23 Now while he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, many people saw the miraculous signs he was doing and believed in his name. 24 But Jesus would not entrust himself to them, for he knew all men.
People reacted quickly to Jesus. And for good reason. It isn’t every day that you see someone raising the dead, healing the sick, restoring sight to the blind, and opening the ears of the deaf. I can imagine Jesus as an exciting person to be around, one would certainly never know what to expect.
Jesus gave signs to show that he had come from God, but for many people, the signs were more important than the message Jesus brought. They believed because they saw the signs, and the implication is, that they were just caught up in the emotion of the signs but their hearts were not touched.
Jesus did not come primarily to perform signs and wonders. The signs and wonders were just a sign that He was from God, and that he should be listened to. He came primarily to show us the love of God and to die on a cross.
Throughout his earthly ministry, he attracted different kinds of followers. Some wanted to learn more about God, others wanted to tap into that power, and still others were just enjoying the ride. Some may have followed because it was exciting to watch these things happen. Surely, emotions must have run high whenever Jesus stopped to teach or heal someone.
Very few people realized Jesus was the Messiah at this point, though some were starting to believe he might be. No one was probably expecting him to be crucified, let alone rise from the dead. They were just excited to see someone doing astonishing things.
Even though people were excited about Jesus, we see here He was not so excited about them. The people were seeing the miracles and believing in his name, which is different than believing IN HIM. They were more into the miracles than they were into Jesus.
At a later point in the gospel, we will see Jesus criticizing people for following him only because he fed them with miraculous loaves and fish. (John 6:26) He saw their hearts, and their motives.
They wanted to see him perform miracles and for many the miracles themselves were the point. Jesus realized that a faith based on emotionalism, even based on seeing signs and wonders, is not sufficient. Jesus knew that this type faith often fades because it has no foundation in truth. When the “new” wears off, these type believers tend to fade into the shadows.
For this reason, it says in verse 24, that Jesus did not entrust himself to them. In the Greek, the same word is used in verse 23 and 24 for believe and entrust. In essence, it could be translated, “many people believed in Jesus, but Jesus did not believe in them.”
The belief here is not the kind of faith that brings salvation, only belief in the sense of recognition.
There is this same type of follower of God in today’s Christian world. Some still seek after signs and emotional highs, and wonder if God is real if they don’t see or feel something.
It is good to believe in Jesus. Does Jesus believe in you?