The Great Gospel of John
Volume 10
Jesus' Precepts and Deeds through His Three Years of Teaching
Der Herr in der Stadt am Nebo
- Chapter 208 -
The miraculous feeding in the inn.
The lamb was divided in as many pieces as guests were sitting at the table, and obviously the pieces were a bit small.
2
The innkeeper noticed this himself and asked Me: "Lord and Master, this one lamb is apparently too small for the great number of guests. What do You think if I quickly would prepare another 2 or 3 lambs, because, as I have noticed, this one lamb is hardly enough for our great guest Raphael?"
3
I said: "That will be all right, for as My disciples know, I once satiated a few thousand of people with very few breads and even less fishes, so that they all had more than enough, and after the meal a few baskets with pieces of leftover bread were gathered. And therefore we will have more than enough with this one lamb."
4
The innkeeper said: "What is good for You, o Lord and Master, is of course also good for me. Only Your will be done always."
5
Then also the innkeeper went as usual to sit at our table, but did not dare to take anything of the lamb for himself, for he was afraid that there still would be too little for the others.
6
Then I took a piece from the big platter, put it on his plate and said to him: "Friend, believe what I told you. Before the lamb will be consumed we will be satiated more than enough, and finally the leftovers will be more than enough for all your personnel."
7
Then all the guests were provided with the pieces of lamb and ate their fill. And the more they ate, the more they saw that their plate was fuller. Finally they all had so many leftovers that the pieces did not fit anymore on the big platter on which the lamb was set on the table, and another equally big platter had to be taken to put the other pieces on it to transfer them from the table to the kitchen. Then the 2 platters were taken away, and the woman of the innkeeper with her few daughters and the other kitchen maids could not stop being amazed that this one fried lamb could have produced so many leftovers. They all thanked Me and ate then from the pieces that were left over. And also for the following day there was a complete platter of leftovers.
8
After we had eaten the lamb and were still sitting at the table with our cups full of wine, the supreme judicial city officer asked Me: "O Lord and Master, I understand now a little how You - and Raphael through You - can change a completely bare region into one that is rich in all fruits and plants, and how You were able to put down 2 elephants before me and - as happened yesterday at evening - 14 fierce lions as watchers for the few Jews and Pharisees. It is also not completely unclear to me how You could have immediately changed the water from the cistern into the best Cyprus wine, for these are all things that are easily possible for Your omnipotence.
9
For this is how I thought: You only have to think it and then to say with Your will: 'Let it be', and then, what You called into existence by Your will, is already there, completely finished. For this is what You also had to do when You called the whole Earth into existence out of Yourself, and together with that also gradually everything that is in, on and above it. And when everything was there what You wanted to have on Earth, ready and complete, it was equally possible for You to lay in all plants, animals and human beings the ability to procreate and to multiply, according to the kind of Your creatures that You brought to life.
10
But with this lamb, things are quite different. There was only one lamb that was set on the table, already well prepared and fried, and when it was divided it became clear that the pieces would obviously be small for all the guests. But when a small piece was put to the mouth, it could not be finished because it was visibly growing in the hand of the one who was eating.
11
How could the lamb that is dead in itself become bigger in an always well eatable state with his organism that was completely destroyed by the frying, just like a young cedar becomes bigger from year to year till it becomes a huge tree?
12
This is not surprising for a cedar, for it has its organic, natural life, and its internal organism is arranged as such, but the organism of a fried lamb can, according to me, almost no more possess the ability to grow from the inside and become bigger. But since the lamb, which we savored, became so much bigger that we were not able to completely finish it, I must openly confess that I really do not understand this miracle of Yours."
13
I said: "Look, dear friend, these disciples of Mine are with Me for already so long and they saw such exceptional multiplications of food already several times, but they are Jews, and none of them did not even once come upon the idea to specially ask Me about it. And they did not ask Me because in their still often real Jewish blindness they could not discover a difference between one miracle and another that I performed. But you clever Romans discovered a real difference in My miracles, and the sharpness of your reason makes it worth to further discuss it."
14
One of My disciples, whose name was Philippus, and who otherwise did not so easily open his mouth, said: "O Lord and Master, at some occasions we already so often wanted to ask You more about one or the other thing, which we also did sometimes, but this was never without receiving an admonition. And so from then on we preferred to let someone else ask it and we then listened to what You would say about it, and so we also discovered Your great light in a lot of things and did not have to expect an admonition from You."
15
I said: "If you would have asked Me these kind of things you would have come through it without any admonition from Me, just like everyone else, but you always asked Me about something which I explained already several times to you all, and that is why you forced Me to ask the question that was somehow unpleasant to you: 'How long will I still have to bear you before you will become understanding?'
16
But look here, with these Romans I am not forced to ask such question in return, because their cleverness discovers every difference that exists between the one and the other deed that I perform. I previously also accomplished a multiplication of food on a very large scale when I more than sufficiently satiated several thousands of people with few breads and fishes, and before your eyes I also performed a great number of deeds which our Roman would consider as more natural and understandable. Nevertheless, at that time you did not say: 'Lord and Master, we understand that You filled our nets already several times with fishes, changed very bare regions to become fertile, and at the wedding in Kana in Galilee and in many other places changed water into wine, but how could You change so many breads and fishes, that are dead in itself, in such a way that many thousands were able to sufficiently satiate themselves by them?'
17
Look, My dear friend Philippus, if you would have asked Me this at that time, you very surely would also have come through it without admonition from Me. But you did not ask Me anything because you do not make any difference between My deeds, and you throw them all in one bag, but our friend here, a real Roman of the purest water, found with the cleverness of his reason a real difference, and I also will explain this to him, without giving him, in return of his question, an admonition which appears to be so unpleasant to you all.