The Great Gospel of John
Volume 10
Jesus' Precepts and Deeds through His Three Years of Teaching
The Lord on the way to Bethsaida
- Chapter 123 -
The faith and trust of the innkeeper.
After the old man had revealed this to us, I once asked him: 'Friend, we Greeks, who are considered godless gentiles by you Jews, are not very attached to our gods and we already initiated ourselves in the religion of the Jews in Tyre, and we also keep the laws of Moses as much as possible, with the only exception of the somewhat troublesome circumcision in which we really do not see much real benefit for men.'
2
The old man said on this that the circumcision was only valuable for the born Jews if they would strictly keep God's commandments. According to him it was sufficient for God that the gentiles would abandon their idols, would doubtlessly believe in the only true God, keep His 10 commandments, love Him above all and their fellowmen as themselves. God would not ask any other offerings from the gentiles except of having true love in their heart.
3
When I and still some of my neighbors heard this really very wise teaching of the old man, we decided to completely become Jews in faith and deeds but to stay Greeks for the world in order not to become subordinates of the very selfish, imperious and unmerciful chief priests who think immensely high about themselves by thinking that they are the ones they claim to be before the Jews, but when you see them in the true light it becomes all too clear that they are exactly the ones who by their actions directly transgress God's commandments.
4
And now You, who are a wise Jew Yourself, will certainly not say that we Greeks are wrong to be as I have now explained to You. You all should really not be afraid of us Greeks - although we are poor, we are also Jews."
5
I said: "I know that you are Jews according to your faith and deeds, and I also came to you to give you real comfort and to strengthen your faith even more.
6
And since you believe for already a long time in the one, only true God of the Jews, and glorify, honor and praise Him and also life and act according to His commandments, God must certainly visibly have blessed your household already several times, and for that reason He must have rewarded your faith?"
7
The innkeeper said: "Listen, dear, wise friend, despite our firm faith there was actually no question of any special visible blessing for us up to now, but this does not matter, and our faith in Him did not become weaker because of that. But we also were not without blessings, for - although it was tight - we still always had what was necessary and never had to really suffer hunger or thirst, did not have to walk around naked or be without a home.
8
Our small flocks remained healthy and provided us sufficiently with milk and cheese, and our little gardens, which we of course maintained very zealously, produced for our small needs more than sufficient blessings from God, and so we still did not have one single year of bad harvest.
9
The fact that the storms, which passed through now and then, did not spare us is obvious, but we still did not grumble for that, for we thought: 'God tested our faith, our love and loyalty and patience again and will compensate our damage that was caused by the storm with another blessing'. And this was then always the case, and also our gardens flourished again - although with our zeal - and produced what we needed.
10
I also have to add that this region is only very seldom visited by exceptional heavy storm, and when it breaks out now it then, especially on the plains, then we noticed it less in our village than fully on top of the plains because this village lays in a lower part of our highland, as you all can see.
11
And so we are always satisfied with the blessings of our dear Lord and God, and this satisfaction is also a true blessing of God. For what would it benefit us to possess everything like a king while God would punish us with a gnawing dissatisfaction which can all too soon become a bridge to all kinds of big sins? Would that make us happier?
12
And so You see, dear friend, although it may look ever so poor and deserted on the outside, and You might think that God has put His blessing far away from us, that this is nevertheless not the case, for we attach much more importance to the inner and outer blessings that are seldom visible than for our region to be a true Eden and the fried quails would fly in the mouth of itself.
13
Friend, the one to whom God has given the golden satisfaction and real patience, has received more from God than when He - because of his faith, loyalty and virtue - would have given him a whole kingdom with immense treasures.
14
If You truly intensely look at it, dear, very wise friend, then You will also realize that we are not without blessings from God. Am I right or not?"