The Ingredients for a Miracle

INGREDIENT ONE: A Big Mess
If you are going to have a really big miracle in your life, the first ingredient is usually a big mess (everybody wants a miracle, but nobody wants the mess!). Luke 23 shows us a man rejected by his people, betrayed, tortured, and executed. The lives of Jesus' followers have turned tragic. It doesn't get worse than a dead savior.

INGREDIENT TWO: A Tiny Bit of Faith
The second thing you need for a miracle is NOT a solid, powerful, expansive faith! A tiny thread of faith is all we see in Luke 24; that's what God works with. Here are some of the "threads":

1. When the women can't find Jesus' body at the tomb, "they were puzzled, wondering what to make of this," (the Message, vs 4).

2. When the two men remind them of Jesus' own words that he would be raised after three days, they remember and run to tell the others BUT, "the apostles didn't believe a word of it," (the Message, vs 11).

3. Peter (who gets it right about half the time) runs to the tomb, sees the grave clothes, and walks away, "puzzled, shaking his head." (the Message, vs 12).

Don't forget: the promise of the resurrection was so clear that even Jesus' enemies were aware of it. In one of the other gospels, Jesus' enemies make sure there are guards and seals on the tomb so that no one steals the body and makes the claim of resurrection.

4. The same day two followers encounter the risen Jesus on the road "but they were not able to recognize who he was." (the Message, vs 16).

5. When they finally did recognize Jesus, they ran back to tell the others. Suddenly Jesus appeared among them (same guy they had just been talking about!) and "they thought they were seeing a ghost and were scared half to death," (the Message, vs 40-41).

INGREDIENT THREE: A Big God
The third thing you need for a miracle is a really big God. The power of God is not based on our faith. The power of God is based on how big God is. (You could have HUGE faith in a bogus god. There's no power in faith itself; the power is in the God.)

FOUR THINGS WE CAN TAKE FROM AN EMPTY TOMB
a. Nothing is too messed up for God.
b. God is usually at work long before we notice.
c. God shows up even when we've given up.
d. God's solutions are often far different than we expect.