There are things that grab our attention, things that shock us, things that cause us to shake our heads in bewilderment, and things that cause us to wonder and marvel. (I remember my father shaking his head at me when I tied a magnet to a big toe to find some ball bearings from my bike lost in the lawn). The word translated as Marvel in the old versions of the New testament is thaumazo – to wonder, marvel, to look on with amazement. God has made a universe that we marvel at, whether in magnitude or in miniature (cf. Ps.8).
He has done things that cause us to marvel – Job 5:9; Ps. 118:22,23
The disciples marvelled that He stopped the storm – Matt.8:27
The crowd marvelled when He healed the man – Matt.9:8
The crowd marvelled when He cast out the demon – Matt.9:33
All men marvelled at the cure of the Gadarene madman – Mark 5:20
They marvelled at His answer about the coin – Mark 12:17
Pilate marvelled that Jesus didn’t answer – Mark 15:5
Pilate marvelled that he was dead already – Mark 15:44
The people marvelled that Zacharias stayed so long in the temple – Luke 1:21
The people marvelled that Zacharias wrote “John” – Luke 1:63
Joseph and Mary marvelled at what Simeon prophesied -0 Luke 2:33
The pharisee marvelled that Jesus didn’t wash His hands before eating – Luke 11:38
The disciples marvelled that Jesus spoke with the woman – John 4:27
Don’t marvel at the resurrection of the spiritually dead – John 5:28
The people marvelled at His teaching, he being uneducated – John 7:15
The blind man marvelled that the pharisees didn’t know Jesus – John 9:P30
The people marvelled at the speaking in tongues – Acts 2:7
The people marvelled at the healing of the lame man by Peter and John – Acts 3:12
The pharisees marvelled at the apostles – Acts 4:13
Paul marvelled that the Galatians had gone astray – Gal. 1:6
John marvelled at the vision of the world – Rev. 17:7
But it is not mere mortals that marvel at things, Jesus Himself also marvelled. We might think that nothing would ever cause Him, who did such marvellous things, to marvel, but Scripture records He did. Scripture never records that God marvelled at anything done by man, so perhaps we could say this was part of the humanness of Jesus.
We find Him marvelling at Gentile faith (Matt.8:10; Luke 7:9). Why should he marvel? It was the Jews who should have excelled in faith – they had the oracles of God and the history of faith (cf. Rom. 3:1,2; Gal. 2:15; Heb. 11). Yet the nobleman who met Him at Cana and who had the sick son at Capernaum did not have the same faith as this Gentile centurion (John 4:46-54). It shows that one can be religious and lack in faith. O ye of little faith Jesus chastened His disciples in Matt.6:30; 8:26; 14:31; 16:8. How many religious people believe in Heaven and in the need of salvation from sin but are trying to save themselves by their good deeds rather than trusting in Jesus? How many religious people have faith but do not have an obedient faith? But the development of great faith in Jesus in a gentile soldier who had not been raised as a Jew with a Messianic expectation proves:
* the appeal of Jesus to the human spirit: he is the universal man for all seasons, the universal Saviour (John 12:32)
* anyone can develop faith in Christ (they saw the miracles etc. – John 3:2; 10:37,38; 14:10,11; Acts 2:22)
* Jesus predicted His acceptance by the Gentiles and rejection by His own people (Matt.8:11,12)
Whilst on that occasion He marvelled at a Gentile’s faith, on another occasion it is said He marvelled at the hardness of heart of the Jew. You could say He was ‘flabbergasted’ (Mark6:1-6). They had heard His teaching and seen His works but they were offended (lit. ‘stumbled – skandalon – snare, stumblingblock), because they knew His family and they knew that could not be the source. Jesus was not able to do many miracles there, not because His ‘healings’ were psycho-somatic, or that the person being healed needed to have faith, but because He never imposed them on people (cf. Mark 10:51 – He asked blind Bartemaus what he wanted). Even so, note in v.5 that he did heal some. It is amazing how prejudice and envy can blind the mind. Ever wonder why they didn’t pursue this more? They were right in concluding that Jesus didn’t get His education and power from the humble circumstances of His childhood home, but you still have to answer the question as to how and where He did get His education and power. Nazareth didn’t produce any prophets! But the alternative didn’t bear thinking about. It is exactly like modern man who knows that evolution in impossible (so said George Wald) but regards creation as unthinkable. So we are asked to believe the impossible.
There are things we may well marvel at of which we are told not to marvel. For example, don’t marvel that false teachers appear as angels of light (2 Cor. 11:14). Many today are possessed of a gullibility and naivety that accepts anything that is preached in the name of Christ as indeed of Christ. Nothing could be further from the truth. There are souls that do not want to draw a line in the sand and stand one side of it for their view of religion is a feel-good thing that has God tolerant of anything religious and Satan unwilling to put his finger in the pie. But Satan is vitally interested in religion and he has been since the Garden of Eden. Note the parable of the wheat and tares focuses on this very thought (Matt.13:24-30; 37-43).
Don’t marvel that the world hates you – 1 Jn 3:13. More than one Christian has fallen away from the faith because of the reaction of worldly friends to his or her conversion. Many are bewildered, totally unexpectant. It is not true that religion is benign in its effects upon men. Philosophy is generally benign because it possesses no authority and makes no demands. Christ disturbs people because He makes demands upon people. If the Bible is true then unless I obey Christ it means I am lost eternally. You cannot be neutral toward Christ. As C.S. lewis said, Christ is either Lord, liar or lunatic. He did not allow any other alternative. And Christ proscribes a lifestyle that is contrary to the world, a set of values contrary to the world, implying that the world is short-sighted and carnal, and so the world doesn’t like it (cf. John 3:19,20).
Nicodemus marvelled at having to be born again (John 3:7), but Jesus told him not to. We need a way to begin again. Nicodemus overestimated himself and underestimated what it would take to put him in the kingdom of Heaven. He thought religious heritage was a ticket to heaven, but man’s attainments and efforts toward righteousness cannot buy entrance into Heaven (Rom. 3:23; 6:23).
It takes a whole new ‘make-over’ by God to make a man righteous. One has to count his religious attainments as but dung, and be born again, by water and the Spirit into Sonship with God (Titus 3:5). Have you obeyed the gospel? If not, what are you trusting in to be saved?
We must believe in Christ as the Saviour, repent of our sinful lifestyle, confess our faith in Christ and then be immersed into Christ for the remission of sins. Do it today.