Jesus seems somewhat harsh in his reply to the royal official: "Unless you people see signs and wonders, you do not believe." But we may gain more insight into the humanity of Jesus if we situate his response within the wider passage which John presents. Jesus has come back from Jerusalem where he had "done many things" presumably miracles and the people in Galilee welcome him because they had seen what he had done in Jerusalem. Does the welcome imply an expectancy that Jesus would work miracles here also? John does not suggest that anyone in Jerusalem or in Galilee believed in Jesus.

In one of our reflections for February (Monday, Sixth week of the year) we considered Jesus' human emotions and sighs. Jesus sighs over the failure of people to get beyond wonder and come to genuine faith. His sighs echo the sighs of God in the Old Testament at the waywardness of Israel. Whereas God never forgot his Covenant with the Chosen People, Israel so easily forgot God's lovingkindness and turned away again and again. Jesus' sigh was not directed only to the royal official but was meant for all of us to hear and so learn to sigh with God over the evil of the world.