The Great Gospel of John
Volume 10
Jesus' Precepts and Deeds through His Three Years of Teaching
The Lord in Aphek
- Chapter 104 -
The disciple Andreas speaks about the works and the words of the Lord.
That made our gentile priests completely speechless from sheer amazement upon amazement, for only now they realized very clearly who the One was in Me who was standing before them.
2
Although our innkeeper, who was with us, saw the great healing sign that I performed the evening before and about which he was very amazed, it was only after the sign of this morning that he was convinced that I was not like a great prophet acting and working with the Spirit from God, but completely independently out of My own might and power. So he said to the captain who was also astonishingly watching with his companions: "High commander, this Man is not a human being that performs these unheard-of signs with the help of the one, only true God of the Jews, but in Him lives physically, visibly before us, the whole, eternal, endless fullness of the deity. For He said: 'I want it' and not: 'This is how God spoke to Me, and this or that has to happen and exist."
3
The captain said to the innkeeper: "Friend, I already knew that since Pella where He went to and where He also taught and performed great signs like here, but I never saw a sign like this one before, although a few that looked liked it and which loudly and clearly said to me: 'See, this is in a most wonderful way the Lord Himself.'
4
Although He says: 'I was sent by the Father into this world,' but He is the One who sent Himself by His love for us men into this world to be from now on not an invisible or incomprehensible God and Father for us, but well visible and understandable, so that in the future we can really believe that He is the only true God and that no other God or Lord exists or can exist apart from Him.
5
In Him lives the original existence of all existence, the original power of all powers, the original might of all mights, the clearest self-consciousness of all the consciousness of all the creatures of the whole eternal infinity that is filled with His works. And so, in Him lives also the highest and eternal unfathomable wisdom. And see, all this I do not only believe as usually a person believes a truth that he heard, because apart from the fact that he believes it, he still investigates it with his reason and wonders if that great truth will also be complete when it is fully connected with its separate parts and how one could be completely convinced about it. But I am completely and fully convinced of all those things, and I am prepared to give my life for this perfect and deep conviction."
6
The innkeeper said: "High commander, I still cannot be as deeply initiated as you are in this very holy mystery, but I believe now without doubt everything that you said now, and I hope that also I and my whole house will become completely convinced about it. Therefore, all honor and love is now to the one, visible God before us."
7
As the captain and the innkeeper spoke, so also spoke the priests and also the disciples among each other.
8
A priest went to a disciple and asked him if I often performed such signs.
9
The disciple said: "Go to all the places in the whole of Galilee, Judea, Samaria and still other regions in the south and north, and from the east to the west, and investigate there, then they will tell and show you what the Lord has done.
10
Many signs like this here were performed, and all the regions where we passed through with Him are full of His deeds and full of His honor, for no one is like Him, neither in Heaven nor on Earth. But He does not want us to speak much about the great signs that He did to confirm the truth of His teaching of which you already know the main points now, because the signs will become old and will perish in the future, as everything is perishable and changeable in this world, and when after many years they will talk about it, the people will not believe it and will not grasp it. But His words will not perish but will exist eternally as the truth of all truths in all the Heavens and on the whole Earth and in the big world of the spirits.
11
So He only wants that this word of life, which is brought from the Heavens to this world, be proclaimed to all men and that they would receive the living faith in Him by acting according to that word.
12
If the people will do that, they will be awakened and strengthened by Him in such a way that in His name they will perform signs themselves as we also have already performed a lot of signs in His name by laying our hands on all kinds of sick people by which they became completely healthy. This sign will become only useful to you if you will live and act according to His teaching.
13
Such sign can be considered as an exceptional great miracle if the people who personally witnessed it did not really know who the One is who performed the sign, but once the people have recognized who the One is who performed the sign, the sign as such is no more a miracle, for then they will realize that for God, the eternal almighty One, nothing is impossible.
14
What is this Earth except the word and the will of the Lord from His love and wisdom? What are the moon, the sun and all the numberless stars with everything they carry and contain, while they are - as we know for sure - also celestial bodies of which most of them that we can see with our eyes are incomparably much bigger than this Earth that carries and feeds us?
15
If it is possible for God the Lord of eternity to call to life such great works only by His will, be it in one moment or based on His love and wisdom during longer periods of time, then it will just be as easy for Him to cover a small spot of bare surface with fat soil by His word and His will, and to let grow such fruits according to its kind as the condition of the land requires according to the order that was established by Him.
16
You Romans, who are very intelligent and have much experience, can easily realize and understand this, and so you also will realize and understand that it are not the signs that the Lord performs now that are the main thing for us men, but His word and His teaching that shows us the way to eternal life. The word from God's mouth is therefore for us everything in all. Through that, we will eternally exist and live, and we will be there where He is, and we will perform works by His word and His will in us."
17
When the priest heard that from the disciple, he said: "Friend, you are already far advanced in the wisdom of God, and now I am not surprised that you, the old disciples of the Lord, were after this unheard-of great miracle much less surprised than we gentiles. But what you told me now I will remember as well as if the Lord Himself had told me, and I thank you for your friendship and your patience."
18
After that, the priest went back to his colleagues again and spoke with them about what he had heard from the disciple whose name is Andreas.