The Great Gospel of John
Volume 9
Jesus' Precepts and Deeds through His Three Years of Teaching
The Lord in Jesaira
- Chapter 146 -
The Lord visits the poor fishermen of the bay.
A messenger came now from the house to tell us that the morning meal was waiting for us. Then we left the terrace and went immediately inside. There we sat at the table in the order that is already known, and the 20 fishermen sat at the table that was set for them. And, strengthened by the beautiful morning, we partook very cheerfully of the extremely well prepared morning meal.
2
When we had finished the meal after 1/2 hour, the innkeeper asked Me what I would do until noon.
3
I said: "It is free to ask, but also to answer. Although it is not always in My order to determine beforehand what I will do, for it all depends on the One who lives in Me, and I, who am now also only a man of flesh and blood, having an immortal soul, have to listen to that Spirit in Me. Only after He has said to Me: 'Go here or there, do this or that', then also My flesh and blood will know it. But this time the Father has already spoken to Me, and I know what I should do, and so I also can tell you.
4
Look, not far from here, in the direction of Caesarea Philippi, this Lake of Galilee has one of its largest bays, through which however a big ship can hardly navigate. But smaller boats can reach its rather widely extended shores, which you do not know yet. On those shores is located a small fishing village, leaning against a steep mountain, and its Greek inhabitants feed themselves mostly with fishes and with the milk of a few goats. They always sell the possible surplus of their fishes in Caesarea Philippi, and in return for that, they take salt, bread and a few tools which they need for their little housekeeping and for their work.
5
I had already visited these fishermen before when they still were in a poor spiritual and physical condition, because spiritually they still belonged to the school of the Greek so-called 'worldly wise dogs', and physically they inhabited the most miserable huts that they built on the bare rocks of the mountain. When I visited them, I greatly lifted them up from what concerns their physical condition, but especially from their spiritual sphere.
6
And look, those fishermen, whom I am describing to you now, are the ones we are going to visit. So provide us with a number of small and light boats with which we can navigate into the bay. In 1 hour and a little more we can easily reach the mentioned village. If you wish, then see to it that we quickly can sail off. You will have great joy about those fishermen whom you still do not know up to now. A couple of hours after noon we will be back here again in Jesaira."
7
When I had said that to the innkeeper, Kisjona said to Me: "Lord and Master, 3 good ships of mine are laying in the port. Can we not use those, to spare our innkeeper the trouble to gather the right number of small boats with his neighbors, since he is not enough provided with seaworthy boats?"
8
I said: "Friend, where the lake is deep we can use your ships anyway, but when we come to the shallow bay that is fully grown with much reeds and reed pipes, your ships cannot anymore give us the service that we want."
9
Kisjona said: "Also to each of my ships there are 4 little boats hanging, which can be used if necessary. Besides, my faith in You and Your power is so strong that I cannot have the least of doubt that in Your presence we can navigate into the shallow bay with my ships."
10
I said: "Yes, if the faith of you all is such, then we can try the short sea trip with your ships."
11
After I had said that, we all stood up and went immediately to Kisjona's ships, and he gave instructions to his present skippers as to what they had to do. When they heard that they had to sail into the bay with the reed, they shrugged their shoulders, indicating that it would not succeed.
12
Nevertheless, we stepped into the 3 ships and sailed off quickly. Mary stayed in Jesaira because she heard that we would be back a couple of hours after noon, and she discussed about many things with the woman of the innkeeper who was a close relative of the first woman of Joseph.
13
Already after 1/2 hour we reached the fatal bay, and the skippers said: "Now we must retract the rudder and take the pushing sticks."
14
Kisjona said: "Listen, the Lord is close to us and He is with us. Do what He will tell you, for His power can do more than your pushing sticks."
15
When the skippers heard this from Kisjona, they turned to Me and asked Me what they should do now.
16
And I said: "Then turn the rudder to the back, then we will see if a good wind will push us through the reed."
17
Then the skippers did what I had instructed them to do, and very suddenly a hard wind came from the east that made high waves in the bay and blew with these waves also our ships very fast over and through the reed into the bay. In this way we reached quickly and easily our place of destination. And they all admired the charm of the little village as it looked like during that time, and which was only known to Me and My old disciples. We went ashore at once and looked for the inhabitants.
18
When we came at the first house, there was nobody home. And this was also the case with the other houses. They were closed off, and there was no one in a house or in a goat's stable.
19
Then several disciples said among each other: "He knows the most secret thoughts of man, and already several times He precisely predicted the far future for us and many other people. Then why did He not know this time that the inhabitants of this little village are not at home? Strange, really strange. If He really did not know it, He could have saved us and Himself this sea trip. But if He knew, and He only made this trip to test our faith, then He should know that we all believe doubtlessly in Him, and are on His side, otherwise we would not have followed Him everywhere for almost 2 1/2 years. Then why is a new testing of our faith good for?"
20
Also our Kisjona asked Me: "Lord and Master, what are we doing now in this little village that is maybe since long deserted by the inhabitants? Let us step into our ships again and sail back to Jesaira. For what must we do here?"
21
I said: "You are all still somewhat of little faith. If I would not have known that all the inhabitants of this little village are only at home today, then I also would not have searched for them in vain. Because yesterday they had a good catch with the help of My will, which they did not know, and they want to bring part of the fishes to the market in Caesarea Philippi, the city that has rather well recovered itself again. But they are home and we also would have met them in their houses, but when they saw our ships, they all hastily well hid themselves out of fear in the wood towards midnight, because they were convinced that they had been discovered and betrayed by someone, and that now ships of Herod were coming to bring them to ruin.
22
There behind a rock they have placed a guard with sharp eyes, and he already saw that we are neither from Herod nor are Pharisees. And those guards are already leaving their place now and they soon will come close enough to us to convince themselves with more certainty as to who we are. After that, they will tell the hidden inhabitants of this little village that we are no enemies, and then the inhabitants will soon be with us and express their very great joy because I visited them."