How many miracles did Jesus perform while he was alive? There are several ways in which we could answer this. The first is that we could go to the Gospels and count. If this were our manner of approaching Jesus and his miracles the answer to our query would be 37. That's right; there are 37 different miracles which are mentioned by one or more of the Gospel writers. Twenty one of them are mentioned by two or more of the Gospels. The second way in which we could decide the number of miracles that Jesus performed would be to listen to the Gospel of John in which we learn that, "And there are also many other things that Jesus did, which if they were written one by one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that would be written. Amen." (John 21:25, NKJV). In other words we would no idea how many miracles Jesus performed. The final way in which we could determine how many miracles Jesus performed would be to assume that he performed none…or only a few which were not really "miracles". I say this because ever since the rise of rationalism and science there has been growing skepticism over Jesus' miracles…whether they ever happened at all. So which of these is the correct answer? I'm not sure it matters.
What is of critical importance is that we understand the role that miracles played in the first century and the role that they played in Jesus' ministry. In the first century miracles were a currency of common life. There are a wide variety of stories concerning miracle workers (that's right Jesus was not the only one around) in circulation at that time. Therefore for Jesus to be out and about doing miracles was not considered completely out of the ordinary. It was also not considered out of the ordinary in Judaism because as with many of the prophets before him, miracles came with the territory. Just as Elijah and Elisha performed miracles so too did Jesus. These basic understandings of miracles and miracle workers in the first century help us to rule out two of the most basic misconceptions about Jesus and miracles. The first misconception is that Jesus was the only miracle worker out there which would prove that he is the Son of God (we saw there were other miracle workers). The second misconception is that the miracles proved that Jesus was divine (again we see that there were other Jewish prophets who performed miracles and were not divine).
If Jesus' miracles did not prove that he was either God or the Son of God, then what were they supposed to "prove?" We can find the answer to this question in the Gospels. In the Gospel of John where miracles are often referred to as "signs" they were intended to show that spiritual healing/liberation had taken place. This spiritual healing/liberation was the demonstration that God's kingdom was present in the world in and through Jesus. In the Gospel of Luke miracles were demonstrations that Jesus was fulfilling his mission. At the beginning of Luke we read that Jesus had come to fulfill the prophetic expectations of Isaiah (giving sight to the blind, healing the lame, etc.). The miracles were proof that Jesus was accomplishing that mission. In the Gospel of Mark miracles were almost seen as a distraction. Jesus was constantly performing miracles but was also telling people to keep silent about them so he could teach (which is the focus of Mark's Gospel). In Matthew the miracles became a battle ground between Jesus and the religious authorities in which Jesus was accused of being in league with Satan. Jesus used the miracles to prove he was working for God.
Regardless then of how we view miracles today (did they or did they not happen) it is apparent that Jesus was not only considered a miracle worker but that being a miracle worker was also important to the church's early understanding of his person and his mission. The challenge for us then is not to either dismiss these miracles as relics of a bygone era (if we do not believe in them) or use them as proof of Jesus special nature (if we do believe in them), but instead to delve into their assigned roles in the Gospels as ways in which we can come to know Jesus better.
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