Jesus knew what he was saying when he made this statement; for sure he did not mean it as a compliment. Several times he showed his frustration over the people of his time refusing to 'see' he was the messiah while they kept insisting on signs and wonders. Even when he worked many miracles, they just asked for more and more and more.
Unfortunately, we the people of our time seem to have inherited this 'signs and wonders' mentality even though quite frankly we should know better. Searching through the scriptures, we see that Jesus emphasized that 'belief in him (faith) and in his words far outweighed any works that he could have done. In fact he often talked about faith as the basis for every action and how everything is possible for the one who has faith.
Signs and wonders do not lead to increased faith. If we do not have faith, we would not appreciate the 'signs and wonder' no matter how magnificent the 'display' may be. It's all about faith and conviction (Read Luke 16:19-31).
Often times Jesus chastised his disciples for their lack of faith, and the people in general for their failure to believe in his words. However he made it very clear that what is required is belief in his words and conviction in the gospel. Every other thing is secondary. Actually if we really look at it, the people that benefitted the most from Jesus were the people that believed in his words and demonstrated that faith by their actions.
Matthew 8:5-9, Luke 7:1-10. The story of the centurion who told Jesus 'But just say the word, and my servant will be healed'
Matthew 12:38-42, Matthew 16:1-4, Luke 11:29-32. In this passage Jesus chastised the Pharisees who requested for a sign from him and called them a 'wicked and adulterous generation'.
John 20:24-29. The story of 'doubting' Thomas who insisted on seeing the risen Christ instead of believing his fellow apostles when they told him Jesus had risen.
Enough said. It's now up to us to decide if we want to be word-believing Christians or sign-believing Christians.
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