God speaks to reveal what kind of God he is. He is a God who desires a relationship with humanity. When God speaks and we listen and obey, we are responding positively and a relationship is built between us.

What blocks the building of this relationship is our human ego. In the words of Jeremiah in today's first reading, people are stubborn in their evil will. They walk in their own counsels, and look backward rather than forward. In today's gospel, people's response to Jesus' miracles is an assortment of amazement, rejection, and hedging their bets and looking for further signs. People are divided in their way of looking at this miracle worker: is he from God or from Satan?

We do not always respond to love openly and positively, but choose to remain caged in our stubbornness and biases. Or we neither praise nor condemn; we want to be neutral.

But Jesus forces us out of the safe middle ground. We are either with him or against him. What Jesus wants is a relationship that is totally one with him.