Two things happen in this passage from St. Luke. First, our Lord Jesus says to His 12 disciples, "Let's go to Jerusalem" and explained His purpose in detail. "Everything that is written about the Son of Man by the prophets will be accomplished. For he will be delivered over to the Gentiles and will be mocked and shamefully treated and spit upon. and after flogging him, they will kill him, and on the third day he will rise."
Our Lord revealed God's great plan: His suffering and death on the cross and His resurrection. This would be the fulfillment of all the messianic prophecies of the Old Testament and would win the salvation of all humanity. And immediately after this announcement, according to St. Luke, Jesus healed a blind man.
Why? As a sign to the disciples. For comparison, because the blind man could not see with his eyes, but had spiritual vision. The disciples were spiritually blind. Verse 34 says, "But they understood none of these things. This saying was hidden from them, and they did not grasp what was said." That is to say, they did not want to understand, because the message was hard to accept. The road to Calvary was hard. So it was easier not to take Jesus completely at His word.
But the blind man trusted completely in Jesus and for that reason received what he asked and more. Not just his sight, but also salvation of his soul. Please understand, in New Testament Greek, the same word can mean either "saved" or "healed". So when Jesus said, "Your faith has made you well", He meant it in both senses.
There were two reasons for miracles in the New Testament. First, Jesus felt compassion for the poor and the sick and would decide in His grace to help them. Second, the New Testament miracles served as signs of the authority of Jesus and the truth of the Gospel. The Apostle John did not use the word, "miracle", in his gospel, only the word, "sign", for the marvelous acts of Jesus. Before the revelation of Jesus Christ in its fullness, the followers of Jesus needed such signs.
There is no part of the New Testament which promises that Christians will have miraculous powers forever. On the contrary, in today's Epistle reading (1 Corinthians 13: 1-13), the Apostle Paul says "prophecies will pass away and tongues will cease."
What does the brujo (warlock) say? "I have control of powerful spirits. I can command them to heal your illnesses, to gain for you love or money, to solve all your problems." Certainly our Almighty God has more power than brujos and their familiar spirits, but the Gospel is not a message of power, but of the love and mercy of God. It is a message of spiritual liberty, not dominion.
Likewise, it is not the work of the Holy Spirit to help us avoid all the difficulties of this life. It is not the work of the Holy Spirit to solve all of our problems whenever we snap our fingers. We are not brujos or brujas (witches), but humble servants of the Lord.
The true work of the Holy Spirit is our sanctification. What is that? In 1 Corinthians 13, St. Paul says the most important spiritual gifts are these three: love, faith and hope, but the greatest of them is love. The presence of love, faith and hope in our lives is the proof of the Holy Spirit's activity, and nothing else is needed. Christians, like our Lord in the Garden of Gethsemane and in the Our Father, the prayer that He taught us, say to the Father, "Not our will, but Your holy will be done."
It is true, we still pray for the sick and trust that God will heal them. But, if God does not answer our prayers right away, we trust in His wisdom, that He knows the best plan for our lives and those of our loved ones.
We do not look for more prophecies and revelations, because God has revealed all that is necessary for our salvation in the pages of the Holy Scriptures. In the Bible we have the full testimony of Christ Jesus and we do not need anything more. Also, we have visible signs of God's grace in the sacraments of baptism and the Lord's Supper. In every baptism we have the miracle of the new birth in Christ. Every Sunday we have wonder of Christ's body and blood in the Lord's Supper.
We give You thanks, Lord Jesus, for opening our eyes to Your love and mercy through Your Word and Sacraments. Amen.
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