MIRACLES OF JESUS

Medjugorje's Risen Christ Statue with a miraculous healing liquid oozing from below the right knee

Jesus of Nazareth is probably the most important person in the history of the human race and the greatest miracle worker who has ever lived. His ministry began with His baptism on the banks of the Jordan River when he was approximately 30 years of age and ended with His Last Supper in Jerusalem. At the beginning of His earthly ministry, He delivered the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew chapters 5-7), performed miracles and recruited a team of disciples. He healed  many people with all kinds of diseases, cast out evil spirits, and raised a dead girl. As he traveled around the region of Galilee, Jesus encountered multitudes who followed Him because they have witnessed his miracles.

The first miracle of Jesus, the miracle of the virgin birth, was a sign from God - the bequeathing of His only son to mankind through the Immaculate Conception. His last miracle, the resurrection, was a sign of God's love and great power. It was a sign from heaven that all those who died in Christ will be resurrected at His second coming. Between these two miracles, according to the four Gospels of the New Testament (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John), Jesus has performed more than 35 miracles. Only the "miracle of the five loaves and two fish" or the feeding of the 5000 by multiplying the five loaves of bread and two fish, is recorded in all the four Gospels. Three Gospels reported on a leper being cured, the healing of Peter's mother-in-law, the healing of a group of demon-possessed people, the calming of the storm, demons cast out and sent into a herd of swine, the healing of the paralysed man, the raising of Jairus's daughter, the healing of  the hemorrhaging woman, the healing of the man with a shriveled hand, the walking on water, a boy with epilepsy and a blind man being cured. Matthew and Luke both have accounts of a centurion's servant being healed whilst Matthew and Mark both write of the Canaanite woman's daughter's recovery, as well as the feeding of the 4000 and the withering of a fig tree after being cursed. Mark and Luke both tell of the spirit of an unclean devil being cast out in the synagogue.

The three Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke are also known as the synoptic Gospels because they share a similar approach to the life story of Jesus with lots of details and descriptions in common. The term "synoptic" is derived from the Greek word, syn-optic, which means "seen together" (syn can be translated as "together," and optic as "seen"). The synoptic Gospels tell the same basic story about Jesus. Matthew and Luke tell the story of Jesus from his birth to his resurrection while Mark begins with the story of the adult Jesus. In all three Gospels, the life story of Jesus is told as a series of events in almost the same order. Theologians believe that Matthew and Luke made direct use of the Gospel of Mark (written about 70AD), as their primary source of information when their accounts were written around 80 to 90 AD. 

The fourth gospel, John, tends to stand alone as it is unique from the synoptic gospels. Written around 90-110AD, it is so unique that 90% of its materials cannot be found in the synoptic Gospels. Also known as the spiritual Gospel, the Gospel of John does not include many of the stories told in the synoptic Gospels. There are not many miracles in the Gospel of John. In this Gospel, Jesus is said to have performed eight  miracles but they are more spectacular than the ones in the other three Gospels. Going beyond the life story of Jesus, the Gospel of John contemplates the miracle of His existence as the divine Son of God. As stated in John 1:14:

And the word was made flesh

and dwelt among us,

and we have seen His glory:

The glory of an only son coming

from the Father,

full of grace and truth.

Below is a complete list of the miracles performed by Jesus according to the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

               

                             

THE MIRACLES OF JESUS CHART

Miracles of Jesus	Matthew	Mark	Luke	John
Healing of physical and mental illnesses
the leper	8:1-4	1:40-45	5:12-14
the centurion’s servant	8:5-13		7:1-10
Peter’s mother-in-law	8:14-15	1:29-31	4:38-39
many who were demon-possessed	8:16-17	1:32-34	4:40-41
two Gadarenes possessed by demons	8:28-34	5:1-20	8:26-39
paralyzed man	9:1-8	2:1-12	5:17-26
woman who had suffered from hemorrhages	9:20-22	5:25-34	8:43-48
two blind men	9:27-31
a possessed mute	9:32-34
man with a shriveled hand	12:9-14	3:1-6	6:6-11
a blind and mute possessed man	12:22-23		11:14
Canaanite woman’s daughter	15:21-28	7:24-30
the possessed boy	17:14-20	9:14-29	9:37-43
two blind men at Jericho	20:29-34	10:46-52	18:35-43
a demoniac		1:23-28	4:33-37
deaf and mute man	.	7:31-37
blind man at Bethsaida		8:22-26
badly stooped woman possessed by a spirit			13:10-17
man who suffered from dropsy			14:1-6
ten lepers			17:11-19
Malchus’s ear			22:50-51
royal official’s son at Capernaum				4:46-54
sick man at the pool of Bethesda				5:1-15
the man born blind				9:1-41
Authority over the Forces of Nature
calming the violent  storm on the lake	8:23-27	4:35-41	8:22-25
walking on the water	14:22-33	6:45-52		6:16-21
feeding 5000 people	14:13-21	6:34-44	9:10-17	6:1-15
feeding 4000 people	15:32-39	8:1-13
coin in the fish’s mouth	17:24-27
fig-tree withered up	21:18-22	11:12-14
the miraculous catch of fish			5:1-11
water turned into wine				2:1-11
another miraculous catch of fish				21:1-14
Raising the dead
the daughter of Jairus	9:18-26	5:21-43	8:40-56
the widow’s son			7:11-17
Lazarus				11:1-44

You may also like to read THE MIRACLES OF MEDJUGORJE; THE WONDERS OF LOURDES: 150 MIRACULOUS STORIES; and LOURDES: MIRACLES AND THE MIRACULOUSLY HEALED. To view the content page of this blog, please click here.

References:

1.  Reid, Debra K. & Manser, Martin. (2010). The Compact Guide to the Bible. Oxford: Lion Hudson plc.
2.  The Mysteries of Miracles. Time Life Books.
3.  Miracles: The Presence of God in Our Lives. LIFE Books.
4.  The New American Bible. New York: Thomas Nelson Publishers.