CHAPTER 4
"WHAT JESUS ‘DID’"
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— 4 —
WHAT JESUS ‘DID’
The things Jesus
did force us to ask who He really is.
A few days later, I sat in the coffee shop with John’s
Gospel open beside my coffee. The booklet had become a constant companion. The
more I read, the more fascinated I became by Jesus. Not because everything made
sense—much of it didn’t—but because nobody seemed remotely like Him.
When Sheldon arrived, he noticed the booklet. “You kept
reading.”
“I did.”
“And?”
“I think I’m even more confused than before.”
“Excellent,” he said. “People usually start asking better
questions before they find better answers.”
I opened the booklet. “The things Jesus did are just as
surprising as the things He said.”
“Exactly! So what stood out?”
“The wedding,” I said. “Why would Jesus’ first miracle be
turning water into wine?”
Sheldon smiled. “Think about it. A celebration was about to
become a public embarrassment. Jesus stepped into an ordinary problem and
quietly solved it. Power, but also compassion.”
I turned the page. “The official whose son was dying
surprised me too. Jesus didn’t even go to the house. He just spoke, and the boy
was healed.”
“That doesn’t make sense,” I added.
“It doesn’t make sense if Jesus is merely a man.”
The statement landed heavily. Until then, I’d been thinking
mostly about the miracles themselves. Suddenly I was thinking about the One
performing them. If these stories were true, they were forcing a question I
wasn’t sure I was ready to face.
I flipped farther ahead. “Then there’s the man who couldn’t
walk—the disabled man by the pool. Thirty-eight years. And then Jesus tells him
to get up, and suddenly he’s walking.”
I tried to imagine witnessing something like that: a
condition everyone recognized, a man everyone knew, and
then—suddenly—everything changes.
“No wonder people followed Jesus,” I said.
“And no wonder others opposed Him,” Sheldon replied. “Every
miracle forced people to decide what they thought about Him.”
Next came the feeding of the crowd. Thousands of people,
almost no food, and somehow everyone ate.
“What do you think that miracle was showing?” Sheldon asked.
As I spoke, a realization formed in my mind. Every miracle
felt like a signpost. Water into wine. A healing from a distance. A man walking
after thirty-eight years. A crowd fed. None of it seemed random. They all
pointed back to this Man: Jesus—and they all showed Him helping others in need
with an unheard of and unexpected power over the natural world. Over physics.
Over biology. Over decay. Over death itself.
When I shared it, Sheldon nodded. “Exactly! The miracles
weren’t the destination. They were revealing who Jesus is.”
I kept reading. “Then there’s this woman caught in
adultery.”
The scene felt painfully real: a woman publicly humiliated,
surrounded by people eager to condemn her. What struck me wasn’t just what
Jesus did—it was what He didn’t do.
“He didn’t pretend she was innocent.”
“No.”
“But He didn’t destroy her either.”
“Exactly.”
Sheldon folded his hands. “Most people either ignore
wrongdoing or condemn without mercy. Jesus did neither. He told the truth and
showed compassion at the same time.”
As I thought about that, my own failures came to
mind—mistakes I’d rather not discuss, regrets I carried quietly. Jesus didn’t
avert His eyes. He seemed to look straight at brokenness and still move toward
people.
“What amazes me,” Sheldon said softly, “is that Jesus saw
everything about people and still loved them and still moved toward them.”
Throughout John’s Gospel, Jesus kept drawing near to the
ashamed, the confused, the desperate—the kind of people who feel like they’ve
already been judged. The more I read, the harder it became to ignore the
possibility that He might respond the same way to someone like me.
When we stood to leave, my head was full of questions.
“Can I ask you something?” I said.
“Of course.”
“Why did some people love Jesus while others hated Him?”
Sheldon nodded, as if he’d been waiting for it. “Because
nobody could stay neutral forever. Every miracle pushed people toward a
choice.”
“What choice?”
He looked directly at me. “Either Jesus was exactly who He
claimed to be, or He wasn’t.”
The simplicity of it unsettled me. The miracles weren’t just
amazing stories. They were evidence pointing toward Someone extraordinary.
As we said goodbye, Sheldon smiled. “Keep reading.”
“I will.”
“The deeper you go into John’s Gospel, Charlie, the harder
it becomes to stay neutral about Jesus.”
I watched him walk away and started home. For the first
time, I wasn’t only wondering whether Jesus could change a life. I was
beginning to ask who could possibly do the things He did if He were only a man.
“And truly Jesus
did many other signs... but these are written that you may believe that Jesus
is the Christ, the Son of God...”
—John 20:30-31—
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
— 1 — SOMETHING IS MISSING ......Link
— 2 — WHY JESUS?......Link
— 3 — WHAT JESUS ‘SAID’...Link
— 4 — WHAT JESUS ‘DID’
— 5 — THE GREAT QUESTION
— 6 — THE CROSS JESUS CHOSE
— 7 — WHEN JESUS BROKE DEATH
— 8 — WHEN CHARLIE MET JESUS
— 9 — CHARLIE’S PRAYER
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