The miracles of Jesus - Classical Christian Literature by Athleo.net

236 THE WITHERED HAND
hurrying over it as if it were inferior, or as if it were
a painful necessity because of the hardness of the
people's hearts. He regarded every miracle of
healing as being part of His mission equally with His
teaching.
This is the more remarkable because in some
respects the healing of disease was an inferior work.
The body is inferior to the soul, as the tent is to its
inmate. Besides this, the effects of such miracles
were transient.
There was no promise of exemption
for the future, and those raised from the dead were
afterwards committed to the grave by their sorrowing
friends. This temporary blessing was given by
One who stood in sight of eternity, who knew that
men were on its threshold, and that the ills of the
flesh or its pleasures were as nothing compared with
what awaited men in the future. He had no scorn
for the ills of the present life, and no contempt for
its blessings. He was altogether unlike those who
groan over the world as being nothing but a vale of
tears. Presumably, the)' would not have brought
Lazarus back from the grave, as Jesus did.
It may fairly be asked why Jesus acted thus
Why did he spend much time over miracles of
mercy It has been suggested in reply that it was
to excite the attention of the people and to prove His
superhuman power. This, however, was never His
object, and when He was asked for a sign from
heaven He refused to give it. If He had wished to
arouse attention He might have hurled Mount
Hermon into the depths of the sea, and would not
have deliberately chosen to perform such works as
we read of in the Gospels. He had better reasons