Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will by no means believe

 Now after the two days He departed from there and went to Galilee.  For Jesus Himself testified that a prophet had no honor in his own country.  So when He came to Galilee, the Galileans received Him, having seen all the things He did in Jerusalem at the feast; for they also had gone to the feast.

So Jesus came again to Cana of Galilee where He made the water wine.  And there was a certain nobleman whose son was sick at Capernaum.  When he heard that Jesus had come out of Judea into Galilee, he went to Him and implored Him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death.  Then Jesus said to him, "Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will by no means believe."  The nobleman said to Him, "Sir, come down before my child dies!"  Jesus said to him, "Go your way; your son lives."  So the man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him, and he went his way.  And as he was now going down, his servants met him and told him, saying, "Your son lives!"  Then he inquired of them the hour when he got better.  And they said to him, "Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him."  So the father knew that it was at the same hour in which Jesus said to him, "Your son lives."  And he himself believed, and his whole household.  This again is the second sign Jesus did when He had come out of Judea into Galilee.

- John 4:43-54

Yesterday, we read the conclusion to Jesus' meeting with the Samaritan woman at Jacob's well.   At this point His disciples came, and they marveled that He talked with a woman; yet no one said, "What do You seek?" or "Why are You talking with her?"  The woman then left her waterpot, went her way into the city, and said to the men, "Come, see a Man who told me all things that I ever did.  Could this be the Christ?"  Then they went out of the city and came to Him.  In the meantime His disciples urged Him, saying, "Rabbi, eat."  But He said to them, "I have food to eat of which you do not know."  Therefore the disciples said to one another, "Has anyone brought Him anything to eat?"  Jesus said to them, "My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work.  Do you not say, 'There are still four months and then comes the harvest'?  Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest!  And he who reaps receives wages, and gathers fruit for eternal life, that both he who sows and he who reaps may rejoice together.  For in this the saying is true:  'One sows and another reaps.'  I sent you to reap that for which you have not labored; others have labored, and you have entered into their labors."  And many of the Samaritans of that city believed in Him because of the word of the woman who testified, "He told me all that I ever did."  So when the Samaritans had come to Him, they urged Him to stay with them; and He stayed there two days.  And many more believed because of His own word.  Then they said to the woman, "Now we believe, not because of what you said, for we ourselves have heard Him and we know that this is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the world."  

Now after the two days He departed from there and went to Galilee.  For Jesus Himself testified that a prophet had no honor in his own country.  So when He came to Galilee, the Galileans received Him, having seen all the things He did in Jerusalem at the feast; for they also had gone to the feast.  Jesus' own country is Galilee.  This statement, that a prophet has no honor in his own country, is found in all four Gospels.  The Galileans who witnessed His signs in Jerusalem were those who were there for the first Passover recorded in John's Gospel (2:13-25).  Jesus, we were told, performed many signs there (see 2:23).  It's a kind of caution recorded here against those who rely on signs for faith.  In chapter 2 we were told that Jesus did not commit Himself to those who believed because of the signs.  St. John Chrysostom comments here that those who received Christ because of the signs they saw at the Passover feast are far less creditable than the Samaritans who accepted Christ based on words and teachings without the accompanying signs (see yesterday's reading, above).

So Jesus came again to Cana of Galilee where He made the water wine.  And there was a certain nobleman whose son was sick at Capernaum.  When he heard that Jesus had come out of Judea into Galilee, he went to Him and implored Him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death.  Then Jesus said to him, "Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will by no means believe."  You people here is plural.  Jesus admonishes the people in general (not the nobleman alone) for faith based in signs (or miracles).  This is insufficient for salvation.  It's an incomplete type of faith, which turns to scorn if the miracles cease (19:15).  We will see the repeated insistence on "proofs"  that He is Messiah by the leadership, who demand signs from Christ.

The nobleman said to Him, "Sir, come down before my child dies!"  Jesus said to him, "Go your way; your son lives."  So the man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him, and he went his way.  And as he was now going down, his servants met him and told him, saying, "Your son lives!"  Then he inquired of them the hour when he got better.  And they said to him, "Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him."  So the father knew that it was at the same hour in which Jesus said to him, "Your son lives."  And he himself believed, and his whole household.  This again is the second sign Jesus did when He had come out of Judea into Galilee.  My study bible says that the nobleman's concern is clearly for his child, although his faith in Christ is weak.  He doesn't understand that Christ is Lord over illness even from a distance, nor that Christ could heal the child even if he were to die.  He inquires after the fact about the timing of the healing, still not completely trusting the Lord's authority.  It is after all is confirmed that he and his whole household believe.  Earlier in John's Gospel we learned that Jesus sees into the hearts of people from a distance (1:45-48).  Here, He not only heals the body of the child from a distance, but also the soul of the nobleman.  This is the second of seven signs given in John's Gospel.

Jesus performs signs (or miracles) but in a sense He does so reluctantly.  They are never done to create faith.  They are never done as proofs of identity or power or authority, despite the fact of the constant demand (especially by the authorities who insist that He prove Himself).  In fact, one may conclude that His crucifixion comes about because He refuses to give proofs, and so is charged with blasphemy, but it's debatable that the envious religious leaders would have stopped plotting against Him.  But what we do take home, so to speak, from this reading is that Jesus' signs are done from compassion.  He provides wine at the wedding in Cana at the prompting of His mother, as the hosts have run out of wine (an essential element for the wedding feast).  Here He takes compassion on the nobleman who implores Him to heal his son who is at the point of death.  It's almost as if Jesus does so reluctantly, because of the problems with a faith that relies on and demands signs.  Faith must begin in another place within us.  Its true root in the Greek is trust, and trust does not come from proofs and signs.  Trust is akin to love, to a kind of loyalty in which one trusts out of a deeper sense of truth within the heart.  The demand for signs is a way to hold back, to impose one's own standards on that which we don't really understand, nor have we the immense perspective sufficient to judge God.  If our faith depends on miraculous answers, it's not really the kind of faith Christ asks us for.  It's not the stuff of endurance, and it won't build us up as human beings.  In the story of Job, we encounter a man who loses everything, but continues looking for an answer, and for his day face to face with God.  In the end, Job is satisfied with God's love, with that steadfast assurance of communion, even though God makes it clear that Job must trust and cannot understand a plan for all of creation that is beyond his capacities to comprehend.  It is in God's very questioning of Job that we come to know encounter, and the struggle with our faith.  So Jesus reflects this in His lament about those who demand signs.  Faith is based in communion, even a kind of struggle in which we are engaged with God and God is engaged with us.  That is what produces true character and endurance, the kind of love that echoes itself in human marriage, in which we struggle through love and engagement and, yes, our own transformation through time.  Let us remember the depths of the heart as the place where faith is and where love goes, beyond even what we can understand.  That is where God awaits and encounters us in faith.