The Great Gospel of John
Volume 6
Jesus' Precepts and Deeds through His Three Years of Teaching
The Lord on the Mount of Olives (John Chapter 8)
- Chapter 185 -
The healing of the posessed maiden Mary Magdalene by the Lord.
Soon thereafter, about an quarter of an hour later, it cam to pass that the guide of the Romans, who otherwise was a free maiden for licentious men, because of enjoying too much wine, was struck by terrible cramps and screamed pitifully, her face became distorted and her limbs and muscles pulled frightfully.
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The Romans were horrified by it because they regarded such an appearance as an extraordinary malum omen (bad portent). They said: "Woe us, the gods have become enraged by us, because we went to search for a foreign god! What are we going to do now?"
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Said Lazarus: "Nothing, just stay where you are! For this person I already know for some time; she has this illness for several years now, and it quite often already happened to her, especially if she has enjoyed too much wine. We Jews call this being possessed by one or even several evil spirits. During earlier times, when their still existed many devout people, such evil spirits could be expelled from a person by the prayer of a devout; but in our time such nearly doesn't exist anymore. Of course, our great Man could effectuate something like that immediately, if He wanted to!
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See, this is what this appearance is all about, nothing else! How could your Gods become enraged, if they exist nowhere else than in the imagination of the people, who doesn't know anything about a true God, since they never have heard anything about Him? Why not? This lies in the everlasting great wisdom plan of Him, who has created the people."
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This calmed down the Romans, and they again could look at the guide, who was in a wretched condition, and they even were able to call up some compassion for her in themselves.
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The first Roman however, came to our table, where we were still sitting quietly, and from all the people he had selected especially Me and said: "But, dear friend, is there than nobody among you who could assist this unfortunate maiden in any way? You are sitting there so apathetically, while this poor girl battles with death! I surely want to help her, if I would know a cure for such illness; however we Romans, especially regarding such illnesses, are exceedingly badly devised."
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Said I: "You have turned to Me without knowing who I am; but your partial trust that someone at our table could help the possessed, has lead you to Me. And I say to you, that your spirit has directed you to the right Man, who will help her for her bodily well-being and the well-being of her soul. Hence pay attention by which means I will help this maiden forever!"
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Hereupon I got up from My chair, went to the maiden who was already completely stock-still, stretched My hands above her and threatened the seven evil spirits inside her.
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But the spirits screamed loudly out of her belly: "O Jesus, You Son of David, leave us for still a short while in this our dwelling!"
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But I threatened them again and in the same moment they left the maiden.
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And the maiden got up and was so cheerful, fresh and healthy as if there was forever nothing wrong with her. But when she saw Me at her side and she was told that I helped her, she looked firmly at Me and said: "O, is this not the marvellous man, for whom my heart already a year ago started to beat more livelier! And especially him, whom I loved so endlessly and still love, when I only once saw him in passing by, came to help me now! O friend, you should rather have let me die, than to see you again for the biggest torture of my heart, without ever having the hope, to also be loved by you! Since you are a pure person and I am a rejected whore!"
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Hereupon she fell to My feet, kneeling she clasped My feet and wetted them with tears of love and remorse.
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Then some of My disciples came forward and wanted to pull her away from My feet, and remarked to her that this was not appropriate.
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But I said to the disciples: "What are you concerned about?! Am I not the Lord over Me and now also over her? If it becomes too much for Me, I will tell her what is appropriate or not appropriate! I say to you: This maiden has sinned a lot, - but she loves Me more than all of you together; therefore she will be forgiven a lot. And I still say to you, that everywhere, where My gospel is preached, this incident and this maiden must be mentioned."
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Thereupon the disciples retreated and were content.
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But I said to the maiden: "Stand up now; since you have been helped and all your sins are forgiven! But go now and do not sin anymore, so that thereupon not something more worse will happen to you! For if an evil spirit leaves a person, he travels through dry steppes and deserts and searches for a dwelling, and if he does not find anything, he returns. He then finds his old dwelling clean and swept, so that he has a great desire to move in again. However, if he discovers that he alone is too weak, he gathers another seven spirits who are worse than he is, and all of them are then moving by force into the cleaned dwelling, and this second state of a person is then much worse than the first. Therefore, be aware, that same doesn't happen to you! Hence, stand up, go and do not sin anymore!"
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Here the maiden got up and because of all the love and gratitude she nearly couldn't help herself. After a while however, she asked Me, whether she could not stay here at the inn for only one night, since it was already late in the night.
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And I said to her: "I did not speak to you body, but with your soul and with its manifold worldly desires; with your body you can stay wherever you want!"
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With that the maiden was content and sat at the table again, - but her eyes not for one moment turned away from Me.