The Great Gospel of John
Volume 8
Jesus' Precepts and Deeds through His Three Years of Teaching
The Lord and His adversaries
- Chapter 215 -
The Lord and the superstitious innkeeper.
After that, we left the dining hall, and escorted by the innkeeper, we went outside. It was really a nice day because the heat of the day was strongly reduced by a northeastern wind. From our inn we walked through the whole place that was quite big, and came then at the large inn in which Roklus had healed the 21 sick people in My name.
2
The innkeeper saw us and hurried outside to us with his family and those who were healed to greet us very heartily. Immediately he asked for Me, and Roklus pointed to Me. Then they all came standing around Me to thank Me for the great kindness that I have shown them, and the innkeeper himself could not stop glorifying and praising Me.
3
But I said to him and all the others: "Stand up now from the ground, for it is sufficient when you truly glorify and praise Me in your heart. And whatever the heart decides and does, all the other parts of the body take and have part in it."
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Then they all stood up and asked Me that My almighty mercy should never leave them.
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And I said to them: "Then keep Me continuously alive in your heart by the love for God and your fellowmen, then also My mercy will stay continuously with you. But if ever your love, that I mentioned, should become weak or even lukewarm or cold in your heart, then also My love and the resulting mercy will become weak, lukewarm or cold.
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Beware of gluttony and reveling, for by that the love for God will diminish and the love for the world and self-love will be nourished and strengthened, and with that the judgment of matter and its death. Beware also of sexual impurity and all harlotry, for the sexually impure, the harlots and adulterers will not enter into My Kingdom of life.
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To you, who are now healed of your physical afflictions, I say that from now on you should not let yourselves be tempted by any sin, for then My mercy will again be taken away from you and then you will fall back into even greater afflictions.
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But beware also of laziness and idleness, for this is the root of all vices and afflictions of men.
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You have heard this now from My mouth, observe it also and live and act accordingly, then My mercy will not leave you. Amen."
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After I had said that, all thanked Me again for that.
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Then the innkeeper said to Me: "O eternal great Lord and Master, would You also not like to come into My house, so that it will be blessed by the steps of Your blessed feet?"
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I said: "Listen, you surely have a good opinion about My feet, however My feet will not leave you any blessing for your house. But if you and your family will live and act according to My will, then this will be a true, permanent blessing for your whole house. Such things were believed and are still believed by those who are still imprisoned by all kinds of dark superstition, which is in itself dead and has no power of life. What use can certain signs or relics, certain stones, numbers and the new moon and constellation have for men? Those are not only useless but can moreover harm the soul, and thus also the body. And so, also the walking with the feet of My body cannot be of any use for this place that I am entering now, nor be useful to a house, but what is useful to you all is that I have come to you and have given you My will and have shown you the ways that you should walk to come to eternal life.
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Although in stones, metals, herbs, and in the roots and the fruits thereof, there is also a healthy power residing for a lot of physical diseases, but they should be known well, and then be capable to be used for certain diseases in a wise way. But he who is using such things as a magic means, sins against sound reasoning and against God's wise order.
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Look, My indeed dear and kind innkeeper. I know you and know very well that you are an honest and correct man, but still, I also have something against you.
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You keep certain stones and pieces of wood in your house and you believe that by that no enemy will come into your house. So you also have all kinds of things in your stable - buried under the doorstep - like some iron, sulfur, eggshells and a certain kind of wood of which the magicians are making their magic sticks, and that would - as you believe - help against the sorcery of witches and keep the animals healthy. And also your children, your wife, all your servants and maids must carry certain little packages with them to be protected against every affliction, and you yourself are always carrying something similar with you for the same reason.
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And some time ago there were a couple of Arabs with you who behaved very mysteriously and told you that each one of them was about 3.000 year old, for they had found the true little snake herb and eaten it, by which they became immortal. In order to give their cleverly thought of lie a greater appearance of truth, they told you with their very lively fantasy a lot of wonderful fairy tales and fables which supposed to have happened during their already 3.000 years long life on Earth among men, animals and plants and stones, and all this you have accepted as a truth.
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So you also have bought for much money from the mentioned liars, all kinds of magic means, and you moreover have given them an amount of gold, so that they would give you that little snake herb. However, they only could bring it to you after 7 years, for it could be found far away from here on a mountain, more precisely only on a certain day, and even only on a certain hour of that day. And look, you believed all that firmly.
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However, I say to you now: lay off all such dark superstition, for it all is a deceit that is subtly thought of by the different priests among the also different nations on Earth, and does not have any truth, not even of the size of a little sun dust particle.
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Of these Arabs, who say that they are 3.000 years old, not even one of them is 50 years old. I as the Creator of Heaven and Earth do not know anything about a little snake herb that can make someone immortal, and your little miracle packages are not even worth to be thrown into a cesspit.
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Thus, do not attach anymore importance to it, but only to everything I have told you through the mouth of Roklus, and live and act accordingly, then you soon will find in yourself a totally different little herb of immortality than what those untrustworthy Arabs have promised to bring you only after 7 years, which they will not even bring you in a 1.000 years, even if they and you were allowed to or could live that long on this Earth.
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Look, this is what I had against you. If you will put all this aside, My blessing will enter your house entirely, but otherwise not - even if I would personally stay no matter how often in your house."
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When the innkeeper heard this from Me, he thanked Me for this lesson and promised Me very explicitly that he would do everything I had advised him to do, for he was himself greatly amazed because he all too clearly could see that even the most secret things are not unknown to Me. Then he asked Me again if I would like to enter his house and take some bread and wine with him.
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And I said: "You can be completely sure that I accept your will as an accomplished act, but what you want to do now for Me, do it for the poor, then I will accept it as if you have done it for Me. But before evening, we still have to settle and to correct many things here. And so we should work as long as it is daytime. But if you want to be My guest tonight, then you can come to the inn where I have taken up residence."
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The innkeeper thanked Me for this invitation. Then we continued our way around this place, and with a cheerful mood the innkeeper went with his family into his house and spoke with his family about everything that he had heard from My mouth.