The Greatest Miracles

The Savior told the apostles at the Last Supper, “He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do” (John 14:12).  I’m not quite sure how one does greater works than Jesus, but it’s clear that the Savior was not jealous of his own power and He let others perform incredible miracles.  Just as the Father wants to give us all that He has, so the Savior also wants His disciples to work the same miracles that He did while on the earth.  In particular we see in several places throughout the scriptures where prophets were given power to perform the greatest physical miracle: raise the dead. 

                The Old Testament contains two such stories where prophets were able to raise someone from the dead.  The first was with Elijah.  After the miracle of providing food for the woman at Zarephath and her son, the boy “fell sick; and his sickness was so sore, that there was no breath left in him.”  Elijah had great compassion on the woman and “he stretched himself upon the child three times, and cried unto the Lord, and said, O Lord my God, I pray thee, let the child’s soul come into him again.  And the Lord heard the voice of Elijah; and the soul of the child came into him again, and he revived (1 Kings 17:17,21-22).  His successor Elisha preformed a similar miracle.  After having miraculously promised the Shunammite woman a son, the son grew up and one day fell sick and died.  Elisha went in to the child and “prayed unto the Lord,” ultimately performing the incredible act of raising him from the dead (2 Kings 4:33).  Both Elijah and Elisha then were, by the power of God, able to raise someone from the dead in the same manner that Christ did while on the earth.

                The New Testament and Book of Mormon likewise contain stories of apostles raising someone from the dead.  In the New Testament, a disciple named Tabitha “was sick, and died” and so they sent for Peter.  He “kneeled down, and prayed; and turning him to the body said, Tabitha, arise.  And she opened her eyes” (Acts 9:40).  A second similar story was with a disciple named Eutychus, who fell from the “third loft” when he fell asleep listening to Paul’s preaching “and was taken up dead.”  Paul “went down, and fell on him, and embracing him said, Trouble not yourselves; for his life is in him….  And they brought the young man alive, and were not a little comforted” (Acts 20:9-12).  In the Book of Mormon, we read this of Nephi, the son of Nephi, who was performing miracles among the wicked Nephites at the same time Christ was in Palestine: “Even his brother did he raise from the dead, after he had been stoned and suffered death by the people” (3 Nephi 7:19).  Later after Christ left the Nephites with their 12 to lead them—which included Nephi—we read that, among other miracles, they did “raise the dead” (4 Nephi 1:5). 

                All of these accounts of a prophet raising someone from the dead are witnesses that the Savior’s promise in John 14:12 of allowing his disciples to do great works was true.  For these prophets to perform the greatest physical miracle in the same manner as Him did not in any way diminish His own greatness.  The Savior’s work and glory is us, and He wants to enable us to perform the greatest of miracles in our own lives.