The Great Gospel of John
Volume 7

Jesus' Precepts and Deeds through His Three Years of Teaching

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From the Lord's years of youth

- Chapter 229 -

The festive dinner at the neighbor's house.

After that, I said: 'Now the 4 of you, take the saw and divide every tree in the length precisely into 4 pieces.'

Joses said: 'Only with our human strength it will take a long time.'

Upon this, I said: 'Believe and do as I have told you.'

Then the four of them took the saw, put it to the trunk, and they had barely pulled at it once when the trunk was completely sawed in two. And so it did not take long till the 10 big trees were sawed into 40 parts.

When this work was finished, I said: 'Now you do not have to do anything anymore except to take away with the axe the upper parts of the trunk, namely the crowns. Then I will work on the trunks in such a way that they will be fit for the construction.'

The four of them went to the spot, one of them took an axe and the three others cleared the pieces of branches away, which partially could be used as firewood and partially as nails and pegs for the construction. Now, when this work was ready after 1 hour, I took the axe again in My hand and made the 40 trunks rectangular, as they say: with one blow, and this in such a way that out of the thick parts of the stem of the root, 2 to 3 good beams were made. And the pieces of bark were removed from the lower and upper planks in such a way that they easily could be used for the floor of the barn, and the lesser strong planks for the roof of the barn.

When I had finished that - which all together did not take longer than 1 hour - we laid down the trunks and the bark in an orderly manner.

When the whole work was finished in a few hours, I said to the extremely surprised neighbor: 'What matters now is that you will take this wood home as soon as possible, because openly in the street I cannot help you in such a wonderful way. So also, the construction of your barn will - although speeded up - be done in a total natural way. For, as already said, in an open place, where we are watched by all the people who are passing by, I cannot and may not perform a miracle because of their unbelief and their hardness and wrongdoing. So take care that this wood will be as soon as possible on the right place that you surely will know, because you know indeed where you want the barn to be built. And because we are ready now with this work we also can go home now.'

The neighbor said: 'Yes, that we will do with the greatest joy in the heart, because a work has been finished about which I had the greatest worries. But this evening, all of you are my guests. A fat calf will be slaughtered and prepared immediately, and for that, every person in Joseph's house who is called a human being will be invited. Also my best wine will fill the cups of my guests and in Jehovah's name we will be joyful until the middle of the night.'

I said: 'That is a good idea of you, and it will happen according to an old custom for the workers. But your most loyal helper lies very sick in bed in your house and therefore it is somewhat improper to be joyful in the presence of a very sick person.

The neighbor said: 'This is true indeed. However, the bed of the sick person stands - surely this will not be unknown to You - not in the manor house but in the house that my father ordered to be built and which is very suitable for the personnel. And that is why we certainly can be very joyful in my big manor house. And so my words will remain. My will shall eternally never have the might which Yours has, but this time You must, my dear friend Jesus, also listen a little to my will.'

While we were already going home, I said: 'Yes, that I also will do, because nobody in the world has more respect for the free will of man as I do. And until now you did not experience that I ever was against the will of someone when it was for something good, but only against the foolishness of so many people. And therefore, I will, as already said, this time, just like always, listen to your good will. But in return you also should do something that I will ask you.

Look, until now you thought that your first helper was also the most loyal one. However, I say that your first helper, to whom you have entrusted everything, was actually the most unfaithful helper. In favor of his own moneybag he has taken in 1 year more than 100 hectoliter of wheat out of your big container and has sold it at night to Greeks who were passing by. And also as much barley, millet, lentils and also stone fruit. You noticed the loss in weight but you could not discover the thief. You thought that other people did it, and that is why you let us make a new strong container that could be well locked up. But your first helper did not like that at all, and look, he was always the very cunning and subtle cause that we were often delayed for weeks with the construction of the container, because he oftentimes gave us work that was far away to prevent that we could continue with the construction of the container. For he saw that the new container would not be beneficial for his thefts and tried therefore to keep the old one as long as possible. Yesterday midday he noticed however that the new container would probably be finished. He went to the other neighbor and set fire to his house to prevent us from finishing the container yesterday because during the night he still - this in favor of his own moneybag - wanted to sell from the old container a great quantity of grain that was ordered by the Greeks.

But by this, his evil measure became full and I said in Myself: evil man, until here and not further. And as someone who knew very well why he was so zealous in taking part to extinguish the fire, he received his merited reward. Now you know how things are with your most faithful helper. What are you going to do now?'

The neighbor who was completely taken aback, said: 'But friends, why did you keep silent to me about this for so long? If ever I could have suspected that, I would have delivered him to court and have indemnified myself with the money that he received for the grain.'

I said: 'That, you still can do now, and there will not be one penny that you will miss, because your helper is a miser and has safely kept all the received money on a pile in his closet. But now, the point is that you first will do My will if you want us to be your guests today. You will keep your helper. I will make him better but will also remind him his evil deeds and warn him vigorously. Then, with gladness he will give you your money back, up to the last cent, and only from then on you will have a faithful servant. Look, already for a long time I have foreseen that this would happen, and therefore I also have said nothing until I saw that the time had come when it would be meaningful for you and for him, and that will certainly be the case. Are you satisfied with this?'

The neighbor said: 'Who would not be satisfied with that? I thank You, my true Master, filled by God, and best, as well as righteous Judge. Therefore, a true festive dinner will take place at my place and everyone in my house will rejoice. I will remain silent like a grave about all this and never will anyone come to know what my helper has done to me.'

I said: 'Do that, then you will be happy here and eternally. For whoever can forgive his enemies with all his heart, God will also forgive all his sins, no matter how big they may be.

When we will visit your very sick helper at your home, nobody may be present except those who are here now. However, to prevent that someone would notice the healing of the helper, I will only heal him after 8 days. Put your servants at work for the festive dinner as soon as we arrive, then in the mean time we will handle and solve the matter with the helper.'

Now, when we arrived at the neighbor's place, he gave all the instructions. And also our people at home were informed immediately, and My mother Mary came soon with a few maidservants in order to participate also in the preparation of the festive dinner which was ready in a couple of hours.

During that time, we were dealing with the helper. He confessed everything, asked his lord and us to forgive him and gave him all the money from the closet, with the full assurance that he, when he would feel better again, would try to make everything well again by hard work. The neighbor forgave him everything and kept him in service as first helper.

Then we went to the festive dinner that was already prepared, and there was joy until the middle of the night.

Look, these were the deeds which I have performed in My twentieth year of life of which very few knew until now.

But now the evening is already coming, and soon there will be several disguised Pharisees who will come up here on the Mountain of Olives. They will be well served."

Footnotes