“Your sources are good, Matthias. I was standing next to him when that woman came forward, and those were his exact words to her.”

“Do you recall the two blind men?”

“I do. They came to Jesus, in Capernaum, crying, ‘Son of David, have mercy on us.’ When they asked to be cured, he said, ‘Do you believe I am able to do this?’ They answered that they did believe, and he touched their eyes, saying, ‘According to your faith, be it unto you,’ and their eyes were opened.”

“Those who believed—those who had faith that he could perform miracles—were cured of their infirmities, and those who did not believe were not cured. Is that a reasonable conclusion?”

Peter objected. “That is not reasonable. There was far more to his works than what you are ascribing to them. You do not understand—”

“Peter, Peter, be logical. Certainly you can separate truth from the passion of hysteria after all these years. I have been told that Jesus never performed a miracle in his home village of Nazareth. Why? Because the people there knew him as a carpenter—and carpenters, no matter how skilled, cannot perform miracles. His own townspeople did not believe in his power; therefore he could perform no mighty works for them! Do you recall another incident, one involving a fig tree in Bethany?”

His eyes grew large. “How could you know of that? Who are you, Matthias?”

“Tell me about the fig tree.”

“Jesus was hungry and went out to a fig tree in a meadow. It had no fruit because it was not the season, and so he cursed it and it withered away. Then he turned to us who were with him and said, ‘Verily, I say unto you, if you have faith and doubt not, you shall not only do this which is done to the fig tree, but also, if you shall say to this mountain, remove yourself and be cast into the sea, it shall be done. And all things, whatsoever you shall ask in prayer, believing, you shall receive.’ ”

I repeated his last words slowly. “ ‘Believing, you shall receive’?”

“That is what he said.”

“On one occasion did you and some of the other apostles try to cure a lunatic youth and fail?”

“Yes,” he murmured. “And when we were unable to do any good, the boy’s father went to Jesus.”

“What did Jesus do?”

“He said, ‘O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I suffer you? Bring the boy to me.’ ”

“Jesuus called all of you ‘faithless’?”

“To our shame.”

“Then what did he do?”