Despite the fact that I once pursued a career in the ministry, studied for a total of six years, and remain interested in matters of faith and religion, I am sometimes hesitant to write about matters of faith. For one thing, finding a decent picture of Jesus in the Townhall photo bank is not as easy as it sounds.
A few years ago, I needed a picture of a sign or a bumper sticker reading "Jesus Saves." I typed that into the search bar, and all I got back were photos of a Latin American soccer star. The other issue is that when one enters into the arena of faith and religion, someone, somewhere, is bound to be offended. But then, this is the 2020s, so chances are, everyone was offended by something before their second cup of coffee this morning.
The Times of Israel reports that researchers in that country may have come up with a scientific explanation for two of Jesus's miracles, which would mean, if these researchers are correct, the miracles in question were not miracles at all but instances of weather and timing.
The first miracle is the Feeding of the Five Thousand. It is found in all four Gospels, but for the sake of expediency, I am sticking with John:
When Jesus looked up and saw a great crowd coming toward him, he said to Philip, “Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?” He asked this only to test him, for he already had in mind what he was going to do.
Philip answered him, “It would take more than half a year’s wages to buy enough bread for each one to have a bite!”
Another of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, spoke up, “Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many?”
Jesus said, “Have the people sit down.” There was plenty of grass in that place, and they sat down (about five thousand men were there). Jesus then took the loaves, gave thanks, and distributed to those who were seated as much as they wanted. He did the same with the fish.
When they had all had enough to eat, he said to his disciples, “Gather the pieces that are left over. Let nothing be wasted.” So they gathered them and filled twelve baskets with the pieces of the five barley loaves left over by those who had eaten.
At the end of the Gospel of John, Jesus appears to his disciples on the beach:
Afterward, Jesus appeared again to his disciples by the Sea of Galilee. It happened this way: Simon Peter, Thomas (also known as Didymus, Nathanael from Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two other disciples were together. “I’m going out to fish,” Simon Peter told them, and they said, “We’ll go with you.” So they went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing.
Early in the morning, Jesus stood on the shore, but the disciples did not realize that it was Jesus.
He called out to them, “Friends, haven’t you any fish?”
“No,” they answered.
He said, “Throw your net on the right side of the boat, and you will find some.” When they did, they were unable to haul the net in because of the large number of fish.
Both incidents took place at the Sea of Galilee.
Some of you may be saying, "God said it, I believe it, that settles it." That's fine. I'm not here to knock anyone's beliefs. But it is worth noting that scholars and theologians who do not hold to a literal interpretation of the Bible have been trying to find an explanation for the Feeding of the Five Thousand for years. In my undergrad days, I had a professor talk about "The Hidden Lunchbox Theory." This theory posits that the presence of Jesus so moved the people in attendance that many of them reached into their pockets or bags and began sharing whatever food they had brought with them. I believe Baptists refer to this as a potluck.
The Israeli scholars have a fascinating theory, particularly in the case of the "miraculous catch." They suspect that high winds created waves in the deeper water, bringing water with a lower oxygen content closer to the surface, thus killing the fish. Once they went belly-up, they were easy to take. Ehud Strobach, who is a climate researcher from the Volcani Institute, offered this:
Using observations from the monitoring program in the Sea of Galilee, we created short 3D lake simulations for two fish kill events. These simulations indicate the initiation of internal waves and upwelling of cold, anoxic (oxygen-poor) water into the surface at the location and time of the fish kill events.
The Times said such events are rare but do occur under the right conditions. Scientists are using the data to determine how to prevent future fish kills. And the theory makes sense. That being said, if there was a fish kill big enough to feed five thousand people, everyone would have known about it, including those at the picnic.
We lived in Corpus Christi, Texas, for a year, which is on the Gulf of Mexico. We were there when a red tide occurred, killing tons of fish. Massive amounts of dead fish, even freshly killed ones, stink to high heaven, if you will pardon the expression. Downtown smelled like a chum bucket for about a week. No one in the immediate area of the event would have missed the smell.
In the case of the miraculous catch, we aren't talking about a bunch of buddies sitting in a boat kicking back with a few cold ones, waiting for a bass to bite. These were seasoned, professional fishermen who would have recognized a fish kill when they saw one. And even if the two incidents resulted from environmental conditions, how did Jesus know that the necessary winds would blow when he needed them to?
We are left with three possibilities: the stories are fiction, they are based on actual events but were exaggerated by the Gospel writers, or miracles occurred.
If we opt for the miraculous, it is wise to remember that we should not base our faith on miracles. In my time on this earth, I have never witnessed or experienced a bona fide miracle. Most people have not. And there are accounts in the Gospels of Jesus telling people not to talk about a miracle they had just witnessed him perform.
He knew miracles helped get his point across, but he was focused on people getting his message. That mattered more than the miracles. In churches that honor saints, the miracles that some of them did are well-known. But as Orthodox scholars will point out, saints with superpowers were often very uncomfortable with them and used them sparingly. As my priest once said, "We honor the saints not because they did miracles but because they put God first in their lives." Which is what Jesus wanted.
As Christians, we might be able to recite the entire King James Version of the Bible from Genesis to Maps and believe every word of it is true, with all the "thees" and "thous" included. We may passionately argue for a seven-day creation and the biblical account of the flood. But no matter how faithful we think we are, no one wants to stand in front of Jesus and answer the question from Luke 6: "Why do you call me 'Lord, Lord,' and do not do what I say?"
Admittedly, in the 21st century, that seems like a big ask. We have been conditioned and, to a certain degree, conditioned ourselves to be hostile to the "others," including the guy with the campaign sign for the other team in his yard. We have turned inward to our parties, ideologies, and ourselves. If we can somehow get a handle on doing what Jesus says, then a miracle will have occurred.
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