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

418 THE LAST MIRACLE
3. But you will find this too— tJiat Jesus wrought no
useless
miracles.
There was a divine economy about His method
;
He never showed His miraculous power till human
power had failed, and only in so far as human power
was helpless did He draw upon the supernatural
reserves at His disposal.
For instance, He commands the man with the
withered arm to " stretch forth " his arm, and in the
act of stretching it forth it was healed. To the
palsied man He says, " Rise, take up thy bed and
walk," and in the effort of rising, power came to him.
When He raised Lazarus from the dead, He commanded
that the stone at the mouth of the tomb
should be removed : as though He desired even the
dead to have some share in his own resurrection,
He said, "Lazarus, come forth"; and finally, He
ordered those around to loose him from his graveclothes
and let him go free.
Here again, He does not
relieve the disciples of legitimate labour, tired as they
must have been He ;
simply gave them the needful
word, and left them to cast the net and draw it up to
land, full of fishes great and small.
In this, again, there is a fine correspondence
between the physical and the spiritual activities of
Jesus. " Cast the net on the right side of the ship."
He came to bring health, power of salvation to men
;
but He did not come to supplant the will or make
effort needless, or slacken the native energies of the
soul in its endeavour after a higher life. He will not
do for us what we can do ourselves. He works for
us, by working in us, and through us. In all our
higher life, we are to be co-workers with Him. The