Brothers and sisters,
When Jesus healed people, he often asked them a question.
It was a very simple question:
“Do you believe that I can do this?”
At first, it sounds like Jesus is asking for agreement.
But he is really asking something deeper.
He is asking:
Can you imagine this happening?
Can you picture a different ending to your story?
Because if a person cannot even imagine being healed, then being healed has no place to land.
Faith, as Jesus teaches it, is not just believing words about God.
Faith is allowing your heart to picture something new that God can do.
This is why Jesus speaks so often about children.
He does not say, “Become smart like teachers.”
He does not say, “Become strong like leaders.”
He says:
“Unless you become like children, you cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven.”
Why children?
Because children still know how to imagine.
A child can take a stone and make it a living creature.
A child can take a toy and give it a voice.
A child can turn an empty box into a house, a ship, or a world.
The child is not pretending.
The child is breathing life into things.
Adults look at this and say, “It’s just imagination.”
But Jesus looks at it and says, “That is how the Kingdom works.”
We adults have learned something children have not yet learned.
We have learned what cannot happen.
We have learned what is “realistic.”
We have learned to close our hearts to what seems impossible.
Jesus came to reopen them.
When Jesus says, “Your faith has made you well,”
he does not mean, “You believed the right idea.”
He means, “You allowed a new reality to exist inside you.”
This is why even a small faith can do great things.
Because it is not about how strong your faith is.
It is about whether there is any opening at all.
A tiny crack is enough for light to enter.
This is also why Jesus did not grow out of being childlike.
He grew older, wiser, and stronger—but he never became self-reliant.
Even when he did miracles, he said,
“I do nothing on my own.”
He stayed like a child, fully dependent on God.
And this is the great surprise of the Kingdom:
The power is not in control.
The power is not in knowledge.
The power is not in being grown-up and capable.
The power is in trust.
Faith is not forcing God to act.
Faith is making room for God to act.
So when life feels heavy, and hope feels small,
Jesus is not asking you to try harder.
He is asking you to open your heart again.
To imagine that God can still move.
To allow a new ending to be possible.
If you feel weak, you are not far from the Kingdom.
If you feel unsure, you are not disqualified.
If you feel like a child again, unsure of yourself, needing help—
Jesus says:
That is exactly where faith begins.
Amen.