The Great Gospel of John
Volume 8
Jesus' Precepts and Deeds through His Three Years of Teaching
The Lord and His adversaries
- Chapter 126 -
The captain of Bethlehem comes to the Lord.
Now when this matter was settled, also the captain of Bethlehem who we left in the inn, came still with a few companions on a horse after us, for he wanted to see and hear Me once more and he also had to discuss a few things with the Romans.
2
After he handed over the horses to the helpers outside, he came immediately into the big room to us and said to Me (the captain): "O great Lord and Master, only after you left the inn, it was as if I had awakened from a dream and wanted to commit myself entirely to You, but then You were already gone. Then I was captured by an all-dominating desire to see, to speak and to hear You once more. So I let immediately the best riding-horses come over from Bethlehem and I rode with these friends of mine in a fast trot to this place and heard outside from the people of this house that You had taken here a little rest-break. Then my heart jumped for joy. Together with my companions I jumped off the horse in great haste and hurried inside, and now I am here to greet You, and to thank You with all my heart for the endless great mercy that I have received from You for the salvation of my gentile soul. Therefore, please accept with mercy, o Lord and Master, this gratitude from me."
3
I said: "Friend, if there were more of this kind of gentiles like you, it soon would become light and bright among the people of this Earth. But unfortunately there are only few of such people and gentiles, and therefore, man in general have to expect - despite My coming to this Earth - a long spiritual night wherein still many battles pro and contra will be fought, but by that the true victory of the eternal truth over the night of all that which is false and evil will remain undecided."
4
The captain said: "Lord and Master, in the large inn near Bethlehem, it only took one word and will from You, and 2 sick people, who had been declared incurable by all doctors, were made healthy. Since You were able to do that, it would easily be possible for You to say: 'Listen, dark souls, I will that it will become light in you', and look, by such a word of power, spoken out by You with Your will, certainly not one dark and evil person would exist anymore on the whole Earth."
5
I said: "In this you are partly right, but I, who surely know best what the whole of man's nature is like and why he also has to be like that in order to be a man and not a man-animal, I say to you that man is a very artful and wisely arranged machine what his body is concerned, of which the health, preservation and possibilities for use is not dependant of the free will of man, but only of Him who has created and build the machinery. Whenever there is something wrong with the machine, the Master of it can by His almighty will easily help without harming in the least the freedom of the knowledge, believe and will of man. But if I also would do this in the same way with the soul and spirit of a person, then the own power of life of the soul, which exists from his free love, from the equally free thinking, searching and knowing, from belief and from the free willing, would be as good as broken and destroyed, and with that, also every individual independence. Then to what advantage would that be to a soul and finally to Me?
6
Therefore, the soul of man must come to the inner, living light of his spirit that lives in him from God, by good instruction and then by his own searching, testing, knowing, believing and willing, and then he has been truly helped forever. Every other might to help him according to your idea would only affect him in a destroying and never healing way.
7
And look, therefore I also accept disciples and teach them Myself just like a real wise father instructs his children, what they should believe, know and then do, for if I would fill them with force at one stroke with My Spirit, then it would be finished with their own independence, with their own seeking, searching, testing, knowing, believing and willing, but also with their individual life and with its freedom.
8
But if I now teach them to know the full truth and to act independently, then the fullest freedom of their souls is not hindered in the least, and what they then will have acquired and what they will have fought for will be their work and also their complete property.
9
And look, this is then also according to the eternal order the will of God regarding the true and only true useful development of life of men on this Earth. And only in this manner can a soul come to the true, eternal life and finally just like God create his own life and his own Heaven.
10
For these reasons, which I have now explained, it is for Me surely easy to heal the sick body of a person, but not at the same time also a sick and dark soul. I heal the souls also, but only by My teaching, when they accept it in faith and then conform their willing and acting to it. But he who wants that, has already, with such a firm will, made My Spirit as his own, and by that a sufficient power of life in himself, which he can call with a perfect right his own, even if he can see that it is still only My power in him that acts and rules.
11
Thus, he who has the opportunity to tell the people My teaching and My will as a loyal worker in My vineyard of human lives will also receive his reward in My Kingdom. Did you well absorb it in you and understand this now?"