The Great Gospel of John
Volume 6
Jesus' Precepts and Deeds through His Three Years of Teaching
The Lord on the Mount of Olives (John Chapter 8)
- Chapter 180 -
On right blessing and prayer.
During the meal I did not talk much; but when the good wine loosened the tongues of the disciples, soon the inn became quite alive. Also the innkeeper who managed the inn on behalf of Lazarus, came to Me with his family and asked Me if I could bless him and his family; this would be the most strongest antidote against the curse of the clerics.
2
Said I to him: "Friend, where I am, the blessing is already with Me; anything more is not required! Live also you according to the teaching which I have given to My disciples and only thereby you will attain the true, living blessing, which will be for the greatest use to you, not only for this world which is for everyone of a very short duration, but for your soul who will live forever! Such a blessing as you imagine it for yourself is of no use. Look at the pharisees how they distribute all kinds of blessings and are getting paid for it; to whom however, who received such a blessing, was it of any use? Yes, it was useful to the pharisee, - but the blessed had to be consoled by his faith which provided him with a weak reassurance.
3
But I bless the people truly thereby, that I give them the true light of life and through it the everlasting life, if they act according to My teaching. All the so to speak magical blessings are of no use and only increases the superstition of the people. But who walks and believes in My teaching, that I am the true Christ, he can lay his hands on a sick in My name and it will be better with him. And even if the sick is far away, and you pray in My name for him and stretches your hands towards him, he will be cured if it is for his salvation. And see, this is a much better blessing than the one you, according to your opinion, want from Me! - Tell Me now if you are content with this!"
4
Said the innkeeper: "O Lord, I thank you for that; for I can see now that the pure truth is the biggest blessing for man and the lie and deception is the biggest curse for him. Now I still want to hear from You, if the prayers of the priests also have no value before God and also will not help anybody, even if someone faithfully and in the best sense is of the opinion that he is unworthy to pray to God, and goes to a priest and pays him so that he can pray for him to God. How should one understand this according to the truth?"
5
Said I: "Is it not written: 'Behold, this nation honours Me with lips; but their hearts are far from Me!' How can the prayer be useful to him who paid for it? He as the believer does not dare to pray to God and the paid priest does not pray to God and obviously can't do it, because he himself does not believe in any God. For if he believed in a God, he would not allow to be getting paid for his prayers, but say to the prayer payer: 'Every person, and even if he has so many sins as there is gras on earth and sand in the sea - can ruefully and in humility pray to God and God will hear his prayer. The love for one's neighbour as instructed by God, makes it in anyway compulsory for me to think in my prayers for all the people, and therefore go and pray to God yourself, which can and will be useful to you only; since a paid prayer is a horror before God!'
6
See, this is how a faithful priest should speak to him who wants to pay him for a prayer! But because the priest himself does not believe in a God, he lets himself get paid for a prayer which he mumbles from a book without thought or will with a hypocritical expression and is therefore in everything a liar and swindler. How can such a prayer please God?
7
I say to you: Even if God would help a person out of his troubles for the sake of his humility, who, because of his thought unworthiness, does not dare to pray to God, God would in this case certainly not help him, in order to free him from his superstition.
8
If you see a poor who prays to God because of some necessary help, go and help him if you have something to help him; however, if you do not have something, then also you pray to God on behalf of him, and I say to you: God will listen to your and the poor person's prayer! Since where two or three truly pray to Me, their prayer will most certainly be heard. But nobody should turn to God in prayer for silly and pure worldly things, since God will not listen to him; but if someone prays for really necessary things to sustain the life of his body and to strengthen the faith and the soul, it will not be withheld from him. - See, this is how things are standing regarding true prayer according to the truth, which is also a true and right blessing in the heart of people! Do you understand this?"
9
Says the innkeeper: "Yes, Lord, this I understand quite well, because it is a too clear truth; but the magical prayers of the priests I never have understood, and this for the very simple reason because they are an all-out swindle which cannot be understood anyway. O, these evil swindlers! How they do everything possible to present their trifle prayers to the people, as if such in degrees are always more effective and stronger, depending on the seniority of the priest and the extreme holy places where the prayer is conducted, and that the same prayer prayed by the same priest, gains strength and effectiveness in the same measure as more pounds of gold and silver are paid for it! And see, the people still believe this firmly! Woe him, who tried to talk them out of it and says that the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob does not have any pleasure in such prayers, and that it would be extremely unfair if He only listened to prayers of people, who can pay the priests a lot of money to pray the prayer for them, the poor however, who cannot do this, He would not listen to them and without helping turn away from them! O, this would be of no use to these blind fools! They would regard such a wise enlightener of the people only as a blasphemer and temple desecrater and charge him in the temple accordingly, whereupon he will be dealt with for the whole of eternity in such a way as one cannot wish it any better.
10
Ah, my most elevated Friend and divine Master, there is no place anymore for an honest and educated person! Truly, in this regard this inn is much more a true temple of God than the hall of Salomon down there; since in it there is nothing else than lies and deceit and the biggest hate for people! I have not been in the temple for about ten years - and also will avoid it in future! In the very least a feast can bring me to the temple; since then the greatest fraudulences are carried out in the cheekiest manner, and no law protects me from them. During feasts the clerics are carrying on with the biggest mischiefs without any responsibility as Gods for themselves; I however, cannot look at it without the greatest annoyance and therefore I rather stay away. - Am I right or not?"
11
Said I: "Absolutely; since you cannot change this, and therefore it is better for you to stay away from the place, where you cannot experience anything good or true and on top of it, as still an old real Jew, becoming annoyed. But I have come, to make everything crooked straight again, and what is blind and deaf, to make it seeing and hearing again. But lets leave the temple now, since its total uselessness is only too well known to you!
12
Soon we will get an increase of new guests, namely real Romans and Greeks. They will eat here and most probably also spend the night here; since down there in the whole city nearly no inn can be found, and you as innkeeper can prepare yourself a little."
13
When the innkeeper heard such, he hurried outside to his people and drew their attention to it; and they now paid attention, if the guest would arrive. When they looked down to the garden gate through which the people had to pass to get to the top of the Oil Mountain, they already saw a group of thirty people going through the gate and therefore quickly went to work, to serve the arriving guests in a proper manner. The room, in which also we were sitting, was large enough to accommodate about one-hundred people. There were also some quite spacious side rooms available, which were used as sleeping rooms, and therefore nobody should be concerned about a lodging for the arriving foreigners, who had a female guide with them, who was a free woman in Jerusalem and dealt a lot with strangers. Later on we will get to know her better.