GREAT THINGS ENTERPRISE
CLAUDE BLACK
Mark 5:34
Magic or Miracle
Magic is as old as the historical record. It may be defined as the suspension of the laws of nature. It’s as if a causal chain were to be broken, a link inserted, and the chain put back together. A famous example of the contest between magic and miracle took place when Moses confronted the Egyptian Pharaoh with the demand to let the Israelites leave for Palestine. (Exodus 7ff) Each time Moses demonstrated a miracle, the Egyptian wise men and sorcerers performed the same act; that is, until the plague of boils.
Modern entertainers often amaze their audiences by laying out a deck of cards in a specific order, or reading someone’s mind, or pulling coins from someone’s ear, or swallowing and regurgitating cigarettes—maneuvers often described as legerdemain (légèr de main, “quick of hand”). These events are also often mistakenly referred to as miracles.
As opposed to magic, “miracles” refer to the intervention of a higher law, not the suspension of law. If one dropped a book, he would expect it to fall toward the center of the Earth, i.e., the law of gravity. If, however, there was a strong enough blast of air from below, the book might appear to be suspended in midair. An airplane weighing thousands of pounds can fly through the air because the laws of thermodynamics and aerodynamics overrule the law of gravity. The law of gravity is not suspended, just superseded. Just as there are sounds beyond the range of human ears and rays beyond detection by the human eye, so there are laws beyond human understanding—though human inquisitiveness frequently discovers more of those laws. Recently, for example, researchers discovered a new color beyond the range of human color vision.
There is an example of the juxtaposition of magic and miracle in the Gospel of Mark, where a woman suffering from a long illness thought that if she got close enough to Jesus to touch his garment, she would be healed. It’s possible that the woman had a misconception about the source of the healing power, that is, if she touched his garment. After she touched his garment, Jesus knew that he had experienced a most unusual touch, so he sought out the person who had touched his cloak. The woman, then, came forward and told Jesus about her suffering, her touch, and her healing. She may have feared that she had stolen a healing gift that could be taken away. “And he said to her, ‘Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be healed from your affliction.’” (Mark 5:34)
Jesus, it seems, had to teach the woman about the difference between magic and miracle. It wasn’t the magical touch of the garment that brought healing, the laws of nature weren’t suspended, but a higher law intervened—the law of faith. The miraculous healing wasn’t in the garment she touched, but in the healing power of God her faith touched: a miraculous higher power inexplicable by natural or scientific laws.
Mark’s account is not merely a one-off event to be sealed in the historical record but an illustration of the present role of faith in enacting the miraculous presence of God.
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