I want you to picture yourself at a magic show. The magician and his assistant are preparing for the grand finale. They announce that he is going to be bound in a straitjacket, dropped into a container of water that will be locked, and must escape out of the jacket to unlock the locks all before he runs out of breath and drowns. All of this will be performed in darkness as the container will be covered by a curtain.

The stage is set and the man drops into the water fully bound. The curtain is pulled and for the next minute you can hear him struggling and bouncing off the sides as he tries to escape. Then silence. Eerie silence.

The assistant rushes to tear everything open and just then the magician steps out from the side of the stage to applause from the crowd. Somehow, he “magically” transported out of the container and to the side of the stage.

As little kids, we were amazed by tricks like this. As adults, we know that just one person seeing him moving from the tank to the side of the stage proves that it wasn’t real. One witness reveals that this “magic” was fake. If we were determined enough to expose the magician, it could easily be done by countering his claims with the truth of what he really did.

The Gospel accounts are amazing in that Jesus’ miracles weren’t claimed to have been done in secret or only when it was just Him and His disciples. People gathered all around Jesus and He performed amazing works so that all could plainly see that He was doing it through the authority He had over creation.

There were no trap doors or things hidden behind curtains, but there were amazing numbers of eyewitnesses.

Over the course of His earthly ministry, Jesus did miracles in front of thousands of people. Large crowds followed Him everywhere seeking to be at the receiving end of a miracle or at least witness one.

Over 5,000 people saw Jesus take five loaves of bread and two fish and feed all of them with leftovers to take home. They tasted the miracle! The house was full when the paralyzed man was lowered down from the roof. They saw the miracle walk out of the room! Jesus opened the eyes of a man born blind to the astonishment of the Pharisees. Though they hated Jesus, even they couldn’t deny His miracles as they tried to claim that He did them by power from the devil! Christianity spread like wildfire because eyewitnesses corroborated everything the Gospel writers claimed.

It is important that as we prepare to celebrate the Messiah’s miraculous birth that we understand His miracles are no magic trick. The same Christ that was born of a virgin, healed the sick, gave sight to the blind, made the paralyzed walk, and was resurrected from the grave is still doing miracles today. We need to know that Scripture is true and that we have hope in any and every situation because we serve the Author of miracles.

People’s Evangelical Congregational Church is located at 216 Wagner St., Lehighton.