Encyclopaedia of the Holy Spirit

Miracles of Christ

Miracles of Christ · c. AD 27-29, early Galilean ministry

The Wedding at Cana

At a village wedding in Galilee, the wine runs out and the feast totters on the edge of shame. At the quiet intercession of his mother, Jesus turns six stone jars of water into the finest wine — his first sign, and the first unveiling of his glory to the men who would become his apostles.

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Miracles of Christ · c. AD 29, mid Galilean ministry

The Feeding of the Five Thousand

On a hillside above the Sea of Galilee, a crowd of thousands who followed Jesus into the wilderness finds itself hungry and far from any town. From five loaves and two small fish, blessed and broken in Jesus's hands, all are fed with baskets to spare — the only miracle recorded in all four Gospels.

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Miracles of Christ · c. AD 29, mid Galilean ministry

Walking on the Water

After feeding the multitude, Jesus sends his disciples ahead by boat and comes to them in the fourth watch of the night, walking on the storm-tossed sea. Peter, invited to come to him, walks a few steps on the waves before fear overtakes him and he begins to sink.

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Miracles of Christ · c. AD 30, shortly before the final Passover

The Healing of Blind Bartimaeus

Outside Jericho, a blind beggar named Bartimaeus cries out to Jesus as the Son of David despite the crowd's rebukes. Called forward, he throws off his cloak, asks to see, and receives his sight — then follows Jesus on the road, the last healing before the entry into Jerusalem.

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Miracles of Christ · c. AD 30, shortly before the final Passover

The Raising of Lazarus

In Bethany, Jesus arrives four days after the death of his friend Lazarus, weeps at his tomb, and calls him back to life with a loud voice. The greatest of his signs, it hastens the plot against him and stands at the threshold of his own Passion.

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Miracles of Christ · c. AD 29, mid Galilean ministry

The Gerasene Demoniac

Crossing to the eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee, Jesus meets a man possessed by a legion of unclean spirits, living naked among the tombs. He casts the demons into a herd of swine and restores the man, clothed and in his right mind — the pattern every exorcism since has followed.

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Miracles of Christ · c. AD 28–30, early Galilean ministry

Healing of the Paralytic

In a crowded house at Capernaum, four men lower their paralyzed friend through a broken roof to reach Jesus, who first forgives his sins and then commands him to rise. The healing exposes the scribes' unbelief and reveals that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.

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Miracles of Christ · c. AD 29, shortly before the journey to Jerusalem

The Transfiguration

On a high mountain, Jesus is transfigured before Peter, James, and John, His face shining like the sun and His garments becoming white as light, as Moses and Elijah appear beside Him and the Father's voice proclaims Him the beloved Son. The event confirms Christ's divine glory before His Passion and prefigures the resurrection.

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Miracles of Christ · c. AD 30-33, the third day after the Crucifixion, with appearances over forty days

The Resurrection

On the third day, the crucified Jesus rises bodily from the dead, the tomb found empty and His risen presence confirmed by numerous witnesses over forty days. As the central miracle of the Christian faith, the Resurrection is the Father's vindication of the Son and the pledge of the resurrection of all believers.

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Miracles of Christ · c. AD 28-29, Galilean ministry

The Widow of Nain

As Jesus approaches the town of Nain, He meets a funeral procession carrying the only son of a widow, and moved with compassion He touches the bier and commands the young man to rise. The miracle, witnessed by a great crowd, reveals Christ's power over death and His tender mercy toward the grieving.

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Miracles of Christ · c. AD 28, Galilean ministry

Healing of the Centurion's Servant

A Roman officer in Capernaum, a man of command who understands authority in his bones, sends word that he is not worthy to have Jesus enter his house. "Only say the word." It is the purest confession of faith Jesus has yet heard — and I am the one who placed it in a pagan's mouth.

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Miracles of Christ · c. AD 28, early Galilean ministry

The Cleansing of the Leper

A man ravaged by disease, forbidden by law to come near any living soul, kneels in the open road and dares to say "if you will." Jesus reaches out his hand and touches him — the first touch the leper has felt in years — and says the four words that undo a sentence of living death: "I will; be clean."

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Miracles of Christ · c. AD 29, Galilean ministry

The Woman with the Hemorrhage

Twelve years of bleeding, twelve years of ruin at the hands of physicians, twelve years of being unclean to every hand that might have helped her. In a pressing crowd she reaches for the hem of his garment, certain that a touch alone will be enough — and I am the certainty in her fingers.

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Miracles of Christ · c. AD 29, Galilean ministry

The Raising of Jairus's Daughter

A synagogue ruler falls at Jesus's feet begging for his dying daughter, and the crowd's slow crush delays them until word comes that she has died. "Do not fear, only believe." Jesus takes her cold hand and speaks two Aramaic words no one present would ever forget: "Talitha koum."

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Miracles of Christ · c. AD 28 (first catch); c. AD 30, after the Resurrection (second catch)

The Miraculous Catch of Fish

Twice the nets come up empty after a night of honest labor, and twice Jesus speaks a single word that fills them past breaking. The first catch calls fishermen away from their boats to follow him; the risen Lord's second catch, on a gray morning after the world seemed to have ended, calls Peter back.

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Miracles of Christ · c. AD 29-30, Feast of Tabernacles, Jerusalem ministry

The Man Born Blind

A beggar blind since birth is anointed with clay made of dust and spittle and sent to wash in the Pool of Siloam. He returns seeing — and spends the rest of the day being interrogated, disbelieved, and expelled by men who cannot bear a miracle that indicts their blindness instead of his.

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Miracles of Christ · c. AD 28-30, during a feast in Jerusalem

The Healing at the Pool of Bethesda

By the five porches of Bethesda in Jerusalem, a man who has waited thirty-eight years for healing meets the one who does not wait for the water to stir. Jesus asks a piercing question — do you want to be healed? — and with a single word restores what decades of near-misses never could, igniting the first open conflict over his identity as Son of God.

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Miracles of Christ · c. AD 29, Galilean ministry, a withdrawal into Gentile territory

The Syrophoenician Woman's Daughter

In pagan Tyre and Sidon, a Gentile mother pleads for her daughter, tormented by an unclean spirit, and will not be turned away by a hard saying about children's bread. Her wit and humility move Jesus to grant a healing at a distance — no touch, no word spoken over the child — commending a faith he found nowhere greater in Israel.

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Miracles of Christ · c. AD 29, shortly after the Transfiguration

The Boy with a Mute Spirit

At the foot of the mountain where Christ's glory had just been unveiled, his disciples fail to free a boy tormented since childhood by a mute, convulsing spirit. A desperate father's cry — 'I believe; help my unbelief' — becomes one of the truest prayers in the Gospels, and Jesus casts out what nine men could not, teaching that this kind comes out only by prayer.

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Miracles of Christ · c. AD 29-30, on the journey toward Jerusalem

The Healing of the Ten Lepers

Ten lepers cry out from the edge of a village between Samaria and Galilee, and Jesus sends them, still unhealed, toward the priests who will certify a cleansing that has not yet happened. All ten are healed on the way; only one, a despised Samaritan, turns back to give thanks — and receives more than the other nine.

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Miracles of Christ · c. AD 30, Holy Week, the Monday before Passover

The Withered Fig Tree

Hungry on the road from Bethany, Jesus curses a fig tree heavy with leaves and empty of fruit — a living parable he pairs, that same day, with the cleansing of the Temple. By morning the tree is withered to its roots, and Jesus turns the sign of judgment into a teaching on the mountain-moving power of faith joined to a forgiving heart.

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Miracles of Christ · c. AD 29, Galilean ministry, shortly after the Transfiguration

The Coin in the Fish's Mouth

When Capernaum's tax collectors ask whether Jesus pays the Temple tax, he reveals to Peter that as the Son, he owes nothing to his Father's house — and then, so as not to give offense, sends Peter to draw from the sea the one fish that has been carrying, in its mouth, the exact coin the moment requires.

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