The Great Gospel of John
Volume 8
Jesus' Precepts and Deeds through His Three Years of Teaching
The Lord and His adversaries
- Chapter 161 -
The parable of the judge and the widow.
But when we had left the village already quite far behind us, the disciples asked Me: "Lord and Master, why actually did You not help these Jews at all, while they still asked You very explicitly and have sent no one to pray and beg You?"
2
I said: "Did I have to strengthen them even more in their old laziness and in their unbelief and superstition than they are in already now since a long time? I only have shown them the way they have to go. If they will do it, they also will be helped at the right time, but if they will not do it, then they also may remain as they are and build their houses on sand. It will not really confuse us, for if a person, against the advice of wisdom, wants to harm himself, no injustice is done to him.
3
With these people, whose request I did not grant, an affliction with all kinds of distress and suffering is necessary, for through this they will waken up from their old laziness and be trained in patience, and their hearts will become softer and more merciful than it has been the case until now. For I am not always a helper, but wherever this is necessary, also a righteous judge.
4
Now listen to a parable, which will show you even more clearly why I have so seriously pressed on the heart of the inhabitants of the village through which we have now passed, that they independently should pray and beg in full faith.
5
Once there was in a city a righteous judge, who did not fear God and was also not afraid of any man. In that same city there was however a widow. She went to the judge and said: 'Release me of my adversary'. However the judge pretended not to hear the words of the widow and for a long time he did not want to give in to the wish of the widow. But because the widow did not cease with her pleadings, he thought by himself: 'Even though I have no fear for God and am also not afraid of any man, I still will save her, for she is causing me now already so much trouble, or else she will finally make me completely deaf with her screaming for help."
6
Now Simon Judah said: "Thus, in this manner, man who wants to receive something from God must by means of his praying and begging be simply annoying and unbearable to Him? But I thought that for God who lives in You and who is full of the highest love and compassion, only a living faith and trust are needed in order to be heard, sooner than with a judge of this world?
7
You already have given us a similar image, and more exactly of that father of the house to whom in the middle of the night a hungry man came, who woke him up, and because of his great hunger was asking for bread. The father of the house did at such a moment also not give him bread out of love and compassion, but only because he wanted to get rid of the shameless annoying persistence of the nightly bread beggar.
8
This matter seems, to be honest, rather strange to me. If we ask You for something, then You give it to us at once, without an almost shameless persistence, and so You also have given to gentiles, tax collectors and a great number of sinners, and written the guilt of the adulteress in the sand. But this teaching of Yours, namely how we should beseech something from God, does however not agree with all the other things that You have taught. How do we have to understand this?"
9
I said: "Then continue to listen to what the judge says, who you believe is unrighteous, and who is - mark you - Myself. This judge says: when according to the parable a worldly judge will do justice to the complaining widow, how much more will God save His chosen ones when they in a certain way cry out day and night that He would have patience with them and would like to be kind and merciful. I say to you: He will save them speedily. But when the Son of Man will return at any time, do you think, Simon Judah, that He will find faith on Earth? Yes, He will - just as at this time - find almost no faith at all, and those who still will believe in Him will be laughed at and mocked.
10
But still, there will also be many who will not let themselves be blinded by worldly wisdom and will proclaim My word openly, and to them I will then also come at day and at night. I will reveal Myself to them and will protect them against the persecutions of the world and will also give them the miraculous gift to help by means of love, the oppressed, the cripple and the sick. And so it will become lighter and more comforting on Earth. Do you understand this prophecy?"