The Great Gospel of John
Volume 3
Jesus' Precepts and Deeds through His Three Years of Teaching
Jesus near Caesarea Philippi
- Chapter 208 -
The Persians' reverence before the holiness of the Lord.
At these words of Mine the Persians become very contemplative, and Jurah says to his companions, while I turned to the three who had been risen from the dead and had them physically looked after, "Friends! He gives a very strange speech which sounds even more wonderful than his deeds which can be seen, although they are of a type about which we have never seen anything similar. But one miracle always looks like another, and the inexperienced person in this area is blind and does not look where he should see the best and brightest! The healing of our jeweller is certainly extremely surprising, but perhaps it is not impossible that it can be performed in a natural way. We certainly do not know how such a thing would be possible, but we know from experience how the Indians heal the bite of the most poisonous snake without herbs and juice and oil. He has healed these two without herbs, juice and oil too, how, we do not know and neither can we know!
2
The three who were drowned have truly been brought back to life again, but it still leaves much to be proved whether they were really completely dead, or whether they were not pretending to be drowned! In brief, the deeds do not prove everything by any means! But his powerful word proves more in my opinion than both the miracles, for no mortal tongue speaks so infinitely wisely and eternally true! Just think, Shabbi, about the explanation of the only true worship of God, and you will see what an all-encompassing wisdom lays in it, that proves to me something enormous, yes, even something that I hardly dare to say!"
3
Quite surprised, Shabbi asks, "Well, what is it then that you hardly dare to say?"
4
Jurah says, "Just deliberate it yourself, and you can name me anything if you do not soon come to the same conclusion!" Here Shabbi begins to think deeply and nonetheless does not know very well what he should actually make of the question of Jurah.
5
After a while Shabbi says to Jurah, "I would like to say something to you and I believe that a very unusual thing will come to light, but it is and remains very daring! Just think, if now almost without a doubt this is the Messiah, then he is not only the very simple person according to Isaiah who has spoken to us here, but instead also God according to His soul, the Only True One of eternity! But if it is so, what then with us? How will we weak people stand before Him, the Almightiest? What will we do next, where will we go?"
6
Jurah says, "Yes, that is my worry too and now my greatest concern! I suspect that something will come to the brightest light here, only I do not understand the high heathen; for they seem to hang on his every word as on their own lives!"
7
Shabbi says, "Did you hear what is written in Isaiah: "And He will take away the cloak that covers the gentiles!? That means as much as: He has already revealed himself to these first heathens! They already know what He is and are therefore disposed towards him with reverence. They will soon have the fullest conviction that He, as the Almighty of eternity, can scatter them for eternity with one breath, like loose chaff, and therefore they have the most endless respect for Him, and as it seems to me, they have already been won over by Him and the good Jews are free! That is my opinion!
8
And then later it also says in the prophet: "And the Lord will wipe tears away from all faces and will remove the disgrace of His people from all the Earth!? That means: certainly us too, who are in Persia; only we will now obviously not be the first for whom He will do this, but nonetheless our turn will come, and this seems to be the moment in which He has thought about the Jews in other lands. He made a start with us to dry our tears and to remove our disgrace! As far as our worldly situation is concerned we are exceptionally in such a good situation that we do not have any cause to cry tears of need in foreign lands, and we suffer no disgrace; but thousands of our brothers and sisters live there who suffer great need nonetheless. They are often cruelly despised by the heathens and looked down on by everyone; but we are well in the position to help them all and to dry their tears in His name and from their faces and to remove their long-lasting disgrace! Therefore the Lord seems to us, who now obviously is here, to have saved on this modest mountain, in order to use us as His tools among those who live in foreign lands. That is my opinion in all things. And now speak, my friend!"
9
Jurah says, "Yes, you have hit the nail on the head in my opinion! Things will behave exactly in that way! But since now quite certainly everything must behave this way, the great and significant question comes again: How will we draw near to Him, since we are stuck in over our heads in sin? And yet it is written: No-one may draw near to God who has a sin in him! We will be many times over unclean! Where will we be able to purify ourselves? Where is he who will take a suitable sacrifice from us that will clean us from our sins before God?!"