We had witnessed the exchange with Eben and his family.

How could he return home facing what he must? In the face of the terrible threat that hung like a sword over him, for so long, Matthew was struggling. Eben had not left in peace. In fact, he obviously didn't get the response from Jesus that he'd hoped for. For Matthew, this exchange and the effect it had on Eben was troubling.

"Lord," he asked of Jesus, "How is it that men deliberately set themselves to persecute and destroy one another? It is a troubling question. Eben had done nothing to cause this man to hurt him. Are some men really evil? Is there not some good in every human being?"

"In Eben's case, yes. There is a seed of hunger in the heart of his tormentor that will cause him to repent." Jesus continued, "But it is impossible that unprovoked offenses against good men shall ever stop--at least not in this age."

"Impossible?" exclaimed Matthew. "Are you saying that the heart of some men is so black that it is their nature to hurt others?"

"Precisely," Jesus responded. "But I can tell you this, Woe to that person through whom these offenses come. Assault against people less powerful or weaker will not be tolerated or excused!" The expression Jesus wore while saying this could have been chiseled from stone. The look of unmerciful rectitude was distinct and irrevocably final.

"Do not allow yourself to be bullied. If a powerful person seeks to hurt or destroy you, stand up to him. Make him aware that you know what he is doing. It is possible that he will see his offense and apologize. If he does that, forgive him. It could be that his obnoxious attitude is the consequence of the pain in his life and a part of his personality. He may be aware of that more than you. If this is the case, he may have to apologize many times. If he does that, forgive him many times"

"Lord, increase our faith!" declared Matthew. "Otherwise, we shall not have the strength to stand up for ourselves or to forgive that many times." Matthew was not one to mince words. Perhaps he asked this of Jesus--more like demanded--perhaps he asked because of all of us; he was the most pragmatic in his thinking. His logic was often cold and irrefutable. For such a man, faith is based more on reason than trust. Intellectual, erudite, almost always soft-spoken, Matthew could reduce one to an infantile fool with an absolute minimum of words. There is no question, however, that Matthew believed, it was just that some things seemed to fly in the face of his beliefs. He believed in God. He believed in Jesus and he believed that Jesus was in reality who he claimed to be. Yet the doubts that assailed him shook him. It made him question his beliefs and wonder if he had faith at all. Sensing this inadequacy and aware of its impropriety in the company he kept, he sought in Jesus a solution to the conflicts within him. "Increase my faith, Lord! Help me to square my faith with reality."

"Your faith, my dearest friend, is more real, more tangible and dimensional than what you perceive as reality." Jesus saw through the thin veneer of Matthew's intellectual bravado. He knew his friend was troubled and insecure in his ability to trust. "Matthew," Jesus continued, "don't allow the doers of evil to upset you. Do not concern yourself with the magnitude of your faith. If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, 'Be uprooted and planted in the sea,' and it will obey you." Jesus did that. He helped us to accept our limitations and encouraged us to see beyond them. And whenever he did that, it always--always engendered a deeper searching, a deeper questioning.

"A mustard seed?" The tax collector seemed to consider that. "A mustard seed and a mulberry tree. What have the two to do with each other?"

"He could as easily have said an elephant and a jackass!" spoke Peter crassly and nonsensically.

Matthew ignored the fisherman whom he sometimes considered intellectually truncated. He always chastised himself when such thoughts came to him. He genuinely loved this big, vulgar man, but everyone had the same problem with Peter. We all had to deal with his abruptness and ill-manners.

"The two are connected by belief," said Jesus, answering Matthew's question. "Apparent smallness impacts the integrity and stability of the larger reality. A superficial assessment of the mustard seed concludes that it would struggle to produce anything more than a scruffy weed. One must never overlook the potential, or the exponential power of insignificant things, or insignificant people." This was abstract language Matthew could understand and in which he took perverse delight. "Is it not true that weighty issues are often balanced on a small fulcrum?" continued Jesus. "Shift the fulcrum, even slightly, one way or another and what happens?"

"You are saying that we must never underestimate the power of the finite in its effect on the infinite?" It was a question to be taken as an elaboration on what Jesus meant. Matthew enjoyed being the philosopher.

Peter shook his head in confused disgust. "How do you answer a question with a question?" he demanded.

Jesus acknowledged Peter with a slight smile. Matthew's lips pursed, thoughtful, amused and satisfied. Neither attempted to answer.

A loud, throaty, abrasive grunt from the fisherman, tossing his arms in angry annoyance.