Did Jesus Pre-Arrange His Miracles?

ALL – Psalm 90:1-91:16
ALL – Proverbs 13:24-25
OT – Judges 1:1-2:9
NT – Luke 21:29-22:13

People are always trying to explain Jesus’ miracles and divine foreknowledge away. And some of the stories in the Bible make that seem almost possible. But there are two stories in particular that I’ve heard even fairly faithful Bible teachers say, “This wasn’t a miracle. This was pre-arranged.” One is the story of Jesus sending His disciples to get a donkey’s colt for Him to ride into Jerusalem; the other is the story we’re going to consider today, the story of Jesus sending the disciples to find a place for their final Passover (Luke 22:7-13).

I disagree with the “pre-arranged” theory. Both of these stories portray Jesus’ foreknowledge. Here’s why.

Let’s start with the concluding verse:

They went off to the city and found everything just as Jesus had said, and prepared the Passover. – Luke 22:13, The Living Bible

Why would it be important, in a book devoted to pointing people to Jesus as God’s Christ, to say that they found everything as Jesus said—except to point out His foreknowledge? It wouldn’t.

Open your Bibles and check out the story to see if the rest of these reasons make sense.

1. Even if Jesus pre-arranged things, He would not have known the precise time when His disciples would enter Jerusalem, so He would not have known when to arrange to have a man walking along carrying a pitcher of water. Also, any number of servants could have been sent to carry water for their masters, so this sign could easily have back-fired if Jesus had just made arrangements in advance. He had to have foreknowledge to know when His disciples would arrive and which man they would see carrying water.
2. Also, Jesus does not instruct the disciples to interact with the man carrying water—just to follow him. If Jesus had pre-arranged everything, surely He would have had the disciples confirm in some way that this was the correct man carrying water. But he doesn’t give them the man’s name, his master’s name, or any special greeting whatsoever—just instructions to follow him into someone’s house. This is because they didn’t need to confirm the man’s identity. Jesus simply knew that the man they saw carrying water would lead them to the house where He intended to eat the Passover.
3. Third, Jesus’ instructions to them about what to say to the master of the house are very vague and general. They don’t identify the master, and they don’t identify Jesus. Rather than saying, “Jesus sent us,” the disciples are to say, “The Teacher needs a room.” There were other teachers with disciples besides Jesus in those days. Jesus did not need His disciples to identify Him because He had not pre-arranged this; He knew this man would respond to this general request.
   

And again, the story concludes with the comment that the disciples found everything to be like Jesus said—not a comment that would matter much if He’d pre-arranged everything. So the disciples clearly passed on this story with the idea that it would help to show the world that Jesus was more than just a man, just a teacher. After all, this book concludes with Jesus’ resurrection! They definitely thought He was unique, and this story helps to show His uniqueness.

Jesus is the Son of God. The Father sent Him to earth as a man, to live the life of men. But Jesus was no mere man. He was unique, a miracle worker who showed that He knew what would happen before it happened. No matter how much people try to explain His miracles away, it just makes more sense to take the stories that seem miraculous exactly as they are—stories that display the glory of the Christ, God’s Son, the Son of Man.

P.S. My computer has been down this week (no power cord). So I hope that you remembered that you can access the readings online via http://www.oneyearbibleonline.com/readingplan.asp?version=51&startmmdd=0101 (go ahead and bookmark it if you forgot, just in case something happens again). The rest of this week’s readings, through Sunday, are:

April 24, 2010

ALL – Psalm 92:1-93:5
ALL – Proverbs 14:1-2
OT – Judges 2:10-3:31
NT – Luke 22:14-34

April 25, 2010

ALL – Psalm 94:1-23
ALL – Proverbs 14:3-4
OT – Judges 4:1-5:31
NT – Luke 22:35-53

And the prior readings can be found at the above link. Let’s press on together!

To review the Bible reading plan options, please visit http://tinyurl.com/yj2o7jz.