Today's Gospel invites us to reflect on our motives for following Jesus. During his three years of powerful ministry many people followed him. Some of them followed him because they experienced God active in his person and ministry. They experienced his unconditional love, forgiveness and compassion. Others seemed to go along with Jesus just to witness the signs and miracles which he was performing. They were mere spectators, with no faith in Jesus. Without faith they failed to understand that Jesus himself was the sign they were seeking. Jesus performed miracles out of compassion for the people and not for his own sake.

In the gospel Jesus speaks in a very stern and straight-forward way. His message is very clear: He takes to task those who follow him merely because they expect signs and miracles from him. There are always those who expect miracles from Jesus in order to believe in Him: they do not realize that Jesus Himself is the sign.

The gospel invites us to reflect upon ourselves. Do I follow Jesus because I believe in him or am I following Him expecting some sign from him?