THE GREAT GOSPEL OF JOHN
VOLUME 5
Jesus' Precepts and Deeds through His Three Years of Teaching
The Lord in the house of Simon Peter. Gospel of Matthew, Chapter 18
- Chapter 250 -
The necessity of worldly courts. The origin of crime and its prevention.
Peter says, "Lord and Master! Certainly, and it is indeed the very best now; but even if we observe everything most exactly, as well as very many other people who will receive this teaching from us, then it still very much begs the question whether the worldly courts will therefore no longer endure.
2
You see, if someone has sinned against me in some way, I will then quite certainly forgive him even seventy times seven times, if my offender should seriously let it come to that; but if he as a terrible, gloating person has not had enough and drives his insults over the great number of seventy times seven times "what then with such a person? I am now of the opinion that it should then be high time to hand such a criminal over to worldly judgment, just like our compassionate king in the end, since his great patience brought no fruit, then indeed handed over the uncompassionate servant to the torturers. What do You, Lord, say to this opinion of mine?"
3
I say, "My dear Peter, then I does not say much at all, because in any case I already gave you quite openly the full directives for such an incorrigible case right after the fishermen's argument in front of your house and each of you then certainly understood what is to be done and decided!
4
It goes without saying that there must be in this world powerful and great worldly courts of justice that deal with great and hardened criminals offending against the rights of men, otherwise no one's life would in the end be safe any longer. However, as far as the minor offences are concerned that not seldom occur amongst you men, these shall be settled before the tribunal of the compassionate and forgiving heart, so that the minor offences committed by people against each other do not grow into great and serious crimes, for truly I tell you: Robbery, manslaughter and murder are, after all, nothing but the consequences of minor offences initially committed by men against each other merely out of trivial considerations of worldly self-interest and self-conceit. - A little parable shall explain this to you more clearly:
5
A rich and respected father has a very beautiful and dear daughter, in whom a young, but poor, although very well educated man was head over heels in love, and all the more so since the dear daughter had already given him to understand a number of times through all sorts of friendly winks and signs that she was inclined towards him in her heart. Well, this otherwise honest and decent young man finally gathers the courage and goes with a very natural good intention to the father of the beautiful daughter and demands that she would be given to him as his wife. Only the father, extremely proud and hard because of his great wealth, allows the honest, poor applicant for his daughters' hand be shown the door by his servants and chased out of the court by his hounds.
6
This improper reception of the poor man now filled his heart with anger, rage and revenge, and the more he now thought about the purest impossibility of becoming the step-son of the rich man, the more also grew the thought of revenge, to humiliate the hard and proud man in the way that would hurt him the most. And when the terrible thought became fully mature, the plan, decision and will and deed were already there, and the young man became the murderer of the rich man.
7
He would certainly not have turned into that had he been treated like a human being by the rich man. The rich man in his proud arrogance did not even think he was doing much by turning the poor suitor out in the described manner. However, it was too much to take for the one thrown out and so he turned into a criminal and murderer who for fear of worldly justice hid in the dense forests from where he terrorized the population.
8
And now see from this small example that only the hardness of man most of all makes their poorer fellow men into criminals. Thus take care about this everywhere towards those who have sinned against you in some way, what I have commanded and shown to you clearly, and great criminals will be seldom on the Erath, and the good people will then reign over the poor of the Earth. Did all of you understand and comprehend this well?"
9
Now everyone confirmed that they had understood this lesson very well. The disciples, who according to their own statement had now understood this lesson well, still thought nonetheless about some things which were contained in it, and John and Mark wrote down the main issue, and James and Thomas also wrote down for themselves, but more the explanations. They were busy with this for about two hours.
10
And when all the most necessary had been written down, Peter said, "Now this lesson can never again be lost, and thus much has been won with this! But it is now becoming evening, and I will have to begin to arrange things so that we get an evening meal."
11
Said I: "But who told you then that it is now already becoming evening? Look out at the height of the sun! I tell you, if we now rise and sail with a good wind along the whole length of the sea, we will certainly still come to the border of the Jewish lands on the other side of the Jordan before the sunset!"
12
At this Peter looked at the height of the sun and began to wonder greatly at how he could have been so seriously mistaken with the judgment of time; for the sun had still a good three hours before its setting.