The Life of Jesus in Four Accounts 7 min read Lesson 6 of 12

Two words for the same acts, the healing that was really about forgiveness, the town where he could do little, and the council that believed the reports

What He Did: Mighty Works and Signs

The first three Gospels call them mighty works and record dozens; John calls them signs and chooses seven. The difference in the word is a difference in what the writer wants you to see. One healing in Mark is staged so that the act proves something else, and the strangest verse on the subject says that in Nazareth he could do almost nothing.

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Lesson 6 of 12 · The works

Jesus healed, fed, stilled a storm and raised the dead, and all four accounts say so; the Gospels are not readable with the miracles cut out, because the crowds, the opposition and the crucifixion all follow from them. But the four do not describe them with one word. Matthew, Mark and Luke say mighty works, acts of power, and pile them up; John says signs, and gives seven, each followed by a discourse on what it pointed to. The accounts agree on three things. The works were done for people, usually poor and often unclean, not for display, and Jesus refused every request for a sign on demand. They were understood by friends and enemies alike as claims; Mark’s paralytic is healed to prove a right to forgive sins. And they did not compel belief: Nazareth saw them and took offense, and the council in Jerusalem accepted that they were happening and decided he must die.

Two words

The word a writer chooses tells you what he saw in the act.

σημεῖον sēmeîon G4592

neuter of a presumed derivative of the base of σημαίνω; an indication, especially ceremonially or supernaturally:--miracle, sign, token, wonder.

A sign, a mark, a token; something that points beyond itself. John uses this word for the miracles and almost never the other; his Gospel is organized around seven of them, water into wine, a nobleman’s son, a paralytic at a pool, five thousand fed, a walk on the sea, a man born blind, Lazarus, and after each the crowd or the authorities argue about what it signified. The first three Gospels prefer dynamis, power, and thaumasia, wonders; their miracles are demonstrations that the kingdom has arrived, John’s are lessons about who has arrived. The same acts, reported under two words, for two purposes.

Arise, take up your mat

Mark tells one healing so that the healing is the smaller thing in it.

But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—he said to the paralytic— “I tell you, arise, take up your mat, and go to your house.” He arose, and immediately took up the mat and went out in front of them all, so that they were all amazed and glorified God, saying, “We never saw anything like this!” — Mark 2:10–12 · WEB

Read the comment on Your Sins Are Forgiven

That you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins, he said to the paralytic, I tell you, arise, take up your mat, and go to your house; and he arose, and took up the mat, and went out in front of them all. The man has been lowered through a roof, and Jesus’ first words to him were not "be healed" but "your sins are forgiven," which the scribes in the room rightly said only God could say. The healing is then done as evidence for the forgiveness: the visible act proves the invisible one. Mark has put the whole argument of his book into a house in Capernaum. The works are claims, and the claim is the one the scribes named.

The first sign

John opens his seven at a wedding, and tells you what the wine was for.

This beginning of his signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee, and revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him. — John 2:11 · WEB

Read the comment on The Wedding at Cana

This beginning of his signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee, and revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him. Six stone jars, the water of purification, filled with better wine than the steward had served, at the end of a feast. John’s comment is not that the guests were pleased but that glory was revealed and disciples believed. That is what every sign in his Gospel is for, and the last of them, Lazarus, does the same thing on a larger scale and gets him killed.

What the works meant

“Jesus answered them, “Go and tell John the things which you hear and see: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them.” Matthew 11:4–5 · WEB
Go and tell John the things which you hear and see: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have good news preached to them: Jesus’ answer to the Baptist’s question from prison, a list that is Isaiah’s description of the age to come.
“He could do no mighty work there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and healed them. He marveled because of their unbelief. He went around the villages teaching.” Mark 6:5–6 · WEB
He could do no mighty work there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and healed them; he marveled because of their unbelief: Nazareth, where the works met a town that knew his family.
““The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to heal the broken hearted, to proclaim release to the captives, recovering of sight to the blind, to deliver those who are crushed, and to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.”” Luke 4:18–19 · WEB
He has sent me to heal the broken hearted, to proclaim release to the captives, recovering of sight to the blind: the program read at Nazareth in the fourth lesson, which the works then carry out.
“The chief priests therefore and the Pharisees gathered a council, and said, “What are we doing? For this man does many signs. If we leave him alone like this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.”” John 11:47–48 · WEB
What are we doing? For this man does many signs; if we leave him alone like this, everyone will believe in him, and the Romans will come: the council after Lazarus, which did not doubt the signs and decided because of them.

The answer to John the Baptist is the key to the list. He had asked whether Jesus was the one to come, and the reply was not yes but a description of what was happening, in Isaiah’s words. The works were the kingdom arriving, and a reader who knew the prophets could read them.

What the works ask

They ask a reader not to separate them from the rest. It is tempting to keep the teaching and quietly drop the miracles, and the Gospels do not allow it: the crowds gathered because of the works, the authorities moved because of the works, and Jesus pointed to the works when asked who he was. They also ask a reader to notice what was never done. No sign was given to Herod, to the Pharisees who demanded one, or to the devil in the desert. The works were for the people who needed them, and they proved something to those who were willing to see it, and to no one else.