The Great Gospel of John
Volume 8
Jesus' Precepts and Deeds through His Three Years of Teaching
The Lord and His adversaries
- Chapter 160 -
About religion and useful prayer.
But since we traveled through the village, many saw us and noticed that it was I, because a few of them still knew Me since last year, and others recognized Me because they had seen Me in Jerusalem. Now they came to Me and asked Me if I at least would not like to stay 1 night with them in the village and also help many sick people, because the vision, which they had seen a few days before during the night, and the real fire storm of last night had such a bad influence on some people who were internally weak and fearful that they were now very ill and confined to bed, and the doctor of the village could not help them because he did not know the disease and thus also not the medicine for that.
2
I slowed down My pace and said to those who stopped Me: "Have you then not heard that God is almighty and merciful? Why do you not pray to God and ask Him for help if you are in distress?"
3
One of them said: "Dear Master, it is easy for You to say, because God gives You everything for which You ask Him in Your secret manner. But we men can offer, pray and beg as much as we want and will, all this does not help us, for God does not pay attention to us, although we are still observing the laws of Moses as much as possible. But at the time of the prophets it was also more or less the same thing: God has always only answered the prayers of the elect prophets, but the laymen could pray and beg their whole life for this or that and they still did not receive anything. O, it would be a 1.000 times more dear to us if God in case of need would always answer our prayers than that we, because God does not listen to us, have to seek for help with weak men who can only help us rarely. But what else can and must we do if we can see all too clearly that our praying and begging does not give us any help for our great distress?"
4
I said: "O, with these meaningless excuses of yours you will achieve nothing with Me. You are lacking nearly completely faith and a real living trust in God, and therefore God does not answer your prayers and does not pay attention to your sacrifices. Why actually do you not pray yourself with full faith and trust? Because this seems too uneasy for you. That is why you have in the congregation certain people who pray and beg for you, who are authorized by the temple and whom you pay, so that they would beseech for you this or that from God. If you can give your faith and trust to these hypocrites, who are always letting themselves be well paid for their pretended effort and whose praying and begging have never given you any help, then why do you not prefer to put your faith and trust in God the Lord and Father Himself?
5
I say to you: this is because of your own laziness. You are earthly wealthy possessors of goods, and already since your youth you are used to let your helpers and maids work for you for a meager salary, and with that you like to play as severe lords, and you also believe that those prayers and beggars must also work for you with God successfully because you pay them well for that. But then God turns His face away from you and will never listen to the disgusting, senseless and spiritless bawling of the lips of your hypocritical servants of God. And that is then also the reason why God cannot, will and may not help you. For if God would do that, then He as the highest, eternal wisdom, love and power, would let you sink down even deeper into full ruin, which is only caused by your laziness.
6
Therefore, awaken your faith in God and the real, inner love for Him and firm trust in Him. Pray and beg yourself in spirit and in truth to Him, then He certainly will hear you. Thus, pray yourself without ceasing, do real penance and endure also the suffering, which has come over you for good reasons, with patience and true dedication to the godly will, as you can learn from the patience of Job, then God will help you out of every distress, as far as this will be good for the salvation of your souls.
7
Although you have begged Me now yourselves to deliver you from your distress, because you think that I am a prophet to whom God has given a great power, and look, I can and will hear and help you as less as God Himself, for I and God - whom you do not know, for which reason you also do not believe in Him - are one in spirit, one in will and one in mind. What you can never achieve with your manner of praying and begging to God, that you will also not achieve with Me. Therefore, do first what I have advised you, then I will help you also, even if I will not stay overnight with you. But some of you have followed Me completely to Capernaum in Galilee, why did they actually leave Me there again?"
8
One of them said: "Master, You have given there a strange teaching in the synagogue about the eating of Your flesh and the drinking of Your blood and You presented it in such a way that no one could receive the eternal life of his soul if he would not eat the flesh of Your body and drink its blood. Then we were afraid that You had gone insane, and then we also withdrew because we did not want to be called disciples of a prophet who had become insane. But when we saw You again a short time ago in Jerusalem during the feast in the temple, and we could convince ourselves with our own eyes and ears that You are as wise and powerful as we had already come to know You before, then we also believed in You again, and when You now were traveling through our village and we recognized You, we came to You with complete faith and have presented our need to You. If You can and want to help us, then we will not show us ungrateful, but if You now cannot and do not want to, for the reason that You have explained to us, then think about us if You consider us suited and worthy for it."
9
I said: "Act accordingly, then the help will not stay away."
10
Then I gave a sign to the disciples to move on, and so we also continued our way without further delay.
11
Even though a few of the village followed us for a while, but because we moved on quickly, those who followed us were soon lagging behind, turned around and went back to their village.