The Great Gospel of John
Volume 1
Jesus' Precepts and Deeds through His Three Years of Teaching
On Mount Morgenkopf near Kis
- Chapter 177 -
The disciples puzzled at the Lord's apparent fear. The Lord's response. The hungry Judas and his counsellor Thomas. Peter's timely chiding of both. The Lord's praise. Rules of conduct.
When these had been dealt with, the apostles stepped over to Me, saying, "Lord, sometimes You are a little puzzling! Behold, we have already seen so many wondrous things about You and ourselves experienced so many, that we could no longer even for one moment doubt, even if we wanted to that You in the truest sense must be the Son of the living God; because the deeds which you accomplish have not heretofore been possible to man. Yet You nevertheless have certain moments when You seem in all earnest to fear men, notwithstanding that we convinced ourselves of countless hosts of angels from the heavens standing at Your service!
2
The Pharisees, of whom each one is more cowardly than the other, together with their fifty or so unarmed adherents, we ourselves could have fixed up properly, whilst one little almighty word from Yourself and the Pharisees' desire to persecute You should have left them forever! How You could therefore, with all Your Godly might take to your heels before these fellows is a puzzle to us which we cannot grasp with the best of will! - Could You not let us in on such intriguing behaviour therefore?!"
3
Said I, 'You still are fairly weak and blind, not to work this out at first glance! Behold, this took place so that you may become aware of the fulfillment of what the prophet Isaiah prophesied of Me when he spoke: (Matt. 12:17) 'Behold, My servant, Whom I have chosen, Mine elect, in Whom My soul delighteth; I will put My Spirit upon Him and He shall proclaim judgment to the heathens.' (Here judgment signifies Truth, Light and Life, for it is Truth that brings about righteous judgment) He shall not argue or cry and His crying shall not be heard in the streets (Matt. 12:19). A bruised reed He shall not break and the smoking flax shall He not quench until He executeth justice (the full Truth). And the heathens shall hope upon His Name'. [Matt. 12:20-21]
4
Behold, therein lies the reason why I did not want to, nor could, enter upon an argument and even less some scuffle with the Pharisees.
5
I by the way knew in advance that Kisjonah would not let them go unpunished! Their punishment now is tenfold of what it would have been in a possible scuffle with us, firstly because they were grievously clubbed by Kisjonah and his people and secondly because of all that they went through, they are not allowed to mention a syllable in Capernaum, which is what annoys and embarrasses them most of all.
6
Because, as threatened upon the mount, if any one comes out loud with even a syllable of it, he shall turn dumb, deaf and where necessary, blind on the spot. That also is the reason for their attempt on My life; for therewith they hoped to also eliminate what they believed to be the certain consequences of My threat upon the mount.
7
For they still take Me for a wicked magician, who indeed can perform while still alive, but not dead. The worst to them now is not to know where I have gone. They have indeed already sent emissaries eastwards to track Me down - having seen us flee east from the school; but they do not know that we should have suddenly turned west after an hour in the forest and then sail over the sea to the other side and hence their search shall be a futile one. Now, is your puzzle solved therewith?'
8
Say the twelve as well as many others travelling with Me, 'Yes, now everything is clear to us! Therefore it is actually much better than if we had laid hands on the wicked ones ourselves. Now everything is in the nicest order again.'
9
Says Judas somewhat laconically, 'Except for our stomachs! Nothing has gotten inside yet, considering it is evening, except a few grains of wheat. Hence it should be nice if something could also be done about our stomachs before we sail over the sea.'
10
Say I, 'Today it simply is going to be fasting, at least to the other shore; something is bound to turn up on the other side.'
11
Thomas however reproached him for such crudeness, saying, 'But how can you, after such exalted teaching on the Lord's part, come up with such low comments!? Do you have no sense of decency or shame in your body?! If you actually are of such wolf-like voracity, then take some provisions with you in future; but to make such remarks in the Lord's presence is too endlessly crude to lose more words on it!'
12
Says Judas, 'Yes, yes, I forgot we still have you in our midst! You are and stay my task-master and you seem to enjoy every chance to hit me. Very well, keep doing it if it makes you happy; it shall not bother me in future!'
13
Says Peter, 'That will be best; Thomas nevertheless is right, although he is a bit rough at times. But in my view we should always look up to the Lord; if He says something then it is good for it to have been said and we should all abide by it! But if the Lord is not saying anything, then it is even less fitting for us to say something! In my opinion we should always observe this in the Lord's presence, for peace and harmony to be among us!
14
My dear brother Thomas, if the hungry Judas will not keep silent before the Lord, he shall be even less afraid of you! If we do have to correct one another however, then let us avoid shrillness and harshness, so that those words of Isaiah which the Lord mentioned can apply also to us, His disciples!'
15
Say I, 'That is correct, My dear Simon Jona! So it ought to be among you and all mankind! Because he who is wounded and puts something rough over it shall not heal but only make it worse and bigger. But if he covers it with balm and pure oil, he shall also heal it soon and will thus repair the injury to the flesh.
16
But now My friend Kisjonah's boatmen already are steering towards the shore and he is himself among them; hence let us go down to the shore and be around when the skippers cast the mooring, that we may pull them ashore; for their wind is contrary and makes it hard for them. But the wind shall come in handy for our crossing and shall quickly set us on the other side. So let us hurry, that their efforts would not be futile!