The Great Gospel of John
Volume 9
Jesus' Precepts and Deeds through His Three Years of Teaching
The Lord in the region of Caesarea Philippi
- Chapter 186 -
The healing of the sick men from Joppe.
After I had said these things, a servant of Marcus came to invite us for the midday meal, for meanwhile it was already well after noon.
2
But I said: "He who wants to go down now to strengthen himself with earthly food and drink can go now and satisfy his body. However, I Myself will stay here on this mountain until this evening. He who wants to stay with Me, will also not be hungry nor thirsty.
3
Soon a great number of hungry and thirsty poor people from near Joppe will come here who will eat the meal that was prepared for us. Some are crippled, some with lame hands and feet, lepers, and people who are plagued by malicious fevers. If they will eat the food that was prepared for us, it will go better with them. The servant of the house should organize it that way."
4
One of the present disciples of John said: "Lord and Master, the people who came here from Joppe do not know anything yet about You, and can therefore have no faith yet in You and Your Word, and nevertheless they will be healed by Your blessing that You will lay in the food. How can this agree with what You always say: 'Your faith has helped you'?
5
I said: "How can it agree with you, an elder disciple, to ask such a foolish question? Did I not already send out a great number of disciples?
6
2 of them are now in Joppe and proclaim My Word to the poor. They also have laid on their hands on these poor in My name, and their health improved, but those who were healed fell back into their old weaknesses and sins of habit, and thus also into their old physical afflictions.
7
They went again to the 2 disciples with the question if they could heal them again, but the disciples said: 'Even if we would heal you again in the name of the Lord, you nevertheless will sin again. That is why we say to you: first do real penance, and if the Lord sees that you seriously and definitely have improved your life, then He Himself will help you. Stand up and walk in full repentance, faith and trust to the miraculous spring at the Lake of Galilee that was put there and blessed by the Lord Himself, then you will find healing there. Let the trip on foot, which is a heavy task for you, be your penance.'
8
Look, after this serious admonition, the sick poor people, began their faraway and hard trip - no matter how difficult - in full faith and trust, and the ship that steers to shore now, brings them here.
9
Thus they do not arrive here without faith, but with a right measure of faith, and so they will be helped by their faith.
10
But in the future do not ask Me such foolish question anymore, for such question could show that you are not a suitable salt to season the food for the soul and spirit of men."
11
Then the disciple asked Me to forgive him and thanked Me for the admonition.
12
I turned to the servant who received in the meantime the instruction from Marcus to bring a sufficient quantity of bread and wine on the mountain, and said: "The poor should receive their food outside, for the open air is more beneficial for their health than the air and fumes of the dining hall. Go now and do what has been instructed to you."
13
Then the servant went away and took well care of everything.
14
Soon other servants brought several carafes full of wine and also several loaves of bread.
15
The servant who was sent down told the poor guests, who had come to land, that they should take place in the open air as well as possible, and he immediately let the food, that was excellently prepared for us, abundantly be set on their tables.
16
The poor were really surprised about that and said: "O friend, we surely are needy for this kind of food, but we are poor and can hardly pay for it."
17
The servant said: "The One who prescribed this food for your healing, has already paid for it. So eat and drink without further worry. But when you will become healthy, then do not fall back again into your old weaknesses and sins, as you did only a short time ago in Joppe after you were healed for the first time by the 2 disciples."
18
When the poor heard that, they were surprised about the words of the servant, and one of them asked him how he could know that, since those 2 disciples who told them were staying in the port city for - as far as he knew - already a long time, and they certainly did not visit this region. And so they could not have revealed this to him, and that except from the 2 disciples of the great Savior, and they themselves, no one could know about it.
19
The servant said: "Do not ask any further, but eat and drink, so that you may become healthy again. Once you will be healthy again, we surely will be able to talk about how I came to know these things."
20
Then the poor started to eat and to drink, and when they were really satisfied, their afflictions left them. The lepers became clean, those who suffered from fever lost their fever, and the limbs of the maimed and crippled ones became straight, and they could use their feet and hands as good as only a strong and completely healthy person could use them. There was almost no end at the astonishment, the questions and also the praises. But the servant gave them no answer that was of importance.