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 78 -
The boy Josoe's great wisdom.
Says Josoe, smiling happily: "Lord, this story should be quite easy to manage! I come escorted by uncle Jairus into the house of my parents, still grieving for me. These shall look quite amazed at seeing a boy who resembles their Josoe like one eye another. Then Jairus can say that I am a foundling who even bears the name of the deceased, and my parents shall without much ado adopt me in place of the child, loving me even more than their Josoe. Thereafter they can be gradually led into the full truth through one rare turn after another, and they shall in the end have to believe that I am the real Josoe. At a time that You could determine they can then be led into the fullest truth. - Is it right thus, oh Lord?"
2
Say I to Josoe, "Every lie is an evil and produces again evil."
3
Says the boy: "Lord, when You smile then that is sure to be a good sign, and I am therewith already justified before You, as was Jacob before his blind father Isaac once with his hands wrapped in the lamb's fur! Behold, Lord, this was surely more of a lie than my being introduced to my parents as a "foundling", and yet Jacob's blessing as the first-born was accepted as righteous before God! If God was able to regard an obvious deception that was in fact a lie with eyes of grace and blessing then the present foundling Josoe shall not be an abomination before Him, since he is besides a most authentic foundling, second to none upon all of God's wide earth. I am of the opinion, You my God and Lord, that nothing would be quite as lost for this earth as one who had died; and, therefore, there should also be nothing quite as 'found' in the truest sense as one..., Lord, You understand whom I mean."
4
Say I: "Well done! I knew you would find the right reason but I would like to hear from you nevertheless how you shall in the end through all sorts of rare turns introduce yourself to your parents as the real son Josoe!"
5
Says Josoe: "Oh Lord, that surely is an easy thing. Once inside the house, I shall behave as I always did, which should be easy for me; I shall gradually ask about this and that as I did formerly, also looking for my play things, using them in the familiar manner, which shall obviously strike my parents, finally they say: 'This is our Josoe, perhaps awoken in his grave by Borus and his secret methods and then fully healed by now!'. And I grant them that view provisionally when the time comes they shall indeed find out the truth, and I think the matter will come off quite well."
6
Say I: "But here another lie emerges. Behold, to keep someone deliberately mistaken is as much as lying to someone. How shall you wash yourself clean on that score?"
7
Says Josoe: "Lord, so long as You are still smiling when testing, it is always and everlastingly a good sign; I think that a lie can be of a quite different and twofold nature. To intentionally dish up a lie to someone as a guaranteed truth wickedly is and remains satanic malice. But an apparent lie that once employs to hide the naked truth only while the full truth could obviously still harm rather than benefit the person concerned, cannot be evil if stemming from a good and well-meaning heart.
8
Every parable behind which the most exalted thought could be hidden would in that regard also have to be the crudest lie. And yet the wisest fathers and prophets spoke mainly in parables. And the fact that the well known and famous physician Borus as such characteristically here functions in Your stead basically is no different from Abraham's time, when the three angels came to the patriarch in Jehovah's place, and no different to Joseph in Egypt's lie when his brethren came to him in pursuit of grain. But God Himself willed it so and is certain not to have reckoned such behaviour on Joseph's part as sin. And I think therefore that such apparent lie is a heavenly cleverness, whereas a true lie belongs to the domain of the worst hellish mischievousness!"
9
Say I: "In that case come here, My most beloved Josoe and let yourself be kissed; for as a tender boy you are wiser still than an old scribe already!"
10
With these words Josoe at once rushes around the table, embracing and kissing Me fervently, saying afterwards with fullest abandon, yet wisest cheerfulness: "Take a look here all you celestial spirits, powers and forces and veil your faces! Because what occurred here you have not experienced yet. The eternal holy Father here fully present before us in the son Jesus allows Himself to be carnally caressed by one of His creatures!
11
Thus He Who was from eternity draws the temporal to Himself, caressing it and thus making it into His image. Oh You true and only Father of all men, how sweet the taste of Your love!"