The Great Gospel of John
Volume 3
Jesus' Precepts and Deeds through His Three Years of Teaching
Jesus near Caesarea Philippi
- Chapter 76 -
Ribar's premonition of the presence of the Lord.
1
(Ribar) "You see, the boy in my opinion didn't call us deaf, blind and foolish quite without reason; also the donkey which he had earlier placed at our side said to us through the deed basically the same thing!
2
See, it seems to me more and more and now in particular, that exactly this very relaxed looking Greek is the great Nazarene! I have always kept my eye on Him and so much has occurred to me about him that I wouldn't like to doubt a minute longer that it is He! Everyone turns their eye, ear and heart to Him; the powerful and otherwise so relentlessly proud governor actually worships Him; the youth does everything at His least hint and call, and His speech is clear and full of wisdom! Besides, I noticed how He gave the governor also natural medicine against the too great lust of the young wives; you see, only a Savior can do this! In addition His teaching, which He lectured to us, must be written down as fast as possible, and in the most wonderful way in the world! If you hold all that so nicely along side each other and you yourself will find that I am not totally wrong, and the youth neither when he called us deaf, blind and dumb! What do you think about that, and what do you all think in this respect?"
3
Suetal says, "You know, you are not totally wrong; for a little light is beginning to go on in my head! But if that is the case, then the youth really did us no wrong; for we were seriously so blind that we would not have seen the forest for all the trees! But now wait, I will keep a sharp eye on the Greek from now on, and it should soon be seen how far you are correct!"
4
From then on Suetal observes Me with great attention and besides that also the behavior of all the guests and after a while he says to Ribar, "Brother, you might well be correct; he must unmistakably be it! For from all faces it shines clearly forth that they honor him certainly as the representative of the whole great society and not even the governor dares to do anything without his agreement! This supposed Greek must be simply an inner and wisest friend of the great Master, as he presented himself to us, and thus would one give him the greatest attention!? If he had not firstly presented himself to us as an intimate friend of the great Master, I would have greeted him as the great Master a long time ago! But it would then have been very strange of us if we had accepted the honest man as something different to that which he said himself; for that cannot be accepted from the man so penetrated by the spirit of God, that he before us quite harmless Jews should hide or not!?"
5
Ribar says, "I see it somewhat differently, for through the fact that he presented himself to us as the great Master"s closest friend, he did not tell us an untruth at all if he was the actual Master himself; for you see, everyone knows themselves best and therefore is one"s own closest and best friend! Now if someone in a certain good mood says such a thing about themselves, there is no trace of untruth; in addition such a wise man can certainly have some hidden reason why he doesn't reveal himself immediately to some people and we will later find this out. Just look at the wise Mathael, how he is always almost moved to tears whenever he looks at the Greek! Brother, that has certainly its good and very significant reasons!
6
The great love, which the otherwise extremely spiritual looking maiden shows to the Greek, seems to me to speak more for than against my claim. For just look at the truly super-heavenly beauty of our young miracle worker! I think that the thousand times a thousand women and maidens who are on this place must fall head over heels in love with him!? And yet the maiden hardly pays any attention to it, although he as a youth is truly a thousand times more beautiful than the maid; but she would like to practically step inside the heart of the Greek! I tell you, brother, it is not that! This maid must therefore have another reason why she is so in love with the Greek; with more exact observation it seems to me as if the maid was only in love with the divinity in him and doesn't pay any attention to his body! Just watch her eyes shining more from a certain awe than from some sort of sensual love and you will easily notice that there is no trace of any sensual love in the maid!"
7
Suetal says, "Brother, you bear your name truly not in vain; for a fisherman must have a sharp eye! Already a hundred things occur to me which I had not noticed before; they all point to your claim. But now something occurs to me about our youth! He has been sent a few times by the great Master into the house; but I didn't see him going, instead - he was there! His walk is like his writing: wherever he wants to be, he is already there! Brother, that doesn't seem right to me! If he didn't only ever do what the supposed Greek ordered, I would consider him to be the Master; but since he only ever does what he is called to do by the supposed Greek, one can only consider him to be a servant and not a lord! But it is truly extremely strange how far this young person has come in the certain purely divine magic!"
8
Ribar says, "What you have now remarked about the youth occurred to me earlier; but I have, you know, noticed silently something very strange when he was consuming his eight fish, that he actually didn't consume any fish with his mouth as we do; he brought the fish up to his mouth - and that was it! The fish disappeared along with its skin and bones, likewise he consumed the bread and the wine; everything disappeared in the moment when he brought it up to his lips! It was very uncomfortable for me at his side! Truly, unnoticed I looked under the table at his feet a few times; but these were always so pure and heavenly beautiful as I have never seen in my life before with a virgin, not to mention a youth! That calmed me again and I could have, if I hadn't been ashamed, looked at his wonderfully attractive beautiful feet with the blessed desire for an eternity! Truly, if an angel now came from heaven, he could impossibly stand on more beautiful feet!"
9
Suetal says, "You see, that is something that I have not noticed; but to judge by his otherwise wondrous beauty, one would have to begin to judge that he is a higher spiritual being - for his form and his special miracles seem to be almost screaming proof of it! But here we meet again the situation that he was presented to us as only a youngest disciple of the great Master who has come so far in divine magic, which of course says as much as: If this youngest already achieves so much, what will then the older disciples be able to do?! At such a natural acceptance the thought that the boy is a higher being falls away; for if he was that, the present great Master would have lied to us openly, and that cannot be imagined from such a man! What do you think?"
10
Ribar says, "Yes, it seems to be that way; but it seems in this sphere that before our eyes the old veil of Isis has not yet been aired! But if the great Master actually was what Mathael said about Him earlier, then even an angel from heaven could be His disciple! Am I right or not?"