The Great Gospel of John
Volume 3
Jesus' Precepts and Deeds through His Three Years of Teaching
Jesus near Caesarea Philippi
- Chapter 158 -
On humility and arrogance.
Floran says, "Why not Stahar, our leader, and my other brothers then? Are they any less people than I am? Go there alone! If my brothers are not worthy to be introduced to the Lord of eternity, then I am even less worthy because as far as I know they are better than I!
2
Remember this, angel - if you can remember anything - that I am an enemy of every preference towards my person! Yes, I want to rejoice in the preference of my brothers, but I want to be always the least among them! I truly love the people; but what one loves, one gives willingly every preference and advantage and is nonetheless quite blissful! Ask all my brothers whether I have ever thought or acted differently! And I should now let myself be chosen first in the faces of my brothers for the first time in my life?! No and eternally no! A thousand legions of such powerful spirits as you, and ten all-powerful Jehovahs will never change my mind as long as my thoughts and will are left free!
3
You see, my all-powerful friend that is a rule which no enticing, even by a thousand open heavens, and no fear of just as many open hells will make me break!
4
Now go alone to the Lord! I will never more follow with a free will! And I am amazed that you as an all-knowing spirit have not seen through my diamond-solid mindset beforehand when you made this suggestion! I stick firmly to my statement! You can carry my body there, it is true, since you possess power and strength to the extreme; but you will never change my heart unless - it is possible for you to take my mind and set another one in instead! But then you have not changed my present self at all, but instead you have only destroyed it and placed another in this fragile machine instead!"
5
The angel says with a friendly expression, "But dear friend and brother, who told you then that I prefer you at all by bringing you to the Lord first as the most mature according to His will? Have you ever seen all the fruit on a tree becoming ripe at the same time, and who would ever reasonably consider preferring a pear which has ripened first simply because it became ripe first?! One enjoys it earlier than those that ripen later - but with us in heaven there is no talk of preferring it more than the later ones! Then Moses must also be more preferable to the Lord Himself now because he was called almost a thousand years before Him! Oh, that gives you no advantage - on the contrary! Who is to be preferred here: he who breaks the way, or the army leader and his entourage who stepped on this path and led his army on further?
6
You see, friend, you have not worked that out too well! I truly know the quite rigid sense of your heart, but I only put it to an external test, but also found in the background of your otherwise most sensible heart a hidden peck of arrogance which had made the correct humility into a preference of your person above the others, so that in a certain way you might seem unique and unsurpassable and no-one equals you in this sphere! And in the end this is the question: who is the more arrogant of the two: he who wants to be the last and lowest of all people or the first and highest!
7
Don't you know the Greek story of King Alexander of Macedonia and the certain most unsightly man Diogenes? You see, for years he lived in a barrel on a sandy bank which he had made his home!
8
One day the great hero and king visited this eccentric, who certainly was the only one of his kind. Alexander placed himself before the barrel; he liked this stoic and he asked him: What do you want me to do for you? And Diogenes answered imploringly: That you move away from the side on which the benevolent rays of the sun warm me!
9
The great hero however liked this stoic indifference; but nonetheless he said: If I was not already Alexander I would prefer to be Diogenes!
10
But what was Alexander saying with this? You see, this is the meaning: The whole world pays me homage; but what a battle has it cost me! This man enjoys an almost all-surpassing view of the world and makes himself immortal - and all this immortal reputation cost him only an old barrel!
11
Don't you think that there was no particular difference between the arrogance of Alexander and of Diogenes?! On the contrary Diogenes was in his way even more arrogant than Alexander!
12
It is quite right to want to be the last out of true love and humility; but correct love and humility does not exclude the obedience to the all-mighty Lord of heaven and Earth. Thus if you have the right mind, do only what the Lord wants and everything will then be correct; for the Lord knows best why He wants something!"
13
Floran finally says, "Yes, I will follow you now because you have convinced me in a friendly way that I was clearly incorrect in my mind." And Floran followed the angel, who brought him to Me.