Matthew, Mark, Luke and John are all somewhat similar, they all tell the story and teachings of Jesus Christ. A huge difference in John, however, is that Jesus performs a lot less miracles and with that, much more spectacular miracles. When you read John one thing becomes very clear, which is that Jesus is performing these miracles so that people will essentially have no choice but to believe in him.

For example in John chapter four verse 53 the Bible states “The father realized that this was the hour when Jesus had said to him “Your son will live.” So he himself believed, along with his whole household.” and when you continue to read the gospel of John you come across multiple verses that say something very similar, like John 6:14 “When the people saw the sign that he had done, they began to say, “This is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world.” Miracles are a great way to make people believe in what you are trying to get across. If a critic is criticizing Jesus and saying what he is doing is impossible, the best way to show that person that he is who he says he is, is to perform those miracles, and that is exactly what he says in 4:48 “Unless you see signs and wonders, you will not believe.”

When you look at the final sign, raising Lazarus from the dead, you immediately are astounded at the miracle work of Jesus. No one has ever been able to cheat death, but here comes a guy from Nazareth and raises a sick person from the dead, not only does he raise them from the dead, he intentionally lets Lazarus die in order to save him. But why? Why wouldn’t he just heal the sickness in the first place? That’s the question I have, and there is definitely a reason as to why he didn’t do that. I think it’s because he had already accomplished healing the sick, if he did the same thing over and over again people may get “bored” of it. In Ehrman page 124 he talks about how Jesus performed these miracles to show his identity, and what better way to prove his identity as “Son of God’ than to defeat the most unbeatable thing known to man?

Ryan Adams