NOTES for Mat 13:54-58
In the Gospel the possibility of a miracle is often connected with the faith of the person or people who await or ask for that miracle. It was the same in pre-Christian times: God revealed them according to the faith of those awaiting, or not awaiting, a miracle. If God’s action was too obvious, outwardly it always looked in such a way that, if one wished, everything could be explained by natural causes.
Christ’s miracles were at times more visible and obvious, but He always performed them for specific people who trusted Him and expected help from Him. For the rest, who became involuntary witnesses of what was happening, there remained only to accept the situation as it was. Of course, much in this case is explained by the fact that God is unobtrusive. He will not drag a person to Himself by force, striking his imagination with supernatural phenomena. For God wants a person to commune with Him out of love, not out of fear or self-interest. Therefore the Savior does not drag anyone into the Kingdom by miracles.
But when the matter concerns the Kingdom, it is important to take something else into account. The Kingdom is entirely permeated with God’s light and God’s breath; they are its nature, or more precisely, what in the Kingdom takes the place of the nature of our world. But the Kingdom also has its own structure. A structure formed by the relationships of its inhabitants: their relationships with God, with Christ, and with one another. And the relationship of the Savior Himself with His heavenly Father is the foundation of the Kingdom, its chief spiritual support.
And all relationships in the Kingdom can be only and exclusively voluntary. Here no deceit, no ambiguity, no half-said things are possible. Any unwillingness to see Jesus, any unwillingness to commune with Him, places a person outside the Kingdom. For all the Savior’s miracles are nothing other than the manifestation of the Kingdom, its power, its breath.
It is no surprise that where there is no trust in Jesus, there is neither the Kingdom nor miracles. It is not that they are impossible there; they are simply meaningless. One cannot be made loving by force, and to demonstrate the power of the Kingdom to someone who does not want it means in effect to compel a person toward something to which compulsion is completely impossible. Jesus can only leave, giving those who refuse to trust Him over to their own fate. In the end, it is their choice, to which they have every right.