There are those who won’t believe without signs and wonders. There are also those who base their faith on signs and wonders. Neither is good. Jesus doesn’t want us to just believe based on signs and wonders. He wants us to base our faith in him and on him.
Jesus healed people. He performed miracles and those miracles confirmed his words as he routinely, and at command, did that which only God could do.
When Jesus went to Cana for the second time – at least the second time recorded in John’s gospel – there was a nobleman who came to Jesus asking Jesus to heal his son who was dying back in Jesus’s current hometown of Capernaum. But as he comes, Jesus replies to him:
“Unless you people see signs and wonders,” Jesus told him, “you will never believe.”
John 4:48
It seems like a harsh response, but Jesus does go on to heal the man’s son, and as a result, the man does believe.
But we can contrast this with that which happened at Sychar in Samaria. Just before going to Cana, Jesus had been passing through Samaria where he met the Samaritan woman at the well. Jesus performed a “sign” in the sense that he told the woman that she’d had five husbands, and was now living with a man who was not her husband, something that he couldn’t have known without supernatural understanding or knowledge.
So the woman went and told everyone that she had found the Messiah and they came to see him, believing initially based not on a sign that they saw, but on the woman’s testimony. But then, they believed for themselves…
Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I ever did.” So when the Samaritans came to him, they urged him to stay with them, and he stayed two days. And because of his words many more became believers.
They said to the woman, “We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is the Savior of the world.”
John 4:39-42
The point here is that some believe as a result of a sign. Maybe there is something that happens that causes them to believe. This is good, and is consistent with what Jesus did when he was with people, but he wanted the people to grow beyond a sign to know him.
And there are others that will only seem to be able to maintain their faith if they constantly see signs. In fact, they routinely ask for signs, as if their faith depends upon it.
This isn’t the heart of knowing Jesus. Yes, we expect to see God at work around us, and yes, we expect to see the miraculous. But no, our faith should not depend on seeing signs. After Jesus fed the 5000, they continued to pursue him, yet Jesus told the people that they only came to them for food. Now, instead, if they want food, they must eat the food that is provided from heaven. He said they must eat his flesh and drink his blood . In other words, they must know him. Not just enjoy the signs or be amazed by the miracles. But to know him, our king. Our savior. Our Lord. We must live for him because of who he is, not just because of the signs and wonders that he performs.