"I tell you, I have not found among the Jewish 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.