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 91 -
For everything, there is a time.
1
(The Lord) "But I have given for you a full extra day of My time for your salvation, and My great love for you decided this for Me.
2
Be aware of it and bear in it mind and do the same if a brother says to you: Enlightened messenger of the Lord, stay a little with me; for my heart finds a powerful comfort and a great, blessed strengthening in your presence! Then you should remain, even if it was much longer than the time scheduled for you by the spirit! For truly I say to you: such a voluntary work of love for one's neighbor will be highly considered by Me!
3
It goes without saying that one can only do that for a friend one, two, three times; but if he still asks you to stay longer, comfort him with the assurance of returning again soon and encourage him on to be most assiduously active according to this teaching of Mine which is given now to all of you, bless him then in My name and move on according to the call of the spirit which now lives in you from Me as a living word and leads you and guides you to eternal life!"
4
Cyrenius says, "Lord, how is it then now? You said last night that You will leave this place after this day! Is that to be accepted as determined completely unchangeable? Would it not be possible then for You, oh Lord, to give us one more day?"
5
I say, "Solomon, the wise man, once said: Everything has its time!, and so I also have My good and exactly allocated time and will therefore not be able to fulfill your request this time; for behold, in the great land of the Jews there are very many cities, places and villages which are all inhabited by people! The very most of them still know nothing about Me, but are also My little children and have already been waiting for a long time for the arrival of the Father from heaven and will also have an immense joy when He is recognized by them as now by you. But you shall not fail completely, My dear friend, in your request! And because you are already so fond of Me, I will spend this night and another three hours of the next morning among you, since My heart is also very blissful among you; but I cannot remain one moment more than three hours! For as they say: Everything on this world has its time and its order!"
6
Cyrenius says, "But You are indeed a Lord of time and can even stop it or even destroy it altogether!"
7
I say, "You are right there and have spoken well! But at the same time it must be noted that because I am a Lord of time and have distributed and determined the time and in a certain respect I am actually time Myself, because it is nothing other than My own highly unchangeable order, against which it is almost simply impossible for Me to act; for if I Myself attack My own order, you would soon see very little of all those creatures whose existence is determined in My eternally unchanging order.
8
Just take the determination away for a moment and in the same instant all that has been determined goes under! Or imagine a firm fortress on a cliff of the firmest rock! You say, this fortress has been built as if for eternity. But if I would allow the powerful cliff to be softened to butter, would the firm fortress then still remain?! Or if you steered a good and solid ship over the sea; would your ship and even the best wind be any good to you if I let the water drain away to the bottom?! That such a thing would be possible for Me you will not doubt! And therefore it is decided that with the determination what has been determined falls into the brook as well.
9
I control time everywhere and am the eternal judgment in it; but in the holy sphere of love there is actually no time any longer, and I can still give something more to love alone. But it still remains exactly as I have said now! But now have Mark bring us more wine so that we can bear the cool of the night more easily; for we will also remain this night out in the open!"