Many began to believe in his name when they saw the signs he was doing (John 2:23).
“Many began to believe in his name when they saw the signs he was doing. But Jesus would not trust himself to them because he knew them all.” John 2:23-24
How often do we do things in our lives because we know it will help us advance ourselves in some capacity? Have you taken on an extra project at work, not because you liked the project, but because you knew it would look good on your resume or would help you get a promotion? Have you ever volunteered for a cause, not only because you believed in the cause, but also because it would be a great “networking” opportunity? How often do we do one thing as a means to get to a different end goal?
Jesus did not do that! We see in this passage that “many began to believe in his name when they saw the signs… but Jesus would not trust himself to them.” Clearly, Jesus was not doing miracles so that people would like him. Rather, Jesus performed miracles because it was his divine nature to bless humanity.
Earlier in John chapter 2, Jesus’s first miracle is documented with the turning of water into wine at the wedding in Cana at the request of his mother. Even though Jesus tells his mother, “my hour has not yet come,” he still does the miracle, and “his disciples began to believe in him.” It is interesting that the Disciples had already started following him before they really “began to believe''. It is also interesting that the Blessed Mother already knew of Jesus’s miraculous power, almost to the point that it was a “non-issue” for her. In John 2:3 we see that, “when the wine ran short, the mother of Jesus said to him, ‘They have no wine.’' She clearly knew that he could fix the problem, and she simply brought the issue to his attention. Jesus was acting according to his divine nature, for no other reason except that it was who he was.
So it is not surprising that we read later in the chapter that, “Jesus would not trust himself to them because he knew them all”. Father Richard Rohr writes in his brilliant book, The Universal Christ (2019, p. 32): “That might just be the whole point of the Gospels. You have to trust the messenger before you can trust the message, and that seems to be Jesus Christ strategy. Too often we have substituted the messenger for the message...Too often this obsession became a pious substitute for actually following what he taught--and he did ask us several times to follow him, and never once to worship him.”
In our passage today we see that Jesus did not perform signs and miracles to find favor with humanity. He acted only in accordance with his own divine nature. Now, normal people do not do the types of miracles that Jesus did! However, we each have something unique and special, or divine, within us, that only we have to give to humanity. Some people call it “purpose” or “a calling”. Whatever you call your own special nature, it is only important to note that it is coming from within you, as part of your very being. When we act from this place, we can be miracles to the world around us. However, these miracles are not for us to necessarily gain the praise of people or as a means to another end. It was not Jesus’s goal, and it should not be our goal. Rather, when we live true to our own divine calling, miracles become a natural byproduct.