Did Jesus really have to do all those miracles?

Did He have to heal the blind and deaf and the lame? Did He really need to feed all those hungry people and make sure everyone was full?

The simple answer is yes! He had to show us that He was Lord over all heaven and earth. He couldn’t just come and die for us without first showing us Who He really was. He knew we wouldn’t believe that He was God’s Son without some evidence, some proof that He more than just a man. He knew our hearts would doubt, even if we watched Him die. So He came as a baby, lived as a man, and bent time and space to His will with just the words of His mouth.

He needed to walk on the water so we knew that the powerful ocean was under His command. He needed to calm the storm so we knew that the untamable wind obeyed His voice. The mighty earth with vast oceans and dizzying mountains belong to Him and He wanted to make sure we knew they would bow to Him when commanded to do so.

He needed to heal the blind and the deaf to show us that the mortal flesh we carry is but dirt in His hands; dirt He can mold and shape and do whatever He wills. He needed to bring Lazarus back to life to give us proof that the breath of life belongs to Him and He can restore it with the word of His mouth. Yes, even the command “come forth” and the dead must obey His voice.

He needed to feed the hungry so we knew that there is more to life than food; but when food is needed He is able to provide it. He needed for us to look at Him as He stared at us with compassion while we begged Him to make us whole, feed us, and calm our fears. He knew that we needed to know He is full of compassion and is willing to stretch the limits of earth and hell to rescue us from ourselves.

Theologically He may have been able to come and go straight to the cross for us. He might have been able to just die for us and our salvation would have been complete. But He needed us to know that He understands when we are tired, sore, hurt, weary, broken, and hated. He had to show us that there is nothing we will face in this life that He hasn’t faced and conquered.

He needed us to see Him as the Carpenter’s Son, the Man, Jesus. The Man with brother’s and sisters that didn’t believe in Him. The Man with friends that said one thing and did another and betrayed Him. He needed us to see His pain, his sorrow, and His passion so we would know without a doubt that He is our perfect High Priest that lives to intercede for us before God. He wanted us to know without a shadow of doubt that we are not alone because He is omnipresent and will never leave us or forsake us. He wanted us to be reminded that we are never without strength because He is omnipotent and “all power is given” to Him. He wants us to remember that we are not forgotten in our loneliness because He is omniscient and has numbered “every hair on our head,” He truly knows us.

He needed to be more than just the perfect sacrifice sent to die for us. But there can be no doubt that His passion was to secure our salvation. He wouldn’t let anything stand in the way of that mission; not even His friends. He needed to perform miracles and show awesome demonstrations of the power He holds so we would know that He controlled all things. There is nothing that is greater than He is.

That’s why He needed us to see Him die.

It wasn’t a show of courage. It wasn’t the way He hoped it would be. But He had to die. And we needed to know that He died, we needed to watch Him die. We need to watch Him die so we would know, without a shadow of a doubt that there is nothing, not even death, that is greater. They tried. They thought for sure that with nails and a spear and a crown of thorns they could kill Him. But they forgot that He is Alpha, Omega, The Beginning and the End, the firstborn over all creation, the One that spins the galaxies in His hand. When the winds get angry He tells them to calm down and they obey. When the waves grow bigger He tells them “be still.” When the people He created can’t see or hear He simply tells them to open their eyes and ears and their bodies obey. Death and Hell thought for sure they could beat Him. They tried to beat Him until no one could recognize Him and keep Him locked in a cave. But He decided it was time to come out and there wasn’t a rock, a soldier, a force on earth that could keep Him buried. Death and Hell tried and they failed.

He needed us to know He was dead so when He walked into that upper room we would know that He had won. It really is finished. He holds the keys of death and hell and they have forever lost any power they once had. He can bend death and bypass hell for those He has called to be His own. He is Jesus and He is Savior, Lord, and King of Kings.