The Great Gospel of John
Volume 3
Jesus' Precepts and Deeds through His Three Years of Teaching
Jesus near Caesarea Philippi
- Chapter 155 -
Hebram's speech about the "New Light" of eternity.
But the thirty young Pharisees present also saw this and among them Hebram and Risa, and had great joy that Cyrenius had succeeded in transforming the fifty stubborn ones for the good work as well.
2
Hebram now stepped up to the head, Stahar, and said, "Look, we thirty are here as we were sent by the temple into the lands in order to bring heathens to the temple; a sour business! Compared to the temple Jews the heathens are approximately two hundred years ahead in their education; and now we should make the seeing blind and put them under the temple's accursed water!? We can't do that, and we can't do anything else! That is what our understanding heart tells us, and we therefore have all become Romans, and our evidence against the temple will bring light for many people. But we have received another great, holy testimony here which gives a brighter light than a thousand suns at once, and that is a light from eternity which even before the creation of the world illuminated the angels who were the living flames of the eternal flame in God, which is called love.
3
We found this original light of all light, this eternal love here; and you have also found it for the most part and you will find much more yet.
4
But it makes us an extremely great joy that you here have also found what we have found. Certainly it has cost you your external, good existence; the fire has consumed all your goods and still licks around it; like we, you lost everything! But it is once and for all the will of God: we people, if we truly want to draw near to God and to carry the serious desire and will in our hearts to be cared for by God in everything, we must first completely turn our backs to the world out of great love and out of the strongest trust in the all-powerful Father, and lose every worldly thing that was dear to us in the world, down to the last atom; for only then is God prepared to accept us, deserted and despised by the world, as His children and to care for us totally, when we will then be truly cared for in all eternity.
5
Once we have been cared for by God, we then see clearly how very badly we were cared for by the world!
6
What use to a person are all the treasures of the Earth which he cannot take with him when he has to leave this Earth forever?! Will he be able to take them with him? But God's treasures, which He created spiritually for soul and spirit, we take these with us into the great beyond, and they will be all in all: food, drink, accommodation and clothing and the complete, eternal life full of clarity, full of light and full of the highest bliss!
7
Therefore do not be sorry for all you have lost from yesterday up to now; for the Lord has already cared for you before you recognized Him as you do now. Sacrifice your love to Him willingly; for He will reward you a thousand times in the spirit for what you have lost in the material world!"
8
Stahar says, "I thank you in the name of all these faithful colleagues and brothers of mine for this very appropriate comfort, and look there on the table at the big and solid lump of silver that the angel conjured out of the air! With that we are already more or less compensated for our loss; but I and all of us now place very little value on this compensation. For what we were, we will never become again, since the wise governor will have a very different disposition with us all, as I secretly suppose. So much will certainly be done for us so that we don't starve and can clothe our body in need; we don't care about anything else any longer! We will also leave this two hundred pounds? weight of silver here for the inn-keeper Mark, partly as a deserved payment for the food and for the drink that he had brought to us and will have brought to us in future.
9
There is only one thing that we would like to learn, and that is: whether the long promised Messiah, already present in the world, is staying anywhere here in the vicinity of this place! To see Him and perhaps to hear a word from Him would be a treasure of all treasures!
10
Just between us: We have a small suspicion about someone about whom we have already heard some incredible things, which no longer seems incredible to us after we have seen the angel's deeds!
11
Well, this person, actually God Himself clothed as a human, seems to us to be that Nazarene called Jesus, about whom such highly wonderful rumors have spread from place to place among the people that we became very embarrassed before the people when we were attacked by them for an illumination of what they saw with their own eyes and heard with their own ears.
12
The governor asked me a very awkward question, the answering of which was very embarrassing! And so I suppose now nothing else except that this wonderful Jesus of Nazareth is unmistakably the Messiah confirmed by the angel as now being present in the world; and this Messiah is perhaps even here among the many present, but who will not let us recognize Him out of surely very highly wise reasons before we are somewhat worthy of it, as has been the case until now!
13
I therefore believe, and say quite openly before you all: If things happen thus, we will turn our backs to the temple and its worthless holiness forever and join the Messiah of the Jews with every fiber of our being! What do you think?"
14
The others say, "Certainly we have nothing to object to here! Whatever you do as our leader, we will do too; for we know the essence of the temple and know that there is no holiness in their walls any longer, because there is no truth, no love and no loyalty to be found in it, but instead only domineeringness, arrogance, anger, revenge, lies of all sorts, food and gluttony and all sorts of incest and whoring and adultery! Those are now the elements of the essence of the temple! What salvation can be expected from such an institution? Curse and ruin, yes, we can only desire this much; but there can no longer be any talk of salvation!
15
We have now considered things very maturely during your speech and now will turn our backs on the temple forever, and that with complete justification; for we have not gullibly accepted something new. We have tested everything very intensively beforehand; even the greatest miracle could not turn us like the wind turns a leaf in the air.
16
But now that we have convinced ourselves fully of the full truth, we cannot do anything other than to accept the truth, as it came from heaven, as what it is - and all the more so since time, circumstance and the sovereignty of Rome are more suitable for us than we could ever have expected!
17
We are now looking forward very much to seeing the Messiah, most certainly from Nazareth! Is it not he in the large group who is wearing a pink-colored tunic and under that a Greek Merino cloak of light blue color, and truly has the most beautiful hair that we have ever seen on a man?!"
18
Stahar says, "Yes, you may not be quite incorrect; for I have been very keen for a long time! I also saw how both the angel as well as Cyrenius constantly looked towards Him during their speech and acts and asked at the same time whether everything that they said and did was correct!
19
Also all the others show him a certain hidden reverence which did not escape my eye! If that is not an imperial prince from Rome, then I would like to swear that this person is the Messiah, and no other!"
20
The others say, "Ah that is no Roman with such beautiful, blond hair! But what could happen to us if we were to go to him and ask him about this and that?!"
21
Stahar says, "We would rather turn to the angel first, or to the supreme governor; we are Roman citizens and have a full right to this."