The Great Gospel of John
Volume 10
Jesus' Precepts and Deeds through His Three Years of Teaching
The Lord in Golan
- Chapter 74 -
The innkeeper and the captain are instructed.
Now the servants opened the door and brought the well-prepared foods on the table, and also more bread and wine, and so we partook of the meal. Also the innkeeper refreshed himself at our table. And his wife and his children, who were sitting at another table, ate and drank also with great joy and did not turn their eyes away from Me.
2
After the meal, the woman and the children came to Me to thank Me for the mercy I had shown to them.
3
But some disciples became somehow irritated because of the long-lasting gratitude of the woman and the children, and they made signs to indicate to them that they had shown enough gratitude.
4
I surely noticed this and said to the impatient disciples: "How often did I perform signs in your presence, and how often did you satiate yourselves at My table, but I only received little sincere thanks from you. Just let these children have their joy. Truly, the grateful babbling of a child is much more pleasing to Me than the many wise words from the mouth of a learned person, which is a delight for the reason, but which is not very profitable for the heart. Truly, I say to you: the one who will not profess Me before the world, I will also not profess before the Father in Heaven. So let these children have their joy."
5
When the disciples heard this rebuke from Me, they controlled themselves and let the children have their joy. And I praised the children, put My hands upon them and then let them go. Then the woman went with the children again to the kitchen where they had to prepare many things for the next morning.
6
I still taught the innkeeper till the middle of the night about several things, to which also the captain with his subordinates and Veronica listened with great attention.
7
The captain said: "Lord, I listened to You in Pella and Abila and I well remember all the things that I have heard and seen from You, but now I openly must confess that You spoke now very clearly to the innkeeper about things that were completely strange and new to me, and I cannot thank You enough for this, o You dear Lord and Master, because now I have a much deeper insight than before in the secrets of Your endless big creation, from the smallest to the unfathomable biggest."
8
I said: "Yes, My dear friend, I still could tell and reveal a lot of things, to you and to all these disciples of Mine, but you would not yet be able to bear and understand them. But when I will send you the eternal spirit of truth and will have penetrated into your souls you will be exalted into all wisdom.
9
That I could talk now to our innkeeper about so many things that were still strange and new to you is because this innkeeper is very well acquainted with the Scripture, but not so much in the pure understanding thereof. You also know many things from the Scripture of the Jews, but not as this innkeeper. That is why I could talk to him about things that were strange and new to you. If you will read, with the right attention, through the whole Scripture that reaches almost up to these days, you still will come across many things that will seem very new and strange to you. Then you will examine them with your reason but will not find and recognize the meaning of the hidden inner truth. But with the Spirit, which I also will send to you, you will recognize the inner meaning.
10
However, if you still want to have a deeper understanding about the things of the natural world, then visit your colleague in Gennesaret, then you will hear a lot of things from him that are still strange to you now. For I always teach the people according to their ability to absorb things and according to the things about which they have reflected already many times but to which they could not come to any truth despite all their efforts. And so this is why I always come as if with something new, but actually it is nothing strange or new but something that was already there but not yet recognized or understood by the people."
11
The captain and all the others who were with the captain understood this, as well as My disciples. It was only now that the disciples understood also deeper why I taught, besides the main teaching which was of course always the same, also different things to the people in different places, in such a way that they could understand it and which were more or less necessary for them.