Today’s passage closes with the comment that Jesus didn’t do many miracles in his hometown, due to their lack of faith (Matt 13:58). So what is the connection between Nazareth’s ‘lack of faith’ and Jesus performing only a few miracles?
One argument suggests faith must be a prerequisite for healing. However, Jesus heals several people in Matt 8:1-17, with no reference to faith whatsoever. Faith IS referenced in the healings of Matt 9:18-34, but only because Jesus is trying to INCREASE these peoples’ faith, by showing how broken people are utterly dependant on Jesus.
The healings of Matt 8:1-17 highlight a different lesson; that Jesus cares about his people holistically, and not just spiritually. Jesus is unhappy with the current state of decay of his creation, and came to bring healing for ALL our brokenness; spiritual, racial, environmental, social, economic and PHYSICAL. This is why Jesus at least did SOME miracles in Nazareth (Matt 13:58).
Yet apart from wanting to heal people’s physical ailments, the main purpose of miracles in the Bible is to authenticate a person’s message. The average person in biblical times never witnessed a divine miracle. There are almost no miraculous healings or feats recorded in the Bible outside of the times of (i) Moses & Joshua, (ii) Elijah & Elisha, (iii) Daniel and (iv) Jesus & the Apostles. All these people had important roles in God’s history of salvation. The miracles performed through them helped prove (authenticate) their divine message for their listeners.
As such, the reason Jesus didn’t do many miracles in Nazareth is because they had already rejected his message. Performing numerous miracles would have done nothing to help authenticate his ministry, as the jury was already in. A barrage of miracles would simply have turned his ministry into a side show, which would have been good for no one. So Jesus doesn’t NEED faith to perform miracles; he performs miracles to elicit faith, which the town of Nazareth sadly lacked.
