The Great Gospel of John
Volume 3
Jesus' Precepts and Deeds through His Three Years of Teaching
Jesus near Caesarea Philippi
- Chapter 185 -
On the nimbus.
I had said this out loud so that also the guests at the other tables heard it, and our Stahar, the governor of Caesarea Philippi, rose solemnly from his seat, came up to Me and said, "Lord! I heard everything that was said and judged at this most illustrious table, many miraculous, eminent, deeply wise, fully true and in every respect undeniable things; everywhere Your purest divinity shone like a sun on the brightest midday, and all the angels of heaven could not claim otherwise.
2
But nonetheless I always missed something; and that is the certain divinely eminent nimbus which nowadays one sees only too clearly in the temple and particularly in their holy of holies, as soon as one only sets foot in that place!
3
The certain holy mysterious quietness, the sacred aroma of sacrifices - here quite absent - constantly make a thoroughly earth-shattering effect on the people, and certainly to their pious people! What an unspeakable gap between God and man!
4
How low does a man feel in comparison with the fearfully eternal, divine majesty, yes, how does he sink back to nothing and feels in his full nothingness the great divine All-in-all and his purest nothingness, which is highly healing for the humility of the human heart which likes to puff itself up in pride!
5
In a nutshell, in my unmeasured opinion man should not feel so at home in the presence of his God, his Creator, as if he was sitting with a bowl of lentils and was consuming them quite comfortably!
6
Thus there is no lofty nimbus here! We are sitting as sheer friends and even brothers among one another, and whoever says something speaks enormously truly and wisely, but also quite without the certain ancient, very prophetic nimbus; once he has said everything, he is finished - but unfortunately we are almost as well finished with the particular most high respect , which man should constantly have before God!
7
We are feeling so comfortable in Your presence, and even the magnificently uplifting Sabbath in the heart of a person, otherwise spent in respectful rest, makes no better impression on our mood than any other very usual workday, and now something is supposed to happen which will certainly cheer us as ordinarily on the New Moon Sabbath as only something quite usual, most commonplace can do!
8
Could Your omnipotence not be used so that at least the remaining two hours of this Sabbath day rest will not be made too similar to a working day and destroy every divine nimbus?"
9
I say, "You can't teach an old dog new tricks, and have you never heard people say: A dog always returns to what he has thrown up, and the pigs always return to the puddles in which they have made themselves unclean!?
10
What's all this about your empty and fully godless, eminently scenting temple nimbus?! Whose eyes of the soul have ever been opened and who has been taught the ways of life?!
11
Did I create man for the nimbus or only for the all-rejoicing love?!
12
Tyrants and violent oppressors of their fellow men tend to surround themselves with your nimbus, throw sand in the eyes of all the seeing people and choke the poor and the weak, simply to raise your eminent aura of fear around them - and you call that good and even serviceable for the human soul?! Oh you old blind fool!
13
What good would I be to you then if I was an all-consuming fire among you?! Would that ever increase your love and your trust to Me?! Or is it possible to love someone who instantly threatens to strangle you as the most powerful with eyes glowing in anger, if you only make the slightest mistake?!
14
Do you and your dubious temple know better than I why God created the people and how God and man behave mutually?!
15
What is that then that you call a nimbus? Look, it is the actual, very worst and most poisonous smell from the very lowest hell with which Satan surrounds his similar, faithful servants so that they stand in a terrible reputation in order to thereby lead many human souls into the kingdom of Satan with little effort!
16
But it is written that everything which appears before the world surrounded by this nimbus is an abomination before God!
17
Have you ever seen two people who truly love one another act arrogantly as if surrounded by a nimbus and then hardly deign to give the other a friendly look and even less a tender word?!
18
Or have you then seen a truly tender and passionate young bride meet her groom with the greatest possible nimbus of arrogance and the groom meets her with an even greater one?! Do you really think that that can become a married couple? Yes, it can certainly become one according to the power of the Law for this world, but never for heaven! For where there is no love, there is also no heaven!
19
I tell you: That is the curse of hell and no light, no path, no truth, no love and therefore also no free life, but instead only an eternal judgment which suppresses those who cursed themselves and holds them in the tightest check!
20
It actually seems less divine and worthy of God here to you because you do not actually get to taste anything of hell and of its despicableness!
21
Look what the blind humanity can achieve! They have a point of belief that they are doing God a just and pleasing service with hell! They could not have gone any further in their blindness, stupidity and evilness!
22
If it seems to you to be so edifying and worthy of God in hell, then go there again and serve God there with your eminent education and be happy in your nimbus!"
23
At these words Stahar falls on his knees before Me and begs Me for forgiveness, saying, "Lord, forgive me, a foolish old, blind idiot, and I thank You for this justified correction; only now am I fully healed!
24
You see, I was thus brought up and lulled into thinking this way, and the impressions in the cradle are very hard to be removed from the mind! But now it is as if a new sun has risen in me, and I now see the whole despicableness and the total perversion of the temple service; now come what may, I will remain as firm as a granite cliff in the sea in this new teaching which is most worthy of God from Your holy mouth."
25
I say, "Stand up, brother! But go and tell your brothers what you have heard; for they also are stuck in their foolish nimbus to over their heads! Explain to them what the nimbus is and explain to them who I am, also without such a nimbus, and what I really want!"
26
After these words Stahar rises, bows deeply before Me, hurries to his brothers and begins to talk very energetically, and it soon becomes very loud at that table at which it was previously very quiet, and Stahar has a job with his brothers who are somewhat animated by wine.
27
But Floran, his spokesman, supports him and so things are soon evened out.
28
Philopold however says to Cyrenius, "Great master! It is extremely strange how some people cannot see the wood for the trees!"
29
Cyrenius says, "Habit is a powerful support for all foolishness. In Europe there is a nation where everything is decided with beating and scourge: for every little crime there is the stick, the scourge or a firm whip in the most painful fashion. My brother Caesar Augustus wanted to do away with it; he placed educators there who actively worked against it, and even had men and women brought to Rome so that they could learn the blessing of humaneness; and look, these people became very homesick for their own land where they certainly in every month were beaten black and blue!
30
But once a material hell becomes such a habit for a man that he longs for it when he does not find any more in a humanitarian people, how much more then the spiritual hell which gives man so many mundane advantages!
31
I however was not surprised by Stahar's comment. This person had been very well physically for many years in his nimbus, and now wanted to say a few words about it, in order to always be in favor. But now it is good so, and let his nimbus rest!"