The Great Gospel of John
Volume 8
Jesus' Precepts and Deeds through His Three Years of Teaching
The Lord and His adversaries
- Chapter 103 -
The Romans come to the Lord.
Then Lazarus said: "Lord and Master, it is really a pity that also the righteous Romans who are very eager to learn were not able to hear this very special teaching. What will we say to them if they will ask us about all the things that happened here in their absence? May we not tell them anything of the great lesson about the flight of the cranes?"
2
I said: "If I would have considered it good and necessary for them, then I certainly would be the first to take care that they would be present, but because it is not necessary for them for the moment, but only for the few of you to know the deeper secrets of the Kingdom of God, I have only shown and revealed it to you as something special.
3
But the Romans - just like the Greeks before them - have derived their dark paganism and idolatry from the not understood old teachings and predictions of the old Egyptians who have completely rightly derived these from the correspondences between the sensorial and the spiritual world, and more than half of their priests are preoccupied with the phenomena in this natural world, and all kinds of fortune telling are based on it. The early morning flight of the birds is besides that for them very useful, as well as the blood and the inward parts of the animals that are slaughtered before sunrise, and also the wind, the movement of the clouds, the nightly position of the stars and the coloring of the sky. They also lighten a fire in the morning and conclude all kinds of fortune telling from that and let them be paid by young and old people . If the Romans who are present here had heard Me speak like that about the flight of the cranes, then they would have overwhelmed us immediately with countless questions about a lot of phenomena that they had experienced and from which several of them came true now and then after the fortune telling of their soothsayers, and we would need days to satisfy them for only half according to the truth.
4
When they will live and act according to My teaching, they will also be lead into all other wisdom by their spirit, but if they also would know what I have now entrusted only to you, they would practically do nothing else at home except with full haste and eagerness observe the phenomena of the natural world and to try to unriddle them. But because their soul is not yet sufficiently unified with their spirit, they would fall into all kinds of errors, which would really not be beneficial for the development of their inner life. For this reason, for the time being you should keep to yourselves what I have explained to you. But now they soon will be with us because they heard from Raphael where we are."
5
I just had said that to the few when the whole group came already out of the little city. They soon noticed us and came to us.
6
However, Raphael leaded, according to My will, the youth on another, bigger hill and kept them busy. When he showed them the hill on which I was, they all fell on their knees and praised Me with all their heart as the good, lovely Father.
7
And now also the Romans and all other disciples came along. Only the few converted temple servants of whom the women and children were in Bethany, were not with them because they were seen by their women and children and consequently they were held up, for which they were not to blame because I Myself allowed this, so that they could be left alone by them for the rest of the day. So we arrived only for the morning meal together with the mentioned temple servants.
8
When the Romans came to Me first on the hill, they greeted Me with full of love, and Agricola said: "O Lord and Master, what are we glad that we have found You again and that we can see now that You did not leave us with Your holy personality. We were all afraid of that since we did not find You in the house and then we thought that maybe You had gone somewhere for the whole day with Your few disciples. Your disciples that were left behind were even of the same opinion because yesterday for very wise reasons You did not want to reveal to anyone about what you would perhaps do today. After many questions and not knowing what to do, that lovely Raphael told us that You were not far away and were here. Then we left hastily, hurried to this place and found You to our consolation. And now we are extremely glad that we fortunately have You in our midst again."
9
I said: "So I am also glad that you still have arrived here before sunrise, because I also feel joy and love for him who feels joy and love for Me.
10
However, there will be times when men will also search Me but will not find Me so quickly and easily as was now the case with you.
11
But he who searches Me earnestly in his heart and through his actions according to My Word, will also find Me and feel great joy in the fact that he has found Me. But when someone has found Me, he will also not lose Me anymore. At certain moments, in order to test his love and patience still more, I will however now and then hide My face from him, but will for this reason still not leave him.
12
It will be beneficial for those who I will test, because from this they will see that I love them greatly. For he who is tested much and who endures the tests well, will be placed over many and great things in the beyond in My Kingdom, but he who is tested less because of his weakness, will also be placed over less and smaller things.
13
But all of you will for the sake of My name and the truth still have to endure many trials, and your patience, which is in you still the weakest spirit, will not escape the test of fire. But when this will come over you, then think of this hill and that I told you beforehand. But remember also in your heart that then I will come to you in spirit, will strengthen you and will strongly help you. Do also remember that very well. For in these days, and also in future times, the Kingdom of God suffers violence, and those who will draw it with violence to themselves will also possess it. In future times however, it will be as I will now show you by means of a parable."