The Great Gospel of John
Volume 6
Jesus' Precepts and Deeds through His Three Years of Teaching
The Lord and the Priests of the Temple (John 5)
- Chapter 10 -
The self-accusation of the priests.
It was a fairly long time before anyone dared to say even a word; for the appearance of the two prophets had moved everyone deeply and had particularly distressed the Jews present.
2
Only the innkeeper who sat beside Me also quite thoroughly moved said to Me, subdued: "Lord, Lord, that shows more than anything that You are in truth what You presented Yourself as before the whole nation in the Temple!
3
Now it is as clear as day that the promised great age of ages has come with all mercy, but also with all judgment from heaven. Oh, if only I were worthy to take even the smallest part of this mercy!"
4
I said: "You can take for yourself not only the smallest part, but the very greatest part! That depends only on your desire to walk with joy and delight according to My teaching, with which you will soon become fully acquainted. But now let us ask the Jews how they liked this true apparition!"
5
Thereupon I turned to the twenty Jewish priests and asked them what they thought of this apparition.
6
One of them stood up and began to speak as follows: "We are all fully convinced that the apparition was not some magic delusion because a mere phantom, the kind of which I once saw in Damascus, is without a language and does not know about the most secret dates of events which took place a short or long time ago. But because the appearance was certainly no illusion, it surely made a highly ominous impression on us all, and that is because we have seen only too clearly through this that, because of our evil deeds, we cannot possibly expect forgiveness from God for our too great sins.
7
It is truly a very difficult thing to be a man in this world! One is exposed to all the temptations of the world and the devil, the double enemy of human life, of which one can see the lesser evil indeed, but no-one sees the second, which entices a person to the world and pulls him with all force, and thus he can resist it only with great difficulty.
8
We now see clearly that we have become great sinners, but we cannot comprehend how we gradually came to end up like this. All we can now say is this: Lord, if You can still spare any mercy for us, do have mercy upon us and at least do not judge us too harshly.
9
If at the time we had understood this as we do now, Zachariah and, later, John would have been treated differently. But we all were stone-blind, blinded by the world and by the devil and, therefore, acted solely according to our truly devilish blindness and its most evil desire.
10
Just as Moses and Elias have now quite justly accused us before You, O Lord, we now accuse before You the devil, this greatest enemy of mankind. Do summon him also before Your tribunal."
11
Said I: "That part of you belonging to the devil has long since been charged to his account. Yet I tell you that there are now some in the temple who for a long time have been surpassing the devil, dealing with mankind in a way unsurpassed by any devil.
12
I also tell you that much less than you think in your foolish belief depends on the temptations through the devils. The true devil is man himself with his worldly desires. From these goes forth self-love - which is one devil -, the passion for a life of luxury - a second devil -, ambition, pride, lust for power, anger, revenge, envy, avarice, arrogance, harlotry and contempt for his fellowman -, all these are devils begotten on man's own ground and soil. Therefore, you should not be so scared of the devil nor should you accuse him. However, do accuse yourselves in your conscience and do proper repentance and firmly resolve to become completely different men, and then carry it out!
13
Love God truly above all and the poor neighbour as yourselves, and your many and great sins will be forgiven. For as long as man does not completely give up sin he cannot be forgiven it, for sin is man's own doing because it proceeds from his flesh and from the will of his soul.
14
The good works according to the will and the word of God, even if conducted by man out of free self-determination, are really always a grace from above, a merit of God's Spirit within the human heart, and man shares in it by the very grace of God. - Now you know how things are. You are free and can do what you wish."