Sometimes, it’s easy for me to understand and accept that Jesus did all those amazing miracles. I mean, He was God’s Son after all. But then sometimes, I wonder if He had a certain formula for doing everything perfectly and powerfully. Did He spend just enough time with His Father? Did He study the scriptures a certain amount every day? Further, did He pray hard enough? I saw something very interesting while reading in Matthew the other day.
Chapter 14 recounts two of His most well known miracles. As we recall, Jesus fed the five thousand, and He walked on water. What I did not remember, however, was that right before these two things happened, Jesus had just received word that John the Baptist, His cousin, had been beheaded. He was grieving, and desperately needing time with His Father. But He did “not” get it right away. He went away for solitude, but the crowds followed Him. And more than that, they were hungry! Jesus, like anyone, could have dismissed the crowds admitting that He was not in a good place to feed them spiritually or physically.
He could have doubted how He might could help the people based on His emotions. But instead, He felt great compassion for them, and knew that God the Father still had a powerful plan in place, and that He would use Christ mightily. Jesus didn’t run from the moment because He was grieving, He simply gave the moment to His Father, and God showed up!! Jesus knew that God could do miraculous things despite hard circumstances. And while He did in fact live a perfect life, it was His oneness with the Father, (not perfect actions) that allowed Him to be the vessel He needed to be. Jesus didn’t doubt the possibility for miracles if He didn’t get enough time with the Father. He trusted in the unchanging oneness that they possessed.
After Jesus fed the five thousand, He spent time alone time with His Father, while his disciples got caught in a storm on the lake. One could assume that He would have been in a much more capable place to perform this miracle, and He certainly did amaze when He came to them walking on water. But this too was not because of the time He had just spent alone with God. It was because a Savior was needed in that moment, and God in oneness moved through His Son to calm the storm. Jesus was already one in spirit with God, and no lack of time with Him was going to change that. He wanted to spend time with God “because” of His oneness, not so that He could “attain to” oneness.
Out of that oneness, He lived powerfully in the result of intimacy yet always craved more. This is a perfect balance. His amount of time with the Father didn’t determine the status of their relationship or the strength of the miracle. He simply lived in His oneness, and we can too. We certainly need time with Jesus, but “quiet time” does not keep us one with Him, …He does. Quiet time can certainly grow and mature us as His followers, but it does not determine our oneness with Him. That is our gift. The miracles were the same in wonder because they weren’t based on the performance of the vessel. They were based upon the unchanging oneness that produced beautiful demonstrations of love shown from a wonderful Father to a willing Son.