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 147 -
The promise of the Pharisees.
The Egyptian however asked them: "Well, how do you like for example the signs that I have performed now?"
2
No one of them dared to answer this man of wonders anymore, because being aware of their wickedness, they had a too great fright and fear for him.
3
And he said: "O, miserable hypocrites! For me you are now afraid because you have seen this from me and have experienced it, but you are trying to catch and to kill Him by whose almighty will that I know, I have done all this. O, you miserable blind fools! Who is then more important, the Lord or the helper, the Master or the weak disciple? If you are already trembling so much for me, then how will you stand seeing His face?"
4
With a small voice the Pharisees said: "Yes, yes, extraordinary mighty man, you are completely right, but finally we cannot help it when the temple turns so hostile against the prophet from Galilee. The temple with its institutions is, seen from a worldly point of view, still always a mighty stream. We are in the middle of that stream and we can impossibly swim against it. But if the mighty prophet cannot or does not want to change the temple, then what shall we as powerless members do against it? Yes, if we would possess your incomprehensible power, then soon we would have brought the counsel of the high priest to other ideas. But with words only, that is impossible. The most we can do the next time is to abstain from voting against the great prophet. We can also leave the temple. That means we can withdraw with our means into a more private life. But we cannot change the temple, what you, with your really great wisdom must very well be able to understand. But you, and still more the great prophet, could change the temple and its servants with these signs. However, we alone cannot do that."
5
The Egyptian said: "What you have now brought forward as an excuse, I know all too well, but I also know that it was precisely you two who are and were strictly on the side of your high priest, and that was actually forming the center of the most fierce hostility against the greatest prophet that this Earth had ever carried, and that is evil and wicked of you.
6
But I say to you, according to God's eternal wisdom in me: the great Master, who is filled with God's Spirit and of all His power and might, does not want to give the people only signs, but rather by His pure wise teaching He wants to bring them on the way of the light and of life. Because even if signs are forcing the people to believe His word, they give nobody an inner free, living conviction of the great truth. However, as long as man does not have this truth, which he can acquire by living strictly according to the teaching, he is still, as far as his soul is concerned, to be considered dead. Because the pure, blind and imposed faith does not give man an inner true life, but only the faith that is full of light, and which became alive by acting according to it. And that can never be attained by outer miracles, but only by the living word of the eternal truth out of God by the one who accepts it as truth and lives according to it.
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The great Master from Galilee knows and perceives best what can give His people true salvation. That is why, He Himself performs only few miracles outwardly, but He teaches men only fully in truth the will of God and awakens those in order to act according to it. He only performs signs when He is sure that it cannot harm anyone's soul.
8
For this reason He also does not want to use force against the temple, and leaves it free to act. But if the temple will continue like this, it will, together with all its followers be left to the judgment, and will perish. Do remember this well and bind it in your ears. Because God, who is, was and forever will be, will not be mocked, because He Himself has destined man for a true, eternal happiness.
9
If with man it would only be something unimportant, God would first of all not have created him remarkably wise and ingenious, so that he - already what his body is concerned - is the greatest piece of art in the whole material creation. And secondly, He would not have given him a soul who can in everything even become equal to Him, the Creator, if only he would take it seriously. And thirdly, He Himself would not have spoken so often to man, teaching him about His will, what purpose He has with them and what they can achieve.
10
If you think about this now properly, and you look at your totally wrong way of life, then you certainly must see how much you always have acted contrary to God's will in word and deed. And then you also must see that you, precisely because you always went against the will of God, now also hate the great Master from Galilee and persecute Him. This shows you all too clearly that all your works are going against the will of God and thus are completely evil. Did you understand me well?"
11
The Pharisees said: "O yes, we have understood you well and you have also spoken the complete truth, but unfortunately we also can see that we cannot make a great change in the temple, even by telling the counsel exactly everything what we have experienced here. Besides, we will not keep silent before the high counsel, and will openly tell them our objections. We ourselves will no more be the adversary of the great Man from Galilee, because thanks to you we can see now what man can achieve if he knows the ways and possesses a complete earnest will. If you as a human being can already achieve that much, then why should the Man from Galilee not have achieved even more? For ourselves, with the Scripture, we will compare and examine His teaching, of which we already know a lot, because He already has spoken many times in the temple. And then we will make it the guiding principle of our own lives. Is that good?"
12
Then Raphael came forward and said: "Then you will have to make a lot of things good for all the evil you have caused to mankind. Or else, it is not possible to receive forgiveness for your sins. Because if men do not forgive you what you owe to them, then God can also not forgive you."
13
One Pharisee said: "What is then this very evil that we have caused mankind? We kept very strictly the laws of the temple, but further, we do not know what evil we have done to mankind."
14
Raphael said: "Just a moment, the men of Nicodemus are bringing something to eat. When we have finished with that, I will give you a few proofs, that will show you how you have treated poor mankind. But now, have patience."
15
The Pharisee said: "We will surely wait, but if we will eat something, this I doubt very much, because what you have told us, is not so comforting and encouraging. Everything that the Egyptian has told us and the things he has done, did not touch us so much as what you have told us.
16
It is certainly true that many people were tormented, for which we had to give command, because we belong to the highest rulers of the temple, but the laws that we did uphold and that we had to carry out, existed already a long time before we were there. We really cannot help it when there are such laws with us. If we then have harmed the people through that which is lawful - what indeed did not happen that seldom - then it is very much the question if we also have to repair the damage."
17
Raphael said: "Be a little more patient until we have taken the bread, the wine and the fish, then I will answer you."
18
Then the baskets with bread, wine and fish were put down before the different groups of guests. All of them were grabbing for it.
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Only the 4 temple servants did not want to partake of it, despite of the fact that many were insisting. Because one of them said: "When a Jew is a sinner then he must fast, pray, do penance in sack and ashes and not eat and drink like the other honest men who are pure and righteous before God and all men. We shall not eat and drink until we know how and in what way we became sinners."