The Greatest Miracle

Shortly after the Savior came back to visit the Nephites on His second day with Him, He said this to the disciples, “So great faith have I never seen among all the Jews; wherefore I could not show unto them so great miracles, because of their unbelief.  Verily I say unto you, there are none of them that have seen so great things as ye have seen; neither have they heard so great things as ye have heard” (3 Nephi 19:35-36).  This surprised me a bit, for the miracles that He did in Jerusalem among the Jews were pretty incredible. 

He turned water into wine, miraculously fed the multitudes twice, cast out devils on numerous occasions, and raised three people from the dead: Lazarus, the son of the widow of Nain, and the daughter of Jairus.  As far as I can tell up to this point in His visit the Savior hadn’t done any of those things for the Nephites.  He did heal them miraculously, having them bring forth their “lame, or blind, or halt, or maimed, or leprous, or that are withered, or that are deaf, or that are afflicted in any manner” (3 Nephi 17:7).  But even those miraculous healings He had done for the Jews; for example, in addition to all of the individual stories of healing that we have in the Gospel accounts, Matthew recorded, “great multitudes followed him, and he healed them all” (Matt. 12:15).  In fact He had even said before performing the healings of 3 Nephi 17 among the Nephites, “I perceive that ye desire that I should show unto you what I have done unto your brethren at Jerusalem, for I see that your faith is sufficient that I should heal you” (3 Nephi 17:8).  Those He had done among the Jews; so what was the Savior referring to in 3 Nephi 19 when He said that He had showed “great miracles” to the Nephites that He couldn’t show in Jerusalem “because of their unbelief”?  It seems that He was alluding to the events recorded in 3 Nephi 19, and I think that He must be referring specifically to the purification of these Nephites as the greatest of miracles.  We read that “the Holy Ghost did fall upon them, and they were filled with the Holy Ghost and with fire.  And behold, they were encircled about as if it were by fire; … and angels did come down out of heaven and did minister unto them” (3 Nephi 19:13).  All of that points to the fact that they were sanctified and worthy to be filled with the Holy Ghost and to see angels, something that did not happen among the people at Jerusalem.  We read that “they were as white as the countenance and also the garments of Jesus; and behold the whiteness thereof did exceed all the whiteness, yea, even there could be nothing upon earth so white as the whiteness thereof” (3 Nephi 19:25).  I think that was a physical representation of what was happening to them internally—the Savior was making them completely pure and holy because of their belief in Him.  He confirmed this in His prayer to the Father: “Father, I thank thee that thou hast purified those whom I have chosen, because of their faith” (3 Nephi 19:28).  It may be that this was the greatest miracle of all: the sanctification and purification of these Nephites.  The miracle of having our hearts changed and being cleansed from sin is not as dramatic as those miracles we are most familiar with in the New Testament, but perhaps it is ultimately the greatest of miracles.  Having Christ change us from the inside—so that we are sanctified and free from sin—is a far more lasting transformation than physically healing our infirmities.  More important than even being temporarily raised from the dead, the sanctification of our own hearts is the ultimate blessing we can receive if we will develop the kind of “great faith” in the Savior that these Nephites had.