The Great Gospel of John
Volume 2
Jesus' Precepts and Deeds through His Three Years of Teaching
First journey of the Lord: Kis - landing place at Sibarah - Nazareth
- Chapter 44 -
Personal details about Borus.
Coming home from the fishing about an hour past midday, a good lunch yet again awaited us which Borus, who had not come along fishing with us on that account, had prepared; for his biggest joy was to prepare meals for large numbers of people, and he was especially fond of cooking in the open with his cooks of both sexes. For he was like Kisjonah, sufficiently wealthy to feed and sup with the best wine. For he firstly was the son of an immensely wealthy Greek from Athens who also possessed properties in Asia as well as several small islands. Secondly he was the sole heir of such huge and extensive properties, and thirdly he was by far the most skilled physician of the entire Jewish nation, earning large sums of gold and silver especially from the high-standing and rich persons, which he then on the other hand used to give the sick and poor all kinds of free treatment, wherefore he was also hailed as the greatest philanthropist of the land.
2
In addition he was single, had neither wife nor children, but it nevertheless gave him great pleasure to arrange marriages between poor young men and young and healthy maidens, give them his blessing and provide them with a sufficient dowry. And so he was also now in his happiest frame of mind because he secretly believed that I would really marry the very beautiful and tender Sarah.
3
As we were all sitting at the table, full of good cheer, eating and drinking, he came to Me and secretly asked Me whether something might come of it?
4
And I replied: "Dearest friend and brother. I know your very good and noble heart only too well. I am also quite aware that in your soul you are happiest when you have made others happy. You have hardly ever thought of yourself and since you have noticed between me and the loveliest Sarah a truly notable great love and also heard how this morning we were talking about bride and wife, you are secretly of the happy opinion that a union between Me and the loveliest Sarah is close at hand. But I tell you: There you are slightly wrong. For behold, all the women who live, have lived and are still going to live on earth, provide they lead a pure life, are more or less My brides and My wives as well, but such a very close union with Me does not ever prevent them from becoming the wife of a good man. And it is exactly such a relationship that at present exists between Me and the most lovable Sarah. Therefore, she can quite well become your wife and in spirit be now and forever My true wife.
5
I am now of the opinion: Since you have helped so many very poor, but upright men to good and loving wives, which the young in their youth burning men regarded as a very great blessing, I will now help you to such a blessing too. Behold, it is this truly heavenly beautiful Sarah who shall become your wife. You stood up for Me after her first raising from the dead when she was again dying, and for you I restored her to life a second time and already then destined her as your proper reward. As she looks now, she will also look in her seventieth year; this child will not age on this earth. Look at the two angels with whom Cyrenius is now talking, whether they are as beautiful as this girl. Tell Me honestly whether you have not several times looked meaningfully at this most lovely Sarah and whether your heart has not felt anything."
6
Says Borus somewhat embarrassed: "Lord, to hide that from You would be absolutely impossible. Therefore, I rather say it quite openly: Sarah is the only being on earth whom I would rather possess myself than help someone else to possess. I am already considerably over thirty years and she cannot be more than sixteen, but my heart seems to have hardly reached her beautiful age. If she possibly did become my wife I would love her a thousand times more than my own life."
7
Sarah had attentively listened to this conversation, and when I looked at her and asked her how she liked the discussion between Me and the distinguished looking Borus, she looked down, blushing and said after a while: "But You do really notice everything. I have only once fleetingly looked at the dear Borus because he is such a dear and very obliging man."
8
Say I, in a more joking tone: "But in your heart you have looked at him already several times if I am not wrong?"
9
Says Sarah, hiding her face even more: "But Lord, You are really beginning to get a little bit naughty. Oh, that You have to know everything!"
10
Say I: "Sarah, if this happened and he asked you from all his heart for your most beautiful hand, would you refuse it to him?"
11
Says Sarah, quite pleasantly perplexed at this question: "If I did not do that, how could I then become Your wife? After all, I can love only You, although I must openly admit to You that I very much respect and like the good Borus, for after You he seems to me to be the best man in all the Jewish land, although he was born a Greek and has only recently become a Jew by his conviction, not by circumcision."
12
Say I: "Well, things will work out. Do think it over and look at Lydia over there who is also My wife spiritually, but physically nevertheless the wife of the good Faustus. This does not, however, interfere with our relationship at all, for you still remain My bride, My heavenly wife."
13
Says Sarah after a while: "Even if I may agree to marry the good Borus, I do not know what my earthly parents will say. I would have to ask them too. I would like to marry the good Borus because You would like that, but father and mother should really be asked."
14
Say I: "Well, look at them, they have already been asked and are in full agreement with Me: but by no means do I urge you. You have your completely free will."
15
Says Sarah increasingly embarrassed: "Lord, - yes, I do know, - but - well, I would - rather not."
16
Say I: "What is it that you do not want?"
17
Says Sarah: "Ah, ah, You do embarrass me very much. Oh, if I only had not looked at the so very dear Borus."
18
Ask I: "But you have not told Me yet what it actually is that you do not want. Do now be brave, dearest Sarah, and tell me what you do not really want."
19
Says Sarah: "But Lord, how can you ask? You know anyway what I do not want. Let me guess and by a slight nod I shall reveal what it is that I do not want."
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Say I: "Well, since it is your wish I will let you guess what I think that you do not want. And now listen: you no doubt do not want the good Borus to suffer from grief if you refused him your beautiful hand in marriage?"
21
Sarah rises to her feet, taps Me on the shoulder and says, pro forma gently vexed: "The - is that letting a person guess when one immediately comes out with - almost made a slip of the tongue."
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Say I: "Now, out with the truth!"
23
Says Sarah: "Well, You already said 'With the truth', but it is also true that this is not 'guessing' if one immediately comes out with the truth."
24
Say I: "Now look, I was quite aware that you were more interested in My dearest friend Borus than you wished us to see. But all this is quite in order. The maiden should not reveal until the last moment the special feeling she carries in her heart for a man. Only when the matter is considered in all earnest she should open her heart to the man who wants to make her his wife. Otherwise she entices him before the time, and if possibly obstacles should arise she only saddens his heart and troubles his mind. And all this is then very bad."
25
Says Sarah: "But Lord, I did not do all that."
26
Say I: "No, My dearest Sarah, that is why I praised you as an example. - Now, however, you can tell the dear Borus gradually how you really feel."
27
Says Sarah: "Ah, - I will not tell him yet; it will be time enough when he is my husband."
28
Say I: "But if he were already your husband as far as I am concerned, what then?"
29
Says Sarah, secretly happily surprised: "Well, what then? - Well, yes,. Then - then - well yes - then - I would have to completely reveal my heart to him."
30
Say I to Borus: "Look, how indescribably sweet she is. Take her, love her dearly and tend her like a most tender plant, for I give her to you from the heavens as a well-deserved reward. Go to the parents that they may bless you and then come to Me that I too bless you once more."
31
Borus thanks Me, hardly able to speak for joy, and Sarah modestly rises from her seat and says in a happily exited voice: "Lord, only because it is Your will do I do it with pleasure. If You had not willed it, I would have resisted my heart, - but as it is, I thank you for the best man in all the Jewish land."
32
After these words they both go to the parents asking them for their blessing, and when that is joyfully given, they immediately return to Me. And I also bless them for a marriage valid for all the heavens, and they both thank Me from their deeply touched hearts.
33
Thus here a marriage was quite unexpectedly contracted which could be considered as one of the happiest on earth. Hence it follows that a person never loses what he fully sacrifices to Me, but receives it back full of supreme blessing, and that always at a time when he least expects it. Borus was very much in love with Sarah and would have given all the treasures of the world for her if that had been demanded of him, for her wondrous beauty, particularly after her second raising from the dead, was for Borus something he could not describe, but he nevertheless sacrifice her completely to Me and intended to celebrate My imagined wedding with everything at his disposal. Thus also Sarah had a deep love for Borus, but sacrificed him fully to Me and definitely wanted to belong only to Me. But then the tide suddenly turned and I gave to both what they had given Me with all their heart. Who acts like these two, for him I shall also do what I did for them.
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This as a lesson for everyone who will hear or read it, for in this way one can obtain everything from Me. Whoever sacrifices to Me everything, but nevertheless retains much for himself, will receive back only what he has sacrificed. - And now back to our subject.