The Great Gospel of John
Volume 7
Jesus' Precepts and Deeds through His Three Years of Teaching
The Lord on the Mount of Olives. (cont.) Gospel of John, Chapter 8
- Chapter 146 -
The punishment of the rich Barabe.
The one Pharisee said: "How can you say this about us with such a great certainty? Why could we not - even if we are such great sinners - be able to improve our lives? Show us only the full truth and let us see that the prophet from Galilee is really the salvation of the Jews, then we will believe in Him."
2
Pointing to the 12 eagles the Egyptian said: "Look there. Those wild birds of prey will believe sooner in Him than you. Did He not teach you already many times in the temple, and did He not work the greatest signs in your presence? Then why did you not believe Him? The more He was teaching and the greater the signs that He performed, the more you became angry and revengeful. If this is then undoubtedly the case with you, then how can you say that you are only doing this in order to come to the full truth and to be sure that He is the Savior of Israel, in whom you would believe? But I am asking you: who in the world would be better qualified to make Him known than He Himself? If you do not believe Him, then who will you believe and for whom do you want to improve your life then?"
3
The Pharisee said: "Many times it is easier to believe someone who testifies about a prophet than the prophet himself."
4
The Egyptian said: "You also did not lack any witnesses, because in the first place all the prophets since Moses testified for Him, and furthermore, during this time you had enough living witnesses. Then why did you not believe them? They were proclaiming Him to you and you killed them with stones, and the last one you cut off the head of his body. And you are saying: 'We rather want to believe a witness than the prophet himself'. When the Master cannot achieve anything, then what can His weak witnesses do?
5
Yes, yes, you are now frightened to death for me because I, as a total stranger, have shown you what a perfect man can do, but for the first and most important Man, who is a God, you do not fear because until now in His immense love, patience and mercy He treated you as His most important children. But I tell you, that I as a complete man, compared to Him, I am even less than the total nothing, because only He is the Lord of my and your life and salvation. That is and stays an eternal truth.
6
Your rage and anger against Him will never cease. Look here at my animals. Every time that I am speaking about Him, they are bowing their heads completely unto the ground, and in your chest grows by that the ineradicable resentment. Those animals are putting your wisdom and dignity to shame, but you are sinking still deeper into the pool of your ruin. And still you are saying that you can improve your life if only you knew the truth. How can a blind man see the light and understand if there is no light in him - and there also cannot be any - because he is completely blind? So also, you cannot understand a truth because there has never been any truth in all of you.
7
He who wants to grasp and understand the truth must first have come forth of the truth. But already since your ancestors, you were children of the lie. How do you think now to be able to understand at once the greatest and most holy of all truths? In short, you will stay in your old sins and you also will receive the reward for your works."
8
Then the giant eagles were making suspicious movements around the Pharisees, who therefore became very frightened and were once more asking the Egyptian to take care, so that the animals would not hurt them.
9
The Egyptian said: "Really, your miserable flesh would be too bad for these animals. But look, there below, a flock of sheep is pasturing at the foot of this hill. They are the possession of a certain Barabe, an extremely rich citizen of Jerusalem, who there in the already decayed sheepfold had completely ruined a very poor family that previously was in his service. He surely gave them permission to live into that miserable hut for a short time, but because their sickness lasted too long, and because the last time things became so bad, that he hardly could accept that there ever would come an end to it. So the situation took too long and it became too troublesome for him. As an excuse that the hut had to be transformed and renovated because of his expanding flocks, he gave order to the poor people, who were more dead than alive, to move out, even the same day, of this already miserable hut. O what a noble and merciful son of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
10
But the all-knowing and by you so hated prophet from Galilee went to this named terribly poor and totally deserted family, of which the children were begging naked for bread and received nothing, although this place is the supplying center of practically the whole of Jerusalem. And by His almighty will He gave them back their health. After that, He gave them bread, wine and decent good clothing, and by means of those eminent Romans He delivered them from this miserable dwelling place.
11
There, in the midst of the mentioned eminent Romans, are standing the parents and their poor children, and they are being well taken care of. And look, all that is the work of your hated prophet.
12
But you, who are claiming to be priests of God, you have nothing better to do than to deliberate day and night in your temple that has become a robber's den and a murderous pit, to know how you can kill and destroy the greatest benefactor of the poor people.
13
Now, say for yourselves: with what kind of savage animals from the forest and the desert are you in fact to be likened? Really, citizen Barabe is miserable and bad, but you are even a 1,000 times worse. Because Barabe will even be grateful to the great prophet that this hut has been evacuated. But in you the secret anger is growing even more, because the great prophet is so endlessly superior to your insignificant power, might and mercy. And therefore, Barabe will also be punished more mildly for his great injustice.
14
Look at these giant eagles. They must - because, as I have said that you are too miserable and bad to serve them as food - fill their stomach with the flock of that o so good-hearted Barabe. And in order to help them to accomplish this task, they will be helped by equally as much wolves and bears. I want it, and so it will be."
15
As soon as the Egyptian had said that, the giant eagles suddenly lift up and zoomed down to the pasturing sheep, and each bird lifted up one in his claws and flew up into the mountains. At the same time, down in the fields, one could also see a few wolves and bears, by which the whole big flock was completely killed and eagerly devoured, while in this situation the shepherds were of course fleeing away as fast as they could.
16
The 4 temple servants were looking down into the valley, totally astounded, and not one of them dared to utter even one word about it.