The Great Gospel of John
Volume 9
Jesus' Precepts and Deeds through His Three Years of Teaching
The Lord in Jesaira
- Chapter 136 -
The Lord and the poor fisherman.
The pitiful fishermen saw us also, and one of them stepped into a boat, came to us and looked at us in order to know what kind of people we were. When he saw the innkeeper among us, he thought within himself that they were acquaintances of him. He did not inquire any further and wanted to return to the fishermen.
2
But I said to him: "Friend, come to us completely ashore, then I will tell you something very special."
3
Then the skipper turned around, hit the firm shore, tied up the boat with a rope to a mooring, stepped with a firm courage towards Me and asked Me: "Good Man, here I am. What kind of special thing You have to tell me? Speak, because I have not much time to wait long, since the day is already coming to an end and we did not catch much fish for the whole day."
4
I said: "If you would believe in Me, I could help you and your companions to have an abundant catch. But then you should come to Me tomorrow and follow Me."
5
The fisherman said: "Good Man, why should I now have to believe in You, and what should I believe from You? Because I cannot remember to have seen You somewhere, and so I do not know who You are. First make Yourself known to me, then I will believe You. But if I will come to You tomorrow and will follow You wherever You will go, that depends not on me but on the one for whose livelihood I must take care. So what is it, what should I believe from You?"
6
I said: "Have you still not heard anything about that Man who arose in Nazareth and who brings now the eternal Kingdom of God to all men, and who also gives it out of His own power to all those who believe in Him and who want to accept His teaching as a complete pure, living Word from God?"
7
The skipper said: "Good Man, I have heard already many things about the great Savior Jesus of Nazareth, and I also believe in Him, although I still did not see Him anywhere. If You are perhaps the One, then tell me, then I will bow before You and worship You, because with that Savior, God the Lord is as it were visibly united in one person, as I heard from people who came in contact with Him and who also became His disciples."
8
I said: "If you then believe in Jesus of Nazareth, and that the fullness of God's Spirit lives bodily in Him, then return comforted to your fishermen and throw your net one more time into the water, and if you then will have an abundant catch, there will be a light within you out of which you easily will be able to determine who I am. Then still today you will come to Me and let yourself be baptized by Me with the Spirit of truth and of life. But do not ask now any further, but do what I have advised you."
9
Then the fisherman bowed before Me, stepped quickly into his boat, navigated skillfully back to his companions who already prepared themselves to gather in their nets, and he told them what I had advised them to do.
10
Then they all shouted aloud, so that we on the shore could hear it: "Hail to the One who has advised this to you! It is He Himself in whom we believe! What He has advised to you we will do! Hosanna, the high Son of David, who came to save us in the name of the Lord! And now, with good luck in His name! Let us throw out the nets!"
11
Then they threw out their nets, and within a few moments they were filled with so many fishes that the nets could hardly contain them, and the fishermen, about 20 men, needed more than 1 hour to bring over all the fishes from the nets into the containers.
12
When their work was done, they shouted from joy, and they praised God who really had exalted His name in the Son of David. And with their abundant catch they navigated to their little village that was located nearby the place Jesaira.
13
When they came home with their abundant catch, and their relatives saw the big quantity of fishes with which they came home, there was no end to their astonishment. And the relatives said: "Listen, you never caught so many fishes - not even in the most favorable time - and most of them are noble fishes. There must have been a miracle that was performed for you by one or the other pious person who is very pleasing to God, like there seem to be many now since the great Savior of Nazareth is traveling around and who teaches with divine power and voice the truth to the people."
14
The fishermen agreed with their relatives and told them how it happened. And also the relatives glorified and praised God, because He had given such a power to a human being.
15
But the fisherman, who before came in a boat ashore to us, said: "Listen, this Man Jesus of Nazareth is not like a prophet who only can say and do what is given and allowed to Him by God's Spirit, but He is someone in whom the fullness of God's Spirit, power and might lives physically, for He does not say like the prophets: 'The Lord has spoken to me: Open your mouth and tell the people My will and speak so to those who have forgotten Me,' and do this and that. For our Jesus says: 'I am the Lord and you are all brothers, and none of you should exalt himself above the other.' And to the sick ones He says: 'I want it, be healed', and then the sick person is healed in one moment. He who was blind, can see sharper than an eagle, and he who was lame, jumps like a deer. And when He says to a dead person: 'Stand up and walk', then the dead person rises with a full new life and walks around very cheerfully and with joy.
16
Look, this and still much more is witnessed now by thousands of people who have seen it with their own eyes and have heard it with their own ears, and that is why I believe that in the Man Jesus of Nazareth lives the fullness of God's Spirit. But many, many thousands of people take offence that He is a visible Human Being, and they call Him a great prophet from the tribe of David who he himself, in the spirit, called Him his Lord.
17
But if it is written in the Scripture that God has created man in His image and that Abraham has seen God in the form of a man, just like Jacob-Israel, then why should anyone be offended now at the full manly form of the Lord Jesus of Nazareth and not completely believe that in Him lives the same Lord who called Moses on Mount Sinai and who gave him the laws for Israel?
18
But because I completely believe without any doubt that this is indeed the case with Jesus of Nazareth, I will go now without delay on my way and go quickly to Jesaira where He stays personally with the innkeeper whom you all know very well because of his piousness. There I want to know Him still better for the first time personally, and if I come back I will not hide anything from you."
19
Also a few other fishermen said: "Also we want to know Him personally. And since we have given our word to Him, shouting loudly from the ship, that we will go to Him still tonight instead of very early in the morning, we will go with you to Jesaira. But let us take several of the most beautiful and best noble fishes with us that the innkeeper should prepare for the Lord."
20
That was pleasing to everyone, and after the complete sunset in the first twilight, 12 fishermen - each one of them loaded with 3 fishes - went directly on their way, and they arrived easily and quickly to us in Jesaira.