And Jesus said to him, “Go your way; your faith has made you well.” And immediately he recovered his sight and followed him on the way. Mark 10:52

Once Jesus arrives in Jerusalem for Passover, all his actions move toward the cross. He confronts the Pharisees, preaches in the temple and exhorts his disciples, especially on faith. But before theses events unfold, in both Mark 10 and Matthew 20, before Jesus enters Jerusalem two blind men and Bartimaeus. call out to Jesus with loud voices. “What do you want me to do for you”, Jesus asks Bartimaeus. He answers, “that I may receive my sight.” Jesus tells him, “Your faith has made you well. “ In both instances, the encounter ends beautifully with the men’s healing and following Jesus. By faith, blind eyes were opened and they saw Messiah.

This week the church continues to celebrate Christ’s last days. The faith of Christians in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior is visible to a world very much lost and spiritually dying. Along with much else that is good and true and morally right, faith is under attack. Ask the man on the street what he believes in, what his faith is in and I’d surmise there might be one of these responses: (a) Faith? What’s that? (b) I’ve lost faith in everything. (b) In myself.

Faith in God, eternity, people, and history are replaced by cynicism and mistrust. Worse, like truth, faith is mocked as irrelevant or whatever the cultural watch dogs demean it to be. Believers, that is people of faith , are ridiculed and increasingly persecuted. It is a dangerous time to stand up for faith in the Lord Jesus.

How then should Christians witness our faith in Jesus’ salvation and resurrection? What can one say to the person who argues that faith is pointless, a delusional construct. Or for the realist who demands tangible proof? Is there anything to offer the person who lost his faith in God? Of course there is! Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. Share the parable of the fig tree!

Read Mark 11 and Matthew 21. In both accounts as Jesus heads toward the temple, he is hungry and sees a fig tree. Despite it being the season for fruit on the tree, it bears only leaves. Jesus curses the barren tree which immediately withers. Astonished, the disciples want to know what happened. Jesus uses the incident to teach about the power of faith to move mountains. The disciples would need “fig tree” faith to sustain them in the days to comeBe assured, Jesus tells them,

So Jesus answered and said to them, ‘Have faith in God.’ Mark 11:22
“if you have faith and do not doubt, not only will you do what was done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be lifted up and thrown into the sea,’ it will happen.…Matthew 21:20

Faith in God is inseparable from Jesus, especially in the last week of His life. He believes the Father, hears the Father and does only what the Father instructs him – even to his own death. Jesus has the hopeful assurance, substance and foundation of the things which are not seen – in his Abba Father. He has the conviction of things not seen, as Paul describes in Hebrew 11:1 Faith in God the Father takes Christ to His death and resurrects Him from the grave.

Is anyone still blind? In faith? In Jesus? The resurrection power of Christianity’s Holy Week is still, always, unendingly available to people of faith through Holy Spirit of Christ abiding in us. Faith opens our eyes to see Him just as the blind men did.

Our testimony? A week in which unshakeable faith in Jesus can miraculously proclaim, “Go your way. Your faith has made you well.”