved, each person added to His dear family.

Every birth, every child conceived and born, is by God’s miracle of life. 

Every breath we take, is by the miracle of the world He made to sustain our lives.

When our Christian lives on earth end, and our bodies fail, He will bring the miracle of our souls to be with Him in a world without end. 

When this world is done, and time is ended, Jesus will return in glory, and miraculously raise us from our graves as He was raised, and every moment in Heaven will be wonderful and miraculous; and with no sin to get in the way, we’ll fully realize and appreciate how truly miraculous it all is.

For now, the miracles of His grace and love and daily care, are with us every moment of every day. 

Our lives with Christ are miraculous in ways great and small. 

But really, in the end, all His miracles for us are great, including the miracle of His peace which passes our understanding, and guards our hearts and minds, in Christ Jesus, who in His great love and mighty power, does miraculous things for us. Thanks be to God! Amen.