people anyone who
believes in me so much as this Roman does! And I tell you this too:
When you talk about the Kingdom of God you shouldn't think that God
has no place in it for anyone except Jews. God is going to bring
together people from every country, everybody who has faith like this
officer's faith. And some of the Jews may find themselves outside the
Kingdom looking in!"

Then he turned to the officer and said:

"Go back to your house. You have had faith in me, and I will give you
what you ask."

When the officer went home, he found that his servant had recovered
from his illness while Jesus was speaking.

That was one of the good days, when Jesus found a new believer. But a
bad day came, when Jesus found that his oldest friend had begun to
lose faith in him. John the Baptist was not sure any longer that Jesus
was the Messiah.

And John was in trouble. He had preached against King Herod, the son
of the king who had died when Jesus was a baby. Herod married another
man's wife, and John the Baptist said that this was a sin. Herod threw
John into jail.

As John lay in his prison cell day after day, he began to wonder about
Jesus. Had he been wrong in thinking that Jesus was the Messiah? Jesus
did not seem to have done very much as yet. The Romans were still in
the country. The rich people were as bad as they had always been, and
the poor were just as poor.

At last John could not stand it any longer. When two of his followers
visited him in jail, he sent them to ask Jesus who he really was.

"Ask him," said John, "'Are you or are you not the Messiah?'"

John's followers found Jesus busy healing the sick. They drew him
aside, and told him what John wanted to know.

"Are you the One who was to come," they asked, "or must we look for
somebody else?"

So even John the Baptist had his doubts! John, the man who had said
that he was not worthy to baptize Jesus; the same John who once
called Jesus the Lamb of God!

[Illustration]

Jesus pointed to the crowd of people whom he had been healing, and he
said to John's disciples:

"Go back and tell John what you have seen and heard here. Tell him I
am doing what I can. Tell him how the blind are getting back their
sight. Tell him too, how the lame are learning to walk, and how the
lepers are being cured. Tell him that I am preaching to the poor. Tell
him all about what I am doing, and let him decide for himself whether
or not I am the Messiah. And tell him thi