The Great Gospel of John
Volume 1
Jesus' Precepts and Deeds through His Three Years of Teaching
On Mount Morgenkopf near Kis
- Chapter 175 -
The Lord with His, back at Kisjonah's hut. Domestic hints. The Lord's magnanimity towards His enemies. He and His, fasting. The Pharisaical Sabbath. Descent. The Pharisee and Matthew on the Sabbath.
We now quickly made our way down and Kisjonah hastens towards Me to ask Me and the disciples to the morning meal, at the same time being apologetic about a rather more frugal meal than usual, as the supplies are exhausted and that he had not more brought up, being aware of My moving - on this Sabbath - down from the mountain to the plain. If therefore the meal is a rather moderate one, then would I not attribute it to his lack of will but rather his incapacity.
2
I assuaged him, saying, 'Do not be troubled! All is in order and according to My will; - I want to say unto you, as a beloved brother and friend, that you have indeed outdone yourself in these last few days.
3
As regards the uninvited guests - the legion of Pharisees, there you would by no means have committed a sin by not setting them a table; for these, having gold and silver in great quantity, could have, if they had wanted to, paid their way around here! But you have of course not sinned by providing for them free of charge. I shall not chide you if you want to write them a bill. But the old Tobias is My guest.'
4
Says Kisjonah, 'That I also shall do; there are plenty of poor whom such payment shall benefit! But now, oh Lord, be pleased to partake of the frugal meal with your disciples; the Pharisees are still asleep in the big resting hut and I do not wish them to eat with us!'
5
Say I, 'Let it be! Wake and invite them to the meal! I shall be fasting till midday with all of Mine; we shall then take a proper meal down in the plain.
6
Kisjonah at once does as I told him, although somewhat heavy-heartedly. The Pharisees and their colleagues nimbly get up from their bunks, rushing to the morning meal which they consume with all haste, in spite of the Sabbath, for they fear that the sun, which had indeed been up for quite some time, may soon reach the hut, which was shielded by a great cliff, along which it was built, which would then prevent them from eating until sunset, or till the agreed Sabbath-evasion ritual in the Temple of Jerusalem.
7
Kisjonah notices this and says to Me, 'This business really is quite funny; the Sabbath with these does not commence until the sun shines upon the spot where they find themselves! As You oh Lord have now seen a number of times, the sun does not come to this hut until midday and hence these hypocrites would not commence their Sabbath till noon, to honour it. It would be hard to find anywhere else on earth fellows like these!'
8
Say I, 'Let us leave them; there shall yet be multiple opportunities for rubbing their Sabbath into their noses even before we reach the plain. This is as nothing compared to how they outflank the Sabbath when they want to and when the Sabbath does not promise to yield much of a harvest in their Synagogues; they then shut the windows and doors, so that the sun cannot cast its rays into the chambers of such hypocrites, whereupon there then is no Sabbath in the house! Neither does a dull day serve for a full Sabbath, unless they light their seven-branched candlestick in their Synagogues, for the occasion of a substantial offering of course! For which reason a dull Sabbath always is preferable to them to a fine one like today.
9
But an opportunity shall yet offer itself today, as I have said, where we can bring this out in the open. But let us now get under way; because today shall be very hot and travelling is not too pleasant in such heat.'
10
Thereupon we break forth with hasty steps from the mountain towards the plain and the Pharisees behind us are panting and angry about our rapid steps; one of them even calls out to us, 'Why are you running so nonsensically? Did you by any chance pinch something upon the heights?'
11
The younger Matthew, the disciple, won't let that pass, saying, 'We walk with our own feet and you with yours and hence walk as speedily as we please and do not have to account to you, we hope; neither did we agree with you beforehand how fast we shall go! Hence shut up and go your way as you will. We are not bothering with you, why should you bother with us?!'
12
Says one Pharisee, quite furious about that, 'What are you silly tax-collector reeling off? Do you not know that it is Sabbath today, when none should argue?!'
13
Matthew replies, 'Should the Sabbath apply only to me and not you?! Who was the first to argue? It surely is not written that one cannot walk quickly on a Sabbath? You quite on the contrary demand that one should not be tardy going to the Synagogue on a Sabbath and hence we are not breaking even your own regulations by moving more quickly on a Sabbath than on another day. There is a Synagogue down in the village which we can still reach if we walk quickly; what more do you want of us?!'
14
Say the Pharisees, 'Those who hasten to the Synagogues and schools indeed look like you! It is funny when a tax-collector speaks about a Synagogue! Do we perhaps not know you?!'
15
Says Matthew, 'Time is up for you putting bridles on your mouths, or we shall take the liberty of breaking the Sabbath on your backs with cudgels! Just look at these eternal loafers, what rights they would like to grant themselves over us! Another offending word and I shall give the Sabbath and my humanity a miss and put on bear nature for you!' - To this threat the Pharisees say nothing, but are secretly filled with rage.