The Great Gospel of John
Volume 8
Jesus' Precepts and Deeds through His Three Years of Teaching
The Lord and His adversaries
- Chapter 156 -
The advice of the Lord to the Essenes.
I said: "I know and can see in what kind of great embarrassment you now have come and also had to come before the people. However, it also has to happen this way when a person who formerly showed off and made himself important in the eyes of the people through all kinds of tricks, worldly cleverness and deceit to obtain great treasures from them in a cunning manner has seized the truth in order to better himself within. Because he does not want to mislead and deceive the people anymore, but he does not dare to tell them the truth, so that they would not be angry and would say to them: 'O you miserable deceiver. If you now are professing the truth and can speak and act accordingly, then why have you not done this since the beginning? What evil did we ever do to you that for years you have behaved before us as a vile deceiver? Now compensate for all the deceit that you have done to us, otherwise you will not escape our just vengeance'.
2
Yes, friends, it is true that the inner conscience speaks this very angry language continuously to the one who through tricks and deceit wants to take advantage of credulous mankind, and does it also by means of his cunning worldly intellect. But such a person will finally anesthetize his conscience, which is the inner spirit of life and truth within man, and deceives more and more the people who have been made blind.
3
But what will happen next when the day of the full truth for all men will dawn? Whereto will they flee from those who were deceived and to whom they lied so often and so mercilessly? Truly, that will be a terrible flight, and those who will flee will shout and say: 'Mountains, fall on us, so that the light of truth of the great day would not uncover us and we should be revealed before the eyes of those who we have deceived and to whom we lied in the most vile way.'
4
However, I say this to you who now for the sake of the pure truth have distanced yourself from the great deceits, because here a lot can still be made up for by the right works of love, but in the other world, where everything will be revealed, even the most secret thought of the soul, it will not do, and the deceiver and liar will have to go through the most bitter humiliations and will be loaded with more than great destroying shame in the eyes of all the righteous ones.
5
Even for Me it is now difficult to give you a good advice and give you also real help, for I, who am the living truth Myself can still not justify your conduct of the past and let the people in the delusion in which you put them. Speak now the truth to all who come to you, teach them in the right way and tell them that I have instructed this to you, and tell them also the true reason why you now think, will and act differently than before when you were still far away from the truth. Tell them also that it was not your evil will, but only a certain compassion for suffering mankind who are without light that made you decide to bring objects, skills and doctrines to life by means of your knowledge and acquired abilities in which a lot of people found comfort. But because you now with My help have penetrated to the pure truth, you do not want to withhold the pure and living truth from those who always have put their trust in you, which will be eternally more beneficial than everything what you have formerly done for them.
6
When you all will proclaim the truth to the people in this way, they will not leave you in anger, but they will listen to you and will later live as true friends of the truth. Because that which you did not possess before, you also could not give to anyone, what every person who is gifted with a certain insight will understand, and this will also not make him angry.
7
Now hold on only to the truth, for only that can and will make you free and will from now on give you all protection and all help. But being in the truth on the one hand, and on the other hand still wanting to earn one's daily bread with the lie, is quite as incompatible with each other as day and night or life and death. Did you well understand Me?"
8
The 3 Essenes said: "Lord and Master, we surely did understand You and we also can see that You are completely right in every respect, but what should we do with those 500 dead children? Must we burry them or give them with one or the other pretext back to the parents or members of the family of whom most of them are still waiting in the village, because this oppresses us now most? On the one hand we do not want to let people who live in hope return home again, being full of sorrow and without any comfort, but on the other hand our conscience tells us now that we, who have received the pure truth, should not still more deceive and oppress mankind who have already been deceived and oppressed too much in every way. If we will tell them now the full truth at once, they will become unhappy, but if we would as far as possible still practice the same what we have done before and consequently will make the mournful people happy and satisfied, then we will have strengthened them again in the old superstition and through them many others and driven them still deeper into the darkness. Lord, what would here actually be the golden middle way, so that those who are waiting would not mourn and also not leave us while being deceived again?"
9
I said: "Also in this it is difficult to find a good middle way, but since you now seriously want to end all your old deceptions and want to walk in future the ways of the full truth from God who has now come in Me in this world, I want to do something for you Myself. In a few days I will come to you and then it will be clear about all the things that can be done. But now you can go and announce it to your brothers, then they will know how to arrange all the rest according to the truth."
10
With these words of Mine, the 3 were completely satisfied, thanked Me for the lesson, for the good advice and for the promise that I would visit them in a few days. Then they stood up and continued their way still before sunrise. Therefore, they did not take breakfast in Bethany. Only with the innkeeper in the valley they went inside, took bread and wine and spoke with the servants who knew a lot of things to tell about Me, and only after a couple of hours they continued to travel along the way of Bethlehem.