THE GREAT GOSPEL OF JOHN
VOLUME 5
Jesus' Precepts and Deeds through His Three Years of Teaching
Jesus in the region of Caesarea Philippi. (cont.) Gospel of Matthew, Chapter 16
- Chapter 64 -
Ruban speaks in favor of the Lord in front of his companions.
Roklus says, "Yes, yes, you are right, I have the same opinion! But what if He would only do something for us, on the condition that we should finally reveal all our obvious lies to the people and replace for them any earthly damage that we have caused through our magic fraud?! Which of you has the desire or love to bite the bullet that I bite; I have for the meantime very little desire to allow myself be positively ripped apart by the people! This is a very prickly issue!
2
But first I want to hear what He actually demands from us in this respect! And so I will then go to Him again and see and hear what demands He will place on us in this respect; for there can be no talk at all of our disclosure to the people!"
3
Ruban says, "He will surely not demand such a thing from us; for He knows better than all of us! Nothing is achieved in one fell swoop; one thing must follow the other in all of nature that is known to us! That we have sometimes made leaps with our deceptive means cannot be taken as evidence that He will also act this way with us! Therefore go over there and do openly what I have just advised you."
4
Roklus says, "Yes, but I am only doing it because I want to do it, not because all of you want it or because you, Ruban, advised me to do it!"
5
Ruban says, "It is all the same to me for what reasons you do anything, as long as you do the right thing! But do you know, first vice-director and leader of the external affairs of the institute, that is still your old, arrogant-sounding way of speaking and acting, that you say to the best advice that another person has given you: Oh, I saw that myself long ago, considered it myself and will now do it because I also want to do it! Whether the divine Nazarene will be satisfied with that forever, I hardly know; for He seems to be a great enemy of even the slightest sign of arrogance! I have, you know, quite honestly, never gloated over my reason and with the particular sharpness of my understanding; but I have goodness in my mind, so that I quickly recognize in a person how he is in his way of sensing and thinking.
6
And so I also know the divine Nazarene very magnificently well, how He thinks and desires. He seems to prefer humility above all, without which we cannot truly think either about love or even less about full truth. But we are standing at a point where every glance, step, every word and every action towards our fellow man is a very greatest fraud and a very most cunning lie, and also must be so according to the rules of our order, because our motto is always that all the world should be defrauded and lied to because that is what they want.
7
But that is not the axiom of the divine Nazarene. For him it is certainly just: The most complete and purest truth and its justice at any cost, even for all the assets of the whole world! Therefore gather yourself; for you stand before a judge whose vision even reaches your innermost thoughts! Therefore gather yourself in all things, otherwise very much is lacking!"
8
Roklus says, "Yes, since you, my good brother Ruban, know things so well, then you go in my place to the Nazarene and decide everything with him as you see fit, and it will have to be right by all the rest of us; for we cannot swim against such a powerful current! Go and do that, and I will even be very grateful to you for it!"
9
Ruban says, "Why not? If you all give me the authority to do it, I will very gladly do you this favor "yes, much more willingly than remaining any longer with a vulgar defrauder of the people!"
10
All the twelve say, "Yes, we give you authority to do this, and whatever you decide with the Nazarene will be right by us too; for our Roklus is indeed a very most admirable director of our external affairs of lies and fraud and is a great politician; but the light spheres of truth were never his thing, he would always move very clumsily in them. It is therefore better that you go in his place and decide everything very well and purposefully with the Nazarene!"