Others were amazed, and felt they were in the presence of some holy magician. And still others found in that day the beginning of a whole new direction for their lives. How you remembered the day had a lot to do with whether or not you saw what happened as Magic or Miracle, and it is to this topic I wish to turn this evening. Everybody knows that Christians don't talk about Magic, but they do talk about Miracle. But I think often we don't really distinguish very clearly between them.
Miracle becomes a kind of sanitized theological word for magic.
The meaning is basically the same, but it's magic carried out under the aegis of God, and that makes it all right. But the differences, I suspect, are enormous, and it is in these differences that we see the true miracle of Jesus. I am going to explore three of the differences between magic and miracle with you this evening. There are many. They are all present in this story.