Why is faith needed for miracles?

[Tabby]

I’ve often been puzzled by passages such as this:

And he [Jesus] could do no mighty work there [Nazareth], except that he laid his hands upon a few sick people and healed them (Mark 6:5).

… and others, where Jesus makes clear that a cure depends on someone’s faith. Here is another example:

When he entered the house, the blind men came to him; and Jesus said to them, “Do you believe that I am able to do this?” They said to him, “Yes, Lord” (Matt. 9:28).

Since Jesus is God, and as God is omnipotent, why should he be “unable” to do a miracle when there is a lack of faith? Why should our faith have anything to do with his power to work miracles?

 

[Michelle_Arnold]

It’s important to remember that God does not work miracles to engage in pointless displays of raw power or to compel human belief. Miracles are signs intended to testify to the truth of the gospel, or to encourage us to grow in virtue, or to in some way further the cause of mankind’s salvation. So, while Jesus could work a miracle when there was no faith (as the first Scripture passage you quoted demonstrates), he did not choose to do so.

We may ask why that is. Why would Jesus want there to be faith before he ordinarily chooses to work a miracle? What purpose does our faith serve? Perhaps what faith does is to recognize a miracle for what it is and to act as a witness to the world of the miracle that occurred. Without faith, we might be tempted to put down a miraculous cure to some natural explanation, or to attribute “an act of God” within nature (e.g., parting the Red Sea, calming a raging storm) to some freak natural occurrance.

And, of course, Scripture indicates that faith itself can be so strong that occasionally it too can have power:

And Jesus answered them, “Truly, I say to you, if you have faith and never doubt, you will not only do what has been done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and cast into the sea,’ it will be done” (Matt. 21:21)