The Great Gospel of John
Volume 7
Jesus' Precepts and Deeds through His Three Years of Teaching
The Lord on the Mount of Olives. (cont.) Gospel of John, Chapter 8
- Chapter 14 -
The new guests at the inn and their accommodation.
The beautiful Jewish girl wanted to converse more with Me; but the servants of Lazarus came into the hall and said that a large number of foreign people were coming up the mountain and they (the servants) do not know where to accommodate all the new arrivals.
2
Said Lazarus to Me: "Lord, what should we do here? My only trust is in You!"
3
I said: "How many will there be, arriving right now and also arriving at a later stage?"
4
Said Lazarus: "Lord, based on the previous years, five-, six, - up to seven hundred heads could be arriving; but today the crowding will apparently be the greatest!"
5
Said I: "Good, go with My servant outside, and he will set up everything in the open for you, so that all the arriving guests will be accommodated quite easily! But let the young people go into the small hall, so that they are not too much exposed to the stares and lechery of the strangers!"
6
After hearing this, Lazarus immediately went outside with Raphael, where Raphael first brought the young people to the small hall next door and thereafter said to Lazarus: "Do you have tables and benches in sufficient numbers?"
7
Said Lazarus: "Yes, you my dearest and mighty friend full of goodness out of God, this is exactly my biggest problem! I have a large number in Bethany; but they cannot be brought here in time! What can we do about it?"
8
Said Raphael: "Don't worry about it! Since you trust the Lord and love Him above all, help is imminent. See, in the name of the Lord I'm a good carpenter, and therefore everything you require will be here!"
9
Raphael hardly finished speaking when the right number of tables and benches were standing there, and above each table was a tent, rather delightfully to look at.
10
All the foreign guests already started to arrive and asked if they could be served here.
11
Said Lazarus: "O very much so, the servants will be here in a moment and bring everyone what he orders!"
12
Said Raphael to Lazarus: "Will there be enough servants for so many guests?"
13
Said Lazarus: "Perhaps just enough; but they will be very busy!"
14
Said Raphael: "Good, if they fall short, I will also help them!"
15
Said Lazarus: "See, God's servant full of charity, what you have done for me here in the name of the Lord, is a miracle above all miracles; but I'm close to not being surprised by anything any longer, since I know the Lord and have been a witness to many miracles, one greater than the other!"
16
Said Raphael: "This is now all the same; since everything that you see and feel and think, is a much greater miracle of the Lord and every man himself is the greatest! Whether the Lord only creates a quickest lightning flash, cracking in one moment from the clouds to earth, or if He creates a sun, which for aeons times aeons of earth years provides light to many worlds, to the wisdom and power of the Lord it is one and the same, and as such you are completely right, that you do not make too much of this latest miracle. It would also be not very wise in front of all these many foreigners. - But now you can see to it that all the guests are served, otherwise they will start making a lot of fuss!"
17
Said Lazarus: "Yes, God's servant full of charity, you are right; only a few have received anything! What can we do about it?"
18
Said Raphael: "Now, what to do? We will help your servants otherwise the many guests will not be served for a long time.
19
Raphael left Lazarus for a brief moment, and in this shortest time all tables where guests have been seated, were served with the best wine, bread, salt and other foodstuff.
20
Such service was of course noticed by some of the guests; but the guests thought that during their conversations they haven't paid enough attention to the serving of wine and bread and other dishes, and they just continued to eat and drink. But what they did notice was the unusual goodness of the wine, since never before have they brought something similar over their palates.
21
Therefore some of them stood up from their tables, went to Lazarus and asked him what wine it was and if he would be prepared to sell it in greater quantities.
22
Said Lazarus: "This wine I myself obtain truly through the mercy of God. Under such circumstances you are allowed to drink with measure and purpose; but I do not possess any wine to sell!"
23
Thereupon the guests went back to their places.
24
Those who came did not leave, but still new guests came, so that Lazarus became quite stressed and he said to Raphael: "My dearest friend, filled with God's charity, if this continues we will finally not have enough tables and seats!"
25
Said Raphael: "Now, then we have to add a few more!"
26
Raphael hardly had spoken, and the tables, benches and tents were ready, but none of the many hundreds of guests noticed how so many tables, benches and tents had been set up. The new guests came and were served in the same manner.
27
When after a few hours the foreigners, who also visited this inn in previous years, were seated and sufficiently fed, Lazarus turned to Raphael and asked him: "Dearest servant of the Lord filled with charity from God, just explain to me a little, how is it possible for you to do such things, and all in one moment! I don't want to say anything about the tables, benches and tents; but from where does the crockery, the salt, the wine and the foodstuff, and the food prepared in such a way that the Persians, also the Egyptians, the Greek, in short everyone irrespective from where they come, had their national food most suitably prepared in front of them! How is that possible for you to perform in one moment?"
28
Said Raphael: "My dearest friend, even if I explained the possibility of all that very precisely to you, you would only comprehend very little or nothing. Therefore, for the time being, I can only tell you that with God all things are possible!"