The Great Gospel of John
Volume 3
Jesus' Precepts and Deeds through His Three Years of Teaching
Jesus near Caesarea Philippi
- Chapter 201 -
The difference between the Lord and the magicians.
I say, "Go, and lead both of them to Me!" Shabbi goes and brings both of them to Me.
2
But I ask them whether they would wish to become fully healthy and strong again.
3
Both say, "Yes, Lord, if this is possible! But the strange poison has made me quite paralyzed in all my limbs, and I can only move myself forwards with great effort; and look at this poor, withered flower of a wife - she is ruined in her body for all her life! Oh, Jehovah, why did such a terrible thing have to happen to us?!"
4
I say, "But I want you to be as healthy and cheerful and look as you did when you got married!"
5
When I had said this, something like a flame rushed through both of them, and they were immediately as healthy and strong as if nothing had ever been wrong with them, and their bodies looked the same and even more so than on their wedding day. They were extremely amazed, for such a thing had never been experienced before in Persia.
6
Shabbi also begins to raise his eyebrows more and more, and almost cannot believe his senses; but Jurah nudges him and says to him somewhat secretly, "Hey, I think that we are in exactly the right place, and we cannot be too far from the person that you are trying so carefully to deny! I tell you, it is He - or in all eternity no-one else! Now judge according to your senses!"
7
Shabbi says, "Yes, you must have almost hit the nail on the head! This sudden healing of the both simply through his word; that is more than what all human wisdom can comprehend! Now our rescue also seems somewhat clearer to me. A person in whose will such a power exists that even crude matter must obey, must stand higher than all other people of the Earth; a fullness of divine power must live in him, and his soul must be the living print of the divine will - or it is the godhead itself! Perhaps I went too far in my caution, but I cannot possibly have sinned by it; for I wanted to protect the divine, which could be an abomination to the heathens, and I didn't want to let it be poisoned by them, which would have done no good for either us or the most eminent religion!
8
But as it seems here, the heathens are not as bitter at all as they were portrayed to us in Persia. It can hardly be accepted that the endlessly proud supreme governor Cyrenius should not know what was behind this miracle-worker?! But if he knows it, and calls him a lord, he will then have the very best reason for it! For all the weapons of Rome must be too few and too weak against such a will!
9
That was no conjuring and no miraculous healing in the way of our magicians and priests, who persuade completely healthy people with the means of money and other advantageous promises to pretend to be deaf, lame and blind, to make a pilgrimage to an idol in a dirty temple and then at a decided sign to become seeing, hearing and upright as a tree. In this way a number of feeble-minded people will be persuaded and then if real lame, blind and deaf people come and beg and sacrifice, it will nonetheless be no better for anyone. For always they say: Your faith is too weak, and your petty sacrifice will not please God! Yes, you know that our magicians even bring the dead children of rich parents back to life, but we have known for a long time how, and we also know that such children awakened from death are not their blood relatives. This man here will also certainly be able to call at least the seemingly dead people back into life!"
10
I step up to them and say, "Yes, He can do that without sacrifices, oil and herbal juices! Look down to the beach; the two sons of our innkeeper have just pulled three drowned people out of the water, man and two girls.
11
He is a poor father with his two daughters, a poor Jew. His wife saved her own life thanks to a tree which was floating in the water; but her husband and both the daughters, who all hurried to help their mother as she was in the greatest danger, were washed out to sea by the ever increasing current and drowned in the undulant tides. But the sea's tide threw them ashore completely dead, and the strong sons of our inn-keeper found them now lying dead and have just brought them to land just below us here.
12
But I also want the unfortunate wife to be here too, who is still to be found clinging to the tree, crying, trembling and calling for help.
13
For this I will use My pilot again; then you shall see the glory of God and believe in Him who has saved you all!" Here I call Raphael and give him simply a sign which he understands, and in barely a minute's time he brings to Me on the hill the lamenting wife, who at first cannot be comforted at all.
14
But I touch the woman and say, "Now be calm, woman, and believe and trust; for through God all things are possible!"
15
Then the woman becomes calmer, but says, "I know well that all things are possible for God; but I also know that I as a sinner am not worthy of the mercy of God! Oh, what a purest heart must a person have in order to be worthy of the very least mercy from God! But this door to mercy has long been closed to me. God will surely take little notice of me now in my affliction, since I took too little notice of Him in my happiness. But God already showed me a great mercy when He chastised me!"
16
I say, "How would it be then, if I gave you back your husband and both your daughters?!"
17
The woman says, "Only God will be able to give them back to me on Judgment Day; for they lie buried in the flood and are dead! You could certainly give me the dead, if they have been pulled out of the sea by Mark's sons - but living, never again; for they must already have been completely dead for several hours!"
18
Then I say to the angel, "Bring the three corpses here!" And the angel immediately brings the three to the hill and lays them at My feet.
19
The woman immediately recognizes in the corpses her husband and her two daughters and also immediately begins to weep bitterly.
20
But I say, "Woman, be calm; for you can see that they are just sleeping here!"
21
The woman says, "Yes, they sleep the eternal sleep, from which a person has never awoken!"
22
I say, "Woman, you are wrong; there is no eternal sleep as you mean, since you have no complete belief in a life after death! But I will wake these three so that you and many others will become stronger in faith and trust in the living name of God."
23
Then I say loudly to the corpses, "Rise and stand up from your deathly sleep!"
25
But I now say to the woman, "Go and explain to them where they are now, and what has happened to them! When you have composed yourselves again and recognized each other, we will speak in more detail about it!"
26
But the woman falls before Me to the ground and for amazement cannot pronounce a single word. Only after a while the woman was able to fully stand up and began to laud and praise Me to a great degree; for she was gradually convincing herself more and more that her husband and both her daughters were alive and looked quite healthy and happy.
27
But I turned her attention again to the risen, so she could talk to them and explain that she was the rescued wife of the man and the true mother of both the girls. Then the woman went to the risen people with hurried steps; for if someone was healed by Me or raised from the dead, I would move away from the healed or risen person for reasons known only to Me.
28
Reaching the risen, she immediately identified herself and was immediately recognized by the risen with the greatest and most cheerful amazement and greeted in the warmest way.
29
But I forbade the wife to betray Me as the Saviour and re-awakener to the risen, who were now in full consciousness again, because such a thing was not suitable for a newly awakened life; only after she would receive a sign from Me could she give Me away - something that the woman observed although her husband begged her most imploringly to show him the miracle-working benefactor.