The Great Gospel of John
Volume 1
Jesus' Precepts and Deeds through His Three Years of Teaching
In Cana in the valley
- Chapter 211 -
Great healing miracle in Cana of the Valley. Commendable petition to the Lord by the elders. A faith-test. The Lord's address to the physically sick. Gospel rules and social hints. The curse of usury. Progressive social disintegration. Threat of punishment from above.
When the sick; some escorted, others sitting on mules and some carried on stretchers, were assembled around Me in a semi-circle, the elders of this place stepped over to Me with a supplication, saying,
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'Lord. You Who have freed us of our debt to the mighty and exceedingly wealthy Kisjonah - a deed for which we shall never be able to thank you sufficiently - heal these poor if You can, that they too may enjoy with us the fullness of the great favour you bestowed upon us.'
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Say I, 'Yes, I have urged you to do this and can, and will keep My promise, but to begin with, I ask whether you can and want to believe this? Your faith would help you much'.
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Say the elders, 'Lord, it seems to us that You are capable, wherefore we believe, so to speak blindly, that You will heal our sick with wondrous remedies as yet unknown to us.'
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Say I, 'But what if I have no special medications with Me, neither healing oil nor healing potions, nor any usual healing substances; how do you think I shall then heal these sick?'
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Say the elders, 'Lord. How could we possibly understand that? For we probably have more knowledge in any field other than in the art of healing. We indeed have a physician in this place, who however is as good as none, for he has helped no one yet, other than into the grave. If therefore we knew even as much as our physician, we could still not tell You anything about Your method of healing without medicaments; hence we cannot possibly know how it is possible for You to in a natural way make the sick whole!
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Perhaps You have supernatural means at Your disposal, something we cannot know; or You could be perhaps a disciple of the famous wonder-physician of Nazareth by the name of Jesus? Then of course such cures could be possible to You.
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It is an everlasting pity however that we hear how the Pharisees in Jerusalem persistently pressure Herod to arrest and jail this most famous savior. Oh, this is a tragedy for poor, suffering mankind.
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But by good fortune he is supposed to have instructed several students in His art. It is of course rare for a disciple to become as perfect as his master. But with the right amount of diligence, he could have in any case learnt something from him. And that which we suppose as indwelling You to a high degree, is already a considerable something to give us the faith You ....but....what is this?! Even whilst we are trying to represent our faith as based on Your being a disciple of Jesus... all the sick are getting up! The blind are seeing, the lame walking, the dumb speak, the leprous are clean. And among them had been several choleric and some with consumption, and they are well! Surely this is unheard of from the foundation of the world. In the great almighty God's will, how did this take place? Did You perhaps heal them all? Or has an angel descended to this valley from above and invisibly touched all the sick and healed them? What...what went on here?
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You did not even look around to the sick, dealing only with ourselves, yet all the sick are well. Oh, tell us how this came about.'
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Say I, 'What does the 'how' matter, as long as the sick, through My will and through My Inner Word, to which all things are subject, became completely well, something you surely will no longer doubt? But this deed did not take place so much on account of the sick as on your account, who indeed are whole in body, but nonetheless more sick of soul than were those physically sick.
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But I should be very happy if I could also heal your souls the way I healed the physically sick. But this is not so easy, as each soul has to be its own physician.
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But the spiritual medicine I have already given you before, use it in actuality, and you shall become well in your souls, and shall therewith transform yourselves into the true children of God.
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The word that I spoke to you nevertheless must be kept without the slightest addition or subtraction. And you few Jews of this place are to be perfect Jews in heart; and you Greeks are to become true Jews, that there may be peace and unity among you.
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Likewise you Greeks, through your clever spirit of usury are to henceforth desist from forcing the already poor Jews to borrow money on prescribed land-rent rates, in order to achieve your unjust demands.
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Is it you that created this earth with its diverse treasures, that you should now act as if it was your property?
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Why do you demand rent from the Jews, seeing that the land was given to the Jews by God, and that they alone therefore have the right to levy land rent from you? You are strangers in the land of the Jews, who are children of Jehovah more than you, and ask land rent on fields, meadows and woodlands which are the possession of Jews since Abraham. Ask yourselves whether this can be just before God and before all righteous men.
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I hence earnestly warn you against such blatant injustices in the future, or you shall in all seriousness fare badly.
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Restore without remuneration the property and possession seized by you most unjustly and regard yourselves in the land of the Jews as that which you are - namely strangers - and you shall have a blessed part in all now bestowed upon the Jews, as promised in the Word; otherwise the curse of thousands with its effects shall be your portion.
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Regard the matter for once in its true light, and you shall see that in your eyes, the Jews are no more than beasts of burden.
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You indeed cede political right of possession to the Jews, and the Jew can still say, this land belongs to me; but you are there with your tempting wares, you have made the beautiful daughters and wives of the Jews into vain fashion merchants, and fools out of the blind Jews, who prefer their women and daughters dressed up Greek fashion rather than in their simple Jewish apparel. Whereupon they signed over to you the harvest from their fields, gardens and woodlands. And since they still needed their life-support, and to reap some of the harvest from their fields, they had to go into a secondary lease for land use and in addition then tithe you from the harvest. And on top of that you let them, as the true owners, carry all taxation and other burdens.
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I say unto you: such injustice cries out to heaven and calls for punishment from above. Let you therefore suffer My rebuke, or you shall not escape the sharpest scourge from above.'