The Great Gospel of John
Volume 9
Jesus' Precepts and Deeds through His Three Years of Teaching
The Lord in Galilee
- Chapter 78 -
The spiritual darkness of the scribe.
When the scribe heard this from our converted Pharisee he outwardly became displeased, but inwardly he thought it over and said after a while: "Happy the one to whom an open heart has been given. Until now it has not been given to me. I surely have studied the Scripture and searched for the truth. Can I help it when I was not able to find it? What was the use when I read: 'God has said this and that to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and to still many others, and has revealed Himself by Moses and by the other prophets to the people?' Why did He not speak to me and many other people of my kind? Am I perhaps less human being than those to whom God has spoken and to whom He has revealed Himself?
2
Only now a Man has risen again to show us that the Scripture is not merely a fable that was invented and made up by imperious people, and that there is a God to whom all Heavens and all might and powers of nature are submitted. And therefore it is also time to think and to search how and why God has now again awaken a Man who shows us through deeds and words that the Scripture is the truth and no fable.
3
I did not become a human being by my own will and my own power, but by an inscrutable will and its equally inscrutable power and might. Can I help it when that power and might did not guide me in such a way that I never had to doubt their existence? So let me think now, to find the way in myself along which the ancient truth can be recognized again. Only after that you can speak with me."
4
Then the converted Pharisee said: "How great must the blindness of someone's heart and also his mind be when after such phenomena and especially after such lessons he still wants to think about it and accurately wants to consider if and how God can come to the point to give again a sign of His almighty existence to the people of this Earth in this time, and if that sign is completely true. O Lord and Master, full of pure divine power, be also forgiving and merciful to the blind and hardened ones."
5
I said: "Friend, leave it alone, for in this world everything must have its time. In the soul of your companion there is still too much of the gold and silver of this world, and the Kingdom of God cannot so easily find a little place there, compared to those whose soul have not become hardened and blind by the mammon of this world. He blames God that He has neglected him, but he does not consider that he also has received a lot and meaningful warnings from God, which could have given him a great light for his soul if from childhood on he would not be filled with all kinds of lusts for gold and silver.
6
He was already in the temple at the time when the obvious miracle took place with the high priest Zechariah who was strangled between the altar and the most holy place, because he criticized and abolished the great abuse and deceptions of the imperious Pharisees and their loyal followers. He was also in the temple when Simeon and the old Anna lived, and he heard their words. He was also still in the temple when I as a 12 year old boy gave the absolutely unmistakable signs of the Spirit that dwells in Me, and he knew John, the penance preacher in the desert who was a son of Zechariah and the old, pious Elisabeth.
7
Because of mere gold and silver he did not recognize the light from the Heavens, although it was directly within reach for thousands. He surely thought a lot with his brains, but when the heart is hardened and darkened by sheer mammon, what can a soul do with such thinking that looks like a volatile false light? Although it is as a flash of lightning, illuminating the night for one moment, but immediately after that, it brings a much deeper darkness than the one that was covering the earth's surface before.
8
Truly, I say to you: if such light of reason in man is already complete darkness, then how deeply dark must be the actual night of the heart and of the soul himself. Just let this scribe search for the Kingdom of God with his false light. The longer he will search for it in this manner, the less he will find it. As long as he will not make his heart, and by that also his soul completely free from the mammon, he will not enter God's Kingdom.
9
His words look like those of a blind person who also partly blames God for the fact that he is blind and does not understand that other people are able to see since he himself can see nothing. However for someone who is physically blind such words can be excused if he did not make himself willfully blind, but with someone whose soul is blind, such words cannot be excused since already for a long time he could have become seeing just like many other people if he faithfully would have used the means that are well known to him. But we will let it rest now. Tomorrow there is also time to talk about the means with which the inner light can be attained. The 4 hours that we still have left tonight we will use to let our body rest."
10
The innkeeper quickly asked if I wanted to go to a private bedroom.
11
I said: "We will stay here at the table, because most of My disciples are already sleeping here anyway and the lamps are going out."
12
The innkeeper was satisfied with that.
13
Also the Pharisee wanted to stay with us, but the scribe said to him: "Just come with me to your home that remained undamaged. Tonight I will stay with you and still discuss about many things with you."
14
The Pharisee said: "Very well, but not much discussing will be achieved for the rest of the night, for also my eyelids are beginning to weigh heavy."
15
The scribe said: "Come now, that does not matter. Just let us go and rest. Maybe a good dream is waiting for us that can tell us more than what we can say to each other, because at such exciting occasions I still have always had very peculiar dreams, and also this time I surely will not be spared from it."
16
With these words, they both left and took their nightly rest.