Correspondence Between Abgarus and Jesus
- Letter 5 -
Approximately three weeks after the Lords answer to the forth letter, King Abgarus sent the fifth letter to the Lord Jesus.
Abgarus, a small toparch in Edessa, to Jesus, the good Saviour, Who appeared in the land of the Jews around Jerusalem, as the primeval Light, as the eternal primeval Power that newly circumnavigates All, heaven, worlds, creatures - and won't be recognized by the first ones who are called, nevertheless but from those, who have already for thousands of years languished in darkness, all hail from us children of the night!
2
Oh Lord! Which mortal can possibly comprehend the magnitude of Your love to us mankind, who are only Your creatures, out of which love You now want to shape all new, and yet Yourself desires thereby to walk a way, that is for my human concept for God almost impossible and seems to be unthinkable!
3
Even if You're as well here on this earth, which You could scatter away with one breath, as an utterly simple person present under the people, You nevertheless reign and maintain out of Your most inner God-being the entire infinity! And every dust of the earth, each drop in the sea, sun, moon and all numberless stars listen to the all-powerful voice of Your heart, that is the eternal midpoint of all things and beings in the infinity.
4
Oh how endlessly blessed Your disciples must be, to truly recognize You on their brightest spiritual day, like I poor sinner out of my night!
5
Oh if I only wouldn't be lame at my feet, I would be with You already long ago! But thus my miserable feet became to me a hindrance to my greatest bliss. All this I now gladly bear, because You, oh Lord, have found me so far worthy, to speak with me poor dumb droplet by letter, and to teach me about so many miraculous things, over which one can most certainly only be taught by You, oh Lord, but never from men.
6
What did I possibly know before of a life after death? All sages of the world would not have revealed these riddles to me; for all our polytheism-doctrines have certainly a poetic immortality, which however has little to do with reality, just like an empty dream from another, in which one can soon walk on the ocean, and drive over land in a ship.
7
You, oh Lord, have shown me in word and in action, how after death, this our very fragile body at long last takes its beginning as a most perfect, genuine, freest spiritual life, and never again changes eternally.
8
For this reason though have I now made it also my indispensable task, to You, oh Lord, to present my most proper thank You through this letter, for this endlessly enormous grace, which of course against this Your endlessly enormous grace shatters into the purest nothingness.
9
But what, oh Lord, could I possibly give You, that You would not have given me before?!
10
I think proper thanks out of the heart seem to me to be ones best feature for a human being, because ingratitude is certainly its own full property. Consequently, oh Lord, can I present nothing but my small thanks, but nevertheless with the fullest assurance that I am now ready, to implement all at once in my little kingdom, what You, oh Lord, would most graciously instruct me to do, that I following Your wish, should not only at once remove the notorious state-criminal out of the dungeon, but also immediately enroll him in my school and bring him to my table.
11
Whether I have done right with that or not, as one keeps saying, doing too much of the good things, and to judge that, goes beyond my human understanding. Therefore, oh Lord, do I also come in this letter with this part to You, that You would most graciously give me the right direction about that.
12
My love, my thanks and my childlike obedience to You, oh Lord, You alone, Your Will be done!
The Lords very short (and fifth) answer to Abgarus' letter.
13
Listen My beloved son and brother Abgarus! I now have with Me 72 disciples, under those 12 apostles; but all of them together do not have such discernment as well as you, seeing as you are a heathen, plus have never seen Me, and all the many miracles since I became a human being, from my birth.
14
Therefore be of the utmost hope; for you see, it will happen, that I take away the light from the children, and will give it in abundance to the heathen! For you see, a short time ago I found under the here also living heathens, Greeks and Romans, a belief, which equally in all of Israel cannot be found; love and humility however have now become under the Jews entirely strange characteristics of the human heart, which I hardly ever come across in such masses under you.
15
See, therefore I will take it away from the children and will give it to you, that is, all My Kingdom, temporal and eternal! The children however should nourish themselves of the filth of the world.
16
You would like to make My will in your kingdom a decree; that won't do before hand; for you see, you need a certain maturity for all things. But My Law is nothing but My Love. If you want to introduce something of Me in your kingdom, then bring in this Law, after that you will have an easy task with My Will. For you see, My Will and My Law are so entirely One, just like I and the Father are entirely One.
17
Certainly there are yet a good many things that lie in My Will, what you cannot grasp now. However, when My disciple comes to you, who will lead you in all things, and consequently you become baptized in My Name through him, the Holy Ghost will come over you, and will instruct you in all things.
18
With the criminal, you have done completely right. For you see, I do the same with you heathen. Nevertheless your deed is a good mirror, for what I already do and will do later in abundance.
19
This is to your peace and your blessing! - Amen.