The Great Gospel of John
Volume 6
Jesus' Precepts and Deeds through His Three Years of Teaching
The Lord and the Priests of the Temple (John 5)
- Chapter 24 -
The Lord's healings at a place near Bethlehem.
The innkeeper, an honest Roman, who also spoke Hebrew quite well, said: "Yes, my dear guests, your visit with many in numbers indeed makes me glad, but a true MALUM OMEN (a bad sign in the sense of an accident) has occurred to this great inn of mine, abundantly equipped with everything. My dear wife who is very experienced in the kitchen and also my two oldest daughters who are just as useful, have been lying in bed with a terrible fever for eight days already. Neither Greek nor Jewish doctors can help them, and so things now look quite bad in my kitchen. I have indeed bread and wine, but even for myself things look very sparse with other meals!"
2
Lazarus, who had known the innkeeper for a long time, said: "Do not worry about this domestic problem; a great blessing has now come to your house! Behold, the great Wonder Saviour is here among us, about whom you will have heard quite a lot from travellers from Galilee! Ask Him, and your sick will be better again immediately!"
3
The innkeeper asked: "Which of you are is he? I have heard inexpressible things about him many times!"
4
Lazarus said: "It is Him right by my side!"
5
When the innkeeper heard such a thing from Lazarus, he literally fell down before Me and asked Me to help his three sick family members; for he firmly believed what Lazarus had told him.
6
But I said to him: "Stand up and go; for your sick are already completely better, and they may now prepare a good meal for us!"
7
The innkeeper got up in a hurry and quickly went to the sick, and they said to him very cheerfully: "Look, we suddenly became so healthy again that we have actually never been healthier! If you want, we will get up and sort out the kitchen!"
8
The innkeeper said: "Do that; for I know that you are fully healthy again! Everything else you will find out!"
9
But the women nonetheless asked the innkeeper to simply tell them very briefly who the great benefactor was, so that they could go to him and firstly present him their due thanks.
10
But the innkeeper said that he had come with some fifty guests, and they all desired a good midday meal above all. It was almost the fifth hour after midday, and he could give them nothing but bread, wine and salt. Thus they should show their gratitude to the great benefactor above all in the kitchen; after the meal there would be more than enough time for everything else.
11
This speech worked, and the cooks were in the kitchen like the wind, and the many servants immediately had to jump about in all corners and be as helpful as they could to the three with the cooking. Then the innkeeper came into the large guest room with a cheerful face and thanked Me with tears in his eyes for this great mercy that had been shown to him, as he expressed himself.
12
But I said to him: "Do not make too much of it; you have been helped, and it does not require anything else!"
13
The innkeeper said: "Oh Master and friend, very much more is necessary! Firstly, I am your most obvious greatest debtor, and secondly I must now honestly admit that I consider you to be more than just a pure man! And as such it would indeed be quite in good order to bring a sacrifice to such a truest man of God!"
14
I said: "Just leave it at that! I am now only a man like any other with flesh and blood; anything further you will learn soon enough! But now be happy and cheerful, just as we all are!"
15
This pleased the innkeeper very much, and he took jugs and immediately brought us the very best wine from his cellar, which he otherwise only tended to place before the highest Romans when they traveled this area - which was not a rarity on this main road.
16
Our Judas immediately reached for a jug and emptied it with great draughts almost to the bottom. The other disciples noticed this and asked him who then according to the ranks deserved to take the first drink from the innkeeper's best wine.
17
Then he (Judas Iscariot) replied: "I was very thirsty, and the preliminary wine was too little for me; but if it is not right, then He will soon reprimand me and therefore you have nothing to criticize me for!"
18
But I looked around and said to the disciples: "Leave him; for to improve him would be like tapping blood out of a stone!"
19
When Judas heard this, he was ashamed, went outside and ran away somewhere, so that for three days we did not see him again. He sought out, however, another inn, in which he lived of his own money; for he always knew how to secretly make money on his travels.
20
But everyone was happy that he had left, and we spent another eight full days with the innkeeper in good care, and I healed many other sick in this area.
21
But when, soon after, the pressure of people became too much, we set off on our way in the early morning and moved to another area where we were taken in just as well and we healed the sick. There the disciples, with the exception of Judas, also had to lay hands on the sick, and everyone became well who had been touched by the disciples' hands. I Myself performed only a few signs there, but instead talked to Lazarus, who was still with us, and the other innkeeper.
22
In the meantime we came back to Bethany again to Lazarus and to our innkeeper. And both, although they had been traveling about four weeks with Me, found everything in the best order at home. We spent another eight days with the innkeeper, and then with Lazarus, who took great joy in the workers that he had taken in from Bethlehem, who did not fail to do anything in his service.
23
When the healed people saw Me, they fell onto their knees before Me in thanks and wanted to actually worship Me; for they had already heard from Mary and Martha who I actually was.
24
But I said to them: "Be silent for now! There will soon enough come a time when you will be able to speak!"
25
Thereupon they got up, promised to be silent and immediately went to the tasks that had been designated for them.