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 180 -

The Lord raises a widow from the dead.

While they were still eating and drinking, a crowd of women and children came into the hall, lamenting and weeping. They asked Nicodemus to deliver their husbands and helpers, who just now were put behind lock and bolt by the Roman soldiers.

But Nicodemus said: "Your husbands and helpers will be released in 3 days time, but also not one moment sooner. They were given the advice to be indulgent, but because they did not want that, they now also must atone for their obstinacy."

Now also a daughter came forward, who said: "Lord, my mother lies at home and is sick unto death. She is a widow and has only one helper who is generally very loyal and took good care of our house. It was only by coincidence that this helper came with them at the time when the uproar arose on the street, to exchange - as citizen of Emmaus - a few words in favor of our innkeepers. And because he did that, the soldiers took him also, was bound and taken to prison. I am asking you now, dear Judge and lords, for the sake of my mother who is sick unto death, to release our helper again who came into prison totally innocent."

Upon that, Nicodemus said: "The fact that your helper is indeed less guilty to the uproar than the innkeepers and their own helpers, I do not doubt, yet he was still an accomplice and so it did not happen unjustly that he came into prison together with the others. But if your mother, whom I know well, is feeling so bad and if she is sick unto death, I will ask here our supreme Judge if He agrees to release your helper. Therefore, be patient now.

Now of course, Nicodemus was turning to Me and asked Me what had to happen concerning the helper.

I said: "The mentioned helper cannot be released at all from prison because he is not there, for when he noticed that the stubbornness of the innkeepers and their helpers would bring them into prison, he left immediately, and right on time, to hide himself in the same hut where this morning we have met this poor and sick family. I will send Raphael to the place to bring him here quickly. Only after that, we will discuss the rest."

I gave a sign to Raphael, upon which he quickly left the hall and within a few moments he came back again into the hall and brought the helper to us. When the helper was in the hall he began to ask for forgiveness to everyone for the fact that he also, only out of curiosity, had somehow taken part in the uproar.

I said: "Therefore, be more intelligent next time and do not take part in any uproar, otherwise it once could have a bad ending for you. But now, go home with this daughter of that sick mother by whom you are in service, and bring the sick one here. Then I will see if ever she still can be helped."

The two left quickly. But very soon they came back crying, and the helper said: "O, dear Judge, and certainly also equally good Doctor, the mother of this daughter, by whom I am in service, has died. When we came at home she laid in her bed totally without soul. Therefore, she certainly cannot be helped anymore."

I said: "If you could believe, then you also could see the great glory of God's power in man."

The two said: "O Lord, God's power is certainly great and glorious, yet it has not created any cure against death. Certainly, there are wondrous methods by which the most severe illnesses can be cured, but is there a cure by which a dead person can live again? We do believe that the souls of the people continue to live after the death of the body. But that a body, once it is dead, can also be brought back to life, is indeed difficult to believe. Of course, they say about the youngest day that all who have been decayed in their graves since long will rise again. However, this seems to us only an empty teaching of consolation to prevent people from having a too great fright for death. But we think that everyone who has died will eternally not ever rise again.

However, what happens or will happen with the soul after the death of the body, for sure only God will know. Because, as far as we know, there has never been a soul who came back to tell us what it is like on the other side in that world. We thank You, dear Judge and Savior, for Your good will to make our mother better, but because she has already died she also cannot be helped anymore, and it would be very inappropriate if we would have brought the deceased one over here."

I said: "It also could be that the deceased one is only apparently dead, and in that case she could be brought back to life again."

The daughter said: "O dear Savior, my mother died from total exhaustion, of which she has suffered incurably for 5 full years. And whoever dies of such a sickness is not apparently dead, but truly dead. Therefore, we will leave her now alone, because only a God would be able to bring her back to life, but never the expertise and the power of a human being."

I said: "Based on your knowledge you are right on one hand, and also because you do not know Me. However, you should have noticed something before when I knew precisely to point out where your helper was hiding, although I also, during the uproar did not leave My place for one moment. And when I am capable of this, I also could be capable to perform a lot of other things, if you would believe that and would make the effort to bring the deceased one to this place."

The two said: "O dear Savior, if it would not be so unpleasant for You and all other important guests we surely would bring the deceased one here, but you are here joyfully having a meal, and a dead body will certainly not fit well."

I said: "Whether this will fit well or not, experience will show. So just go and bring the deceased one."

Now the two went, and brought, together with a few assistants, the deceased woman into the large hall with the bed on which she laid.

When the deceased one was lying there, all those who were present were somehow shocked and were looking alternately to Me and to the dead body.

However, I stood up and said: "Whoever of you is an expert, let him go to the dead body and examine to see if she is completely dead."

Most of them said: "O Lord and Master, nobody has to examine her anymore, because from a distance one can see that she is entirely dead."

I said: "Well all right then. But then I want that she will live, stand up and be completely healthy, and that she will remain that way unto an old age."

When I had said these words, the woman, who had been dead, stood immediately up from her bed, looked at the guests and asked her partly frightened and partly very surprised daughter: "But where am I and what happened to me?"

The daughter said: "Dear mother, you were sick unto death and an hour ago you were deceased, at my great regret. And look, this wonderful Savior has raised you up from the dead and promised you complete health, which He certainly has also given. And besides that, also a long life."

The woman who was raised from the dead said: "Yes, yes, I live and feel really completely good and healthy. But how can we reward this wonderful Savior now properly, since actually I am only a poor widow woman?"

I said: "If you give something of what you possess to a poor person, then this is the same as if you gave it to Me. For you were that merciful woman who, from the little that she had was sharing the most, and mostly to those who were still poorer than her. And because you were merciful for your poor fellowman, you also have found mercy with Me. But now go and sit at a table to eat and to drink, so that your limbs and bowels will be strengthened."

The woman with her daughter and those who were helping her took a seat at the table. And freshly prepared fish, bread and wine were given to them. And they all ate and drank joyfully and thanked Me oftentimes for the benefit that was given to them.

After they had strengthened themselves in such a way, they all stood up from the table, while they were glorifying and thanking Me. The helpers took the bed and carried it home. The woman and her daughter were still staying and were glorifying and thanking Me even more.

And I said to the daughter: "And what do you say now, you of little faith? Can one raise a dead person or not?"

The deeply moved daughter said: "O Lord and Master, such a thing is surely only possible to You. That is why You probably will be more than only a Savior of the people. All generations will glorify and praise You unto the end of the world, because such deeds cannot remain hidden from the people."

I said: "This you surely have well perceived, but for the moment you should not talk about this too much in your community. And now you can go home."

The two thanked Me once more and they left, escorted to their home by Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea, by which opportunity they both promised them their rich support. They also kept their promise faithfully.

After their return Nicodemus said to Me: "Lord, we have promised our full support to the widow who had been raised from the dead by You, and I think that we did nothing wrong with that."

I said: "How can anyone ever sin because he performed a good deed of mercy? However, what you are doing, do it in silence and do not allow the world to praise you for it. Because it is more than enough when God - for whom nothing is unknown or hidden - sees and knows what kind of unseen good deed someone is performing. However, the one who will let himself be praised by the world for the good deed that he has performed, receives by that already his reward for his good works and can expect later in My Kingdom an extremely little reward. Therefore, even your right hand must not know what your left hand has done. Accept this also into your heart and act accordingly, then you will find life and reward in the Heavens."

On this, none of the two said anything more, because they noticed that it was not to My liking when they would tell Me aloud in front of all those who were present what kind of good works they were planning to do.

The merchants from Damascus were overwhelmed out of pure amazement of what was happening here and their spokesman said in deep respect for Me: "Lord and Master, You are truly more than only a man. Therefore, send Your disciples to us as soon as possible. Then we will listen to them and honor them and will do what they will teach us in Your name. And we thank You now also for everything that we have received and seen here. Now we will go to our inn to tell our still blind colleagues all the things that we have now experienced here in 1 hour. For this reason we are recommending ourselves in Your mercy."

Then also these merchants left us.

Footnotes

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