2017-10-30

朋友们，今天的福音讲述了耶稣施行奇迹的精彩故事，直到今天，祂的奇迹依然不断发生。我想让你留意一下一本非比寻常的书，作者是新教学者克雷格·基纳，书名是《奇迹：<新约全书>所记述的可信性》。书中最出人意料的部分是作者复述了来自世界各地数以百万计的奇迹报道，有的甚至发生在当代。

 

我想转述书中的一个案例。埃德·威尔金森的八岁的儿子被诊断出心脏有两个洞。手术时间安排好之后，埃德在等待中祈祷，但他心存疑虑。当儿子问自己是不是要死了，这位父亲作出了坦诚的回答。

 

埃德的牧师决定为这个男孩举行一场祈祷仪式，数百人出席为他的康复祈祷。到了手术当天，医务人员告诉埃德手术需时四到六小时。大约半个小时后，手术医生来到等候区，埃德做好了最坏的打算。相反，医生带来了令人费解的消息：男孩的心脏没有洞了，两个洞已经完全愈合。

 

Friends, today’s Gospel gives us a wonderful story of Jesus performing a miracle, something he still does today. I want to draw your attention to an extraordinary book by Protestant scholar Craig Keener titled Miracles: The Credibility of the New Testament Accounts. The most surprising section of the book contains his reports of some of the millions of miracles that come, even today, from all over the world.

 

I’ll relay to you just one case from Keener’s book. Ed Wilkinson’s 8-year-old son was found to have two holes in his heart. Surgery was scheduled and, while he was waiting, Ed prayed, but he was struggling with doubts. When his son asked whether he was going to die, his father was honest with him.

 

Ed’s pastor decided to hold a prayer service for the boy, during which hundreds gathered to pray for his recovery. The day of the surgery arrived, and Ed was told the surgery would take four to six hours. After about a half hour, the surgeon entered the waiting area, and Ed feared for the worst. Instead, the doctor had inexplicable news: there were no holes in the boy’s heart. They had simply closed up.