The Great Gospel of John
Volume 7
Jesus' Precepts and Deeds through His Three Years of Teaching
The Lord and his adversary. Gospel of John, Chapter 9
- Chapter 188 -
The Lord draws light upon the counter-argument of the Pharisees.
Thereupon the Pharisees said: "We can see indeed that You have a special power at Your disposal which is unknown until now, especially concerning the healing of different human diseases which probably no doctor was able to heal. It is also not unknown to us that it seems even to be possible for You to call young people who had recently died back to life or to waken them up. And further on, we also have heard that You are a very sober, decent Man, and so very much charitable, that for Your extraordinary healings You never have asked anything from anyone. Well, these are undeniably good and excellent characteristics.
2
But besides that, You claim of Yourself to be the Son of God and say that You are the promised Anointed of God, and moreover are disregarding the laws of Moses, and associate with gentiles, tax collectors and all kinds of sinners. Look, these are Your bad and very evil characteristics that can never be approved by the temple, because it keeps the laws of Moses very strictly.
3
Why do You exalt Yourself so much before men because of Your special qualities, while clearly You also are only a man? Who can have any respect for You when You also want us to believe that You are the Son of God and the promised Anointed of God, and are condemning the one who for different reasons cannot believe that? You said that You are the Truth, the Light and the Life, but how can You prove to us that all this is indeed so? Give us a convincing proof, then we will believe in You."
4
I said: "Now look at these stones which are lying all over the ground. I more easily can convince these stones that I am the One of who Moses and the prophets have prophesied, than you.
5
If I am performing signs which no one has ever done before Me, not even the greatest prophet, then this should surely open up your eyes, so that you would recognize the signs of this time for your salvation. But you are blind, deaf and heart-hardened, and therefore you see, hear and feel nothing. And that is why judgment over you lies in you, and together with that, the certain death of your souls.
6
Every year you are whitewashing the graves of the forefathers and the prophets, but what the whitewashed graves are, that you are also. Concerning the outside, you are indeed clothed with the law of Moses and Aaron on whose chairs you are seated, but inside, you are full of decay and disgusting stench.
7
You said that it is a bad and very evil characteristic of Mine to associate with gentiles, tax collectors and sinners, and that I am a violator of the Sabbath and do not keep the laws of Moses. But how do you keep his laws? I tell you that you do not keep the laws of Moses, not even in appearance. But you yourselves have established a great number of senseless and useless laws that you keep because it gives you material benefit, and with which you are oppressing and exploiting the poor people. Did Moses prescribe that also to you? But if, according to the law of Moses, it is allowed and even prescribed to feed the ass, the ox and the sheep also on the Sabbath, and give them to drink, and if a donkey has fallen into a ditch or a pit, to get him out, would it then not be better and more reasonable to help a person in need, even on a Sabbath? Oh you blind, deaf and fools of heart and mind! Is for God perhaps man of less value than an animal?!
8
Did Moses not give the following commandment: 'Honor your father and your mother, that you may life long and that it may go well with you on Earth'? Then why are you saying to the children: 'Come here and bring an offering to the temple, which will be more beneficial to you.' If this is your teaching, are you then acting according to the law of Moses?!
9
Did Moses not give to everyone solemnly the commandment not to oppress the widows and orphans? But what are you doing? You are promising help to the widows and orphans through long prayers, which are supposedly answered, but in the mean time, you are seizing their possessions. And when the widows and orphans are crying and they come to you, complaining that your prayers are not working at all, you send them away saying that they are sinners for who God will not even hear the strongest prayers. Do tell Me, did Moses ever prescribe such a way of doing? In everything, you are acting against the laws of Moses, and you say to Me that I am acting contrary to the laws of Moses.
10
Look, since you have gone astray so much from Moses, you are struck with blindness, and now you cannot see anymore the clearest day that is visible before your eyes. And this is your judgment, your death and your damnation. With your empty prayers, sold at high price, you were sucking out the mosquitoes, and for that you are devouring whole camels, and still you are saying that you are disciples of Moses. But how can you be disciples of Moses if you - as already said - are acting contrary to all the laws of Moses, worse than all the gentiles? Therefore, the light will also be taken away from you and given to the gentiles.
11
I have come into this world to lead you in the most kind and loving way on the right paths of life by teaching and deeds. But you are persecuting Me wherever I go or stand, and you try to catch and kill Me, while you are claiming that I am a deceiver of the people and an agitator. But I also have witnesses, and God Himself who is in Me, just as I am in Him, is My witness that you all are evil liars before God and all the people.
12
If the Romans, who are now the earthly rulers in the country of those who in fact should be the children of God, would have noticed in the least that I am an agitator, they would have brought Me to court a long time ago, because with their sharp eyes they can see and perceive all things that might somehow become a danger to their sovereignty. But because they have not discovered the least of all the things of which you are accusing Me of, they come to meet Me everywhere very friendly, and they seem to be men full of faith, love and respect regarding Me, My teaching and My deeds. And therefore they also will be accepted in My light and My life, but you will be cast into outer darkness, just like it is written, and there will be much wailing and gnashing of teeth."
13
When I had said this, also the more or less temperate Jews and Pharisees became angry and said: "Now look how absurd You are talking! Who is persecuting You and who tries to kill You!? If You are teaching something good and are doing good to the people, nobody will persecute You and also no one wants to kill You. But if You as a man, just as we also are only men, You portray Yourself as a Son of God, thus as the promised One, the Anointed of God - what according to the prophets means as much as Jehovah Himself - You Yourself must surely perceive that we have to regard this as the worst blasphemy until You have given us sufficient proof that You are truthfully the promised Anointed One of God, and that we can believe in You, or else You must, before us and the people withdraw the testimony about Yourself. But as long as You will do neither one nor the other, You will have to put up with being persecuted by the temple as a blasphemer. Are we not right when we are exposing this now in the presence of all the people?"
14
I said: "So, you have spoken now, and surely as someone who is completely blind, speaking about the colors of the light, and because you are judging and speaking in this way, you are therefore also proclaiming your own judgment. I will not judge you, but the word, which I have spoken already so often in vain to you, that will judge you.
15
If you have read the prophet Isaiah and have understood only a little of it, then you must know what it means: 'A virgin will bear us a Son and His name will be 'Emanuel', which means 'God with us'. Is this now, as well as all the other things, not precisely being fulfilled by Me? And when this is so, and also eternally will never be otherwise, would I then not be just like you a liar if I now because of your dark opinion would confess that I am not the One who I am, for God, for all Heavens and for all created beings here on Earth?
16
On the other hand, you want from Me such a proof that would convince you irrevocably and clear as sunlight that I am the promised Anointed One of God. Then do tell Me, how do I have to accomplish this with your total blindness?
17
If I am performing before your eyes works and deeds which before Me were never performed by anyone. If I am healing the paralyzed and lame, and they are then jumping around fully healed and strong like deer. And if further, I am healing people suffering from gout and leprosy, give to the deaf and dumb the full hearing and speech, am making the blind to see, am setting the possessed free of their terrible tormentors, even raising the dead by the might of My word, and by occasion am performing still many other deeds which are possible by no one else except by God, and moreover am preaching to the poor of spirit the gospel of the lively coming of the Kingdom of God on Earth, and when no one can accuse Me that I ever have committed a sin, and then you say that I am performing all this with the help of Beelzebub, the greatest of all devils, then I am asking you what other signs I still can perform before your eyes to make you believe that I am truthfully the Anointed One of God?
18
Even if I would perform a 1.000 and another 1.000 of other signs before you, then you would say again that I am doing all this with the help of the greatest of all devils. What use would it be of performing more signs with such a great blindness of yours? I am telling you: as one cannot give any idea of color to a blind person, so also one cannot give you any proof that I truthfully am the Anointed One of God.
19
And look, this evil night in your souls is then your ruin, your own judgment and your true death. For I alone am the Way, the Light, the Truth and eternal Life. Whoever believes in Me and lives and acts according to My word, receives from Me the spirit of eternal life, and I alone will call him to life on his youngest day in My Kingdom. However, he who runs away from Me, despises and persecutes Me, he runs away, despises and persecutes also his own life and cannot receive it anywhere else but simply and only from Me.
20
Consequently, he who does not want to accept from Me the eternal life of his soul, and resists against all that which comes from Me, will also stay dead eternally.
21
But whoever wants to have life must take it from Him who is Life Himself, thus the One who has life and who can give it to whomever He wills. However, he gives life only to those who strongly desire it.
22
My word and My teaching now are life, which at present is offered to all people. Thus, whoever - as already said - truthfully accepts My word and My teaching, accepts from Me also the life of the soul.
23
Now, if this is the case with eternal life like I have explained to you now and to all others, and it is not otherwise, from where then do you want to get the eternal life of your soul, on which you have set your hope so much?"