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 168 -
Advices of the Lord for Agricola's return trip. To strengthen faith and trust by practice. To be mature for the reception of the gifts of grace.
Then came the Roman Agricola to Me and said: "Lord and Master, since everybody is going away from here, also we Romans are beginning to think about how and when we should set out on our return trip. However, because especially in Your presence I do not want to undertake and execute anything without Your advice, I ask You also in this matter for Your godly wise advice."
2
I said: "For you, friend, the time is not yet urgent, because you have received the instruction from the emperor that if necessary you can stay more than half year away from Rome. But now, here in the Jewish land, and also in the whole of Asia, which belongs to you Romans, there is nothing happening that is of any importance for the government. And because you can set out on your return trip whenever you like, I think that, if you should go for example only on the day after tomorrow, you will lose nothing by staying longer with Me. Only after 1 year there will be a mission to Britain that will be assigned to you by the emperor, at which occasion your oldest son, who carries your name, will accompany you, and there you will hold an important office for a longer time. Even if you go back to Rome a full month later, it will make no difference, because you will always be home soon enough.
3
But I also want to give you another advice about the manner by which you can come home with your big boats in the safest way. Look, very soon the storms of the equinox will start to appear, which, because they are coming from the west, will make it very difficult for the ships that are sailing from the east to the west. Therefore, at this time you will not so easily move forward across the great Mediterranean Sea. For this reason, go back home by land via Asia Minor and let your ships sail unto the first strait narrows. Until there, Cyrenius will surely arrange for a good and safe opportunity for the trip. You can easily cross the strait narrows by ship without any danger, and from there further along the shore of Greece to reach Dalmatia. From there you can easily cross the most narrow part of the Adriatic Sea by ship. Further on, you simply know the safe way to Rome. Only a couple of months later you will be able to order to bring the ships to a harbor south of Rome, which also will still happen soon enough. I have told you this only so that also physically you will not suffer any harm."
4
Agricola said: "I thank You for this good advice for my physical well-being, which I also will follow very precisely. But this time I cannot resist to make the remark that, despite the adverse wind, with the firm trust and faith in Your almighty help, for sure I also can reach the harbors of Rome across the Mediterranean Sea, because to You, o Lord, all things are possible anyway. Of this I am completely convinced. Why would this not be possible to You, or at least would not be to Your liking? However, I still will follow very strictly Your first advice and this question I have only asked out of pure curiosity."
5
I said: "You were completely right to ask Me this, because look, I only have given you the first advice to give you the opportunity to test yourself, how strong your faith and your trust in My love, wisdom, power and might are.
6
If your faith and your trust in Me are so strong that you, no matter in what kind of threatening danger you come into, would not doubt for one moment if I perhaps for some secret reason would not want to help you, then you can take the risk on the sea to sail also against the greatest storms. Because if you would command them in My name to lay down, then they also would stop at the moment on which you were giving them command. But friend, for this, your faith and your trust, despite your good will, is still a little too weak.
7
Of course, you do not doubt in the least that I am capable to do all this, but you would doubt if I will do every time what you are asking Me. And see, also this, in a certain sense, little doubt would always seize you with great fear and fright, although I would help you if you would ask Me. And therefore, for this time it is better if you follow My first advice.
8
Faith and trust must first also be practiced until they are completely capable of uniting the personal will with Mine in such a way that what is desired must happen without the least failure. Because only through the full living faith and thus also through a complete trust, can man move everywhere, entirely active in the spirit and in My name, and must happen what he wills.
9
Only in course of time you will receive the firmness of faith and trust, which will give your will its full power. Then you will be able to command the elements in My name with success. You will however come in some danger even on the way of your return trip, which I have advised you. But that will not harm you because I will protect you everywhere. However, within a year when you will travel to Spain, Gaul and Britain, you will already posses such a great measure of faith and willpower that no enemy will be able to resist. But now you do not possess it yet."
10
Then Agricola said again: "Lord and Master, the 70 laborers who you have sent into the world, surely have also not been so firm in their faith and trust, just like me and my companions, and still You have given them gifts, which give them really no room to desire anything more. It is true that the gifts that they have received are more necessary for their office than for us. Yet, the necessity thereof cannot be only the condition for receiving such wonderful gifts. In fact, I thought, according to what You have said, that one must be able to do this by his faith and trust. However, whether the 70 men did already reach that state is now of course a totally different question, which can only be answered completely truthfully and reliably by You."
11
I said: "These 70 were already very capable for this, because they are very simple people and are already since their youth firmly believing and trusting. By the different signs which were done in their presence, they did not ask how this and that was possible, but they believed that with Me nothing was impossible, and that everything that they wanted in My name must ultimately also be possible. And see, because of that faith and trust, solid as a rock, I also could easily and actually give them the gifts of which you have heard.
12
With them, faith came before knowing, but with you, knowledge came before faith, and that is for the reception of the true inner gifts a big difference. But this does not matter, because also you will - if in the course of time you will not become weak in faith - receive the same gifts. Agricola, did you understand Me?"
13
Agricola said: "Yes, I did understand You completely and I thank You out of the deepest of my heart for Your important lesson. I will try with great zeal in myself to accomplish it.
14
But Lord, I can see there on the way, which leads to the morning, a whole caravan coming this way. They probably will stay here for the night, and therefore, there will not be much space left for us in the inn. Are they Jews, Greeks or possibly even Persians?"
15
I said: "I'm not very much interested in these business people. But if you absolutely want to know what kind of caravan that is and where it comes from, I surely can tell you that. It is a caravan that comes from Damascus and the day after tomorrow they will continue further on from here to Sidon. They are transporting all kind of metallic equipment for the market. These people are Jews and Greeks. If ever you still want to buy something from them today, then you can do that, because tomorrow they are not allowed to open a market."
16
Agricola said: "That I will not do because my ships and my household at home are already richly provided with such things. But what will we do now? The sun stands already above the horizon."
17
I said: "Just let it stand there. Now, at the beginning of the evening we will rest for a while, because we have done enough today. After that, it will become apparent what the evening still has in store for us."