Sloppy Miracles

The religious people demanded a sign and Jesus refused. “No sign will be given.”[1] Which is a funny thing for him to say, as the entire book is just one supernatural sign after another.

Immediately following he goes and performs perhaps the most unorthodox of all his miracles.

They came to Bethsaida, and some people brought a blind man and begged Jesus to touch him. He took the blind man by the hand and led him outside the village. When he had spit on the man’s eyes and put his hands on him, Jesus asked, “Do you see anything?”

He looked up and said, “I see people; they look like trees walking around.”

Once more Jesus put his hands on the man’s eyes. Then his eyes were opened, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly. Jesus sent him home, saying, “Don’t even go and tell anyone in the village.”[2]

Sometimes God gives you a sign and sometimes God’s spits in your eye.

***

It is human nature to want a silver bullet, some grand breakthrough that will put all our problems in the rearview mirror. I once had a counseling client ask me, in full sincerity, “Isn’t there some pill I could take that would make all these issues go away?”

“Yes.” I responded, “YOU are the pill.”

That is to say, sometimes you have to struggle for your miracle. It doesn’t come all at once, it’s a process and it’s gradual. Like the blind man, it may take multiple tries and there are a thousand tiny things you have to accomplish before your blindness turns to vision. And God is in that too, it’s just as miraculous as if you were hit by a thunderbolt from the heavens.

But often we want signs. Show us your glory, knock us over with your power, shout at the top of your lungs to get our attention. And in these instances, no sign will be given. Because you don’t need a sign, and a sign won’t save you. Instead look around and listen to God’s soft voice. What do you see in your life right now? Maybe it’s not clear, maybe people just look like trees walking around. Maybe it’s going to take another try.

Don’t give up, you’re probably a lot closer than you realize. Miracles rarely come in one fell swoop, usually it’s a combination of things. Perhaps you’ve tried ten times and it still hasn’t happened. How sad it would be to quit after ten attempts, not knowing that if you had just gone back one more time that the miracle would have happened on the eleventh try?

Sometimes an event is so miraculous, it’s difficult to hide. Other times we reject the low-key miracle in our midst as we wait around for something flashier. But God loves to work in hiddenness and behind closed doors, just look at the way human life develops in the womb, immersed in darkness. Jesus tells the man, “Don’t even bother going into the village and telling people.” As if to say those who only accept signs will be blind to the miracle you experienced.

Because it didn’t happen instantaneously they’ll tend to downplay it by saying hard work pays off or that you did it yourself. It won’t make sense how boring the whole occurrence was. The lack of dramatics will make it hidden from their view. Surely God’s work can’t be so commonplace.

But often God uses the trivial and mundane to construct our redemption. And what could be more ordinary than spit, something we release onto the ground and gutters, trashcans and toilets? The useless things, the unwanted things, these are the main ingredients of our healing. It’s a fallacy to those who require a sign.

Signs are real, and powerful and true. But spit requires more faith. Spit compels us to be active partners in the hand of God, not just passive recipients. It’s the difference between taking the pill and being the pill. (And sometimes being the pill requires taking a pill!)

Beware of putting parameters around how God does and doesn’t work, beware of placing God into a comfortably recognizable box. You’ll miss the miracles happening right before your very eyes. Sometimes they’re flashy and loud, but often they’re hidden, mundane, and gradual sloppy miracles.

References

[1] Bible, Gospel of Mark chapter 8 verse 12

[2] Bible, Gospel of Mark chapter 8 verses 22 through 26