A lot of Christians take for granted that Jesus performed miracles, healing people such as we read in today's verses from Luke. But I've always found it hard to preach from miracle stories, and I know that a lot of people find these miracle stories big obstacles to faith. Thomas Jefferson produced a "Bible" that edited out all the miracles of Jesus. And for much of the 20th century it was popular to give rational explanations for miracles. I heard more than one sermon as a boy where the miraculous feeding of the 5000 turned out to be a miracle of sharing.
But if the supernatural aspect of miracles have posed difficulties for modern, scientific people, the biblical story nonetheless greatly limits this miraculous power. Jesus can only heal you if you can get to him, if he has time, if he isn't too tired, if he hasn't already left and gone on to the next village. If you happen to be sick or demon possessed but you live in first century Europe, you're not getting healed because Jesus ain't coming to your town.
Theologians refer to this as the scandal of particularity. In Jesus, God's power is present in a particular place and time, and not in another. Near the end of "Jesus Christ Superstar" the voice of Judas sings, "Every time I look at you I don't understand Why you let the things you did get so out of hand. You'd have managed better if you'd had it planned. Why'd you choose such a backward time in such a strange land? If you'd come today you could have reached a whole nation. Israel in 4 BC had no mass communication." And when I get most upset with God it is usually because God won't act in the grand way I'd prefer. Rather than waving a magic wand and ending war, poverty, and injustice, God more often seems to work through the small efforts of faithful people.
I suppose that I'm still struggling to embrace "God's power made perfect in weakness," as Paul describes Jesus' death on the cross. Perhaps at times, faith is largely about trusting that God knows what God is doing, even when I'm sure there's got to be a better way.
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