Luke 4:30

30. Passing through the midst of them Of course the mob was ahead of him. But at the moment in which he chose to escape, wonderful was the ease with which he passed through the crowd, who seem to have parted right and left, as if they meant to escort rather than to murder him. The question is raised whether this critical escape, and other similar instances, were miraculous, (John 8:59; John 18:6.) That they were not, the parallels of Caius Marius and others are adduced, where the awe of the person assailed has unmanned and defeated the assailants. But, perhaps, the clearest parallel to this present escape may be found in Stevens’s History of Methodism, vol. i, p. 195. Wesley, assailed by a Cornish mob, is nearly thrown to the ground, whence he would never have risen alive. Struck with a blow upon the chest, so that the blood gushes out of his mouth, he yet maintains a composure superior to pain, and perfect as if in the quiet of his study. Amid his utterance of prayer and their clamours for his life, a strange and sudden reaction takes place. A call is made for a fair hearing, and the very leader of the mob, awe-struck, becomes all at once his defender. And then, in language strongly reminding us (though it did not the historian himself) of the present scene, it is added, “The people fell back, as if by common consent, and led on through their open ranks by the champion of the rabble, he safely escaped to his lodgings.” Whether this was miraculous or not may be a question of degree, not of kind. Who can tell at what point the natural awe-inspiring power of great or sacred character rises to a supernatural amount?