The Great Gospel of John
Volume 9
Jesus' Precepts and Deeds through His Three Years of Teaching
The Lord on the way from Jericho to Nahim in Judea. Luke, Chapter 19
- Chapter 28 -
The Lord heals the son of Zacchaeus.
When the Jews heard what I said, they became angry, and a few of them said among each other: "The Pharisees were right after all when they persecuted this Galilean, because from His words it clearly shows that He will set up the Romans against us who take Him for a God because of His sorceries, and they will certainly take away all our rights and make us all completely their slaves. If He is the One who will bring back the lost Kingdom of God and its justice, and if this has to consist of what He has revealed to us now, He just can keep His Kingdom of God and that nice justice to Himself. And if He will continue to proclaim ever loudly such a Kingdom of God and its justice to us Jews, then it could happen that the Jews will strangle Him earlier than He will do to the Jews with the help of the Romans."
2
When My disciples heard these talks, they said to Me: "Lord, do You not hear what these people are saying? Will You let them go from here unpunished?"
3
I said: "No one has put his hand on Me yet to grab Me, then why should I punish them? I have spoken first, and now they talk among each other and they begin to clear off because they did not like the taste of My words, and for this I do not punish the blind ones. But once they will put their hands on Me, then also the punishment will come over them, as I have shown you already several times. So let them talk unpunished and let them go their way. But let us now go into the house of friend Zacchaeus, then he will prepare a midday meal for us."
4
After these words of Mine we went into the house of Zacchaeus who let immediately bring us bread and wine and commanded his people to do their utmost best to serve us as good as possible.
5
When we were now sitting in a very large and well-equipped room and had refreshed and strengthened ourselves with bread and wine, our Zacchaeus began to thank Me with all his heart because I told the people from Jerusalem, whom he detested, that which they had deserved already for a long time, for although Zacchaeus was a descendant of Abraham, he was a Samaritan and therefore all the more hated by the people of Jerusalem.
6
So he also asked Me if I was against the fact that he was a Samaritan.
7
But I said to him: "Just remain who you are, and be righteous out of true love for God and your neighbor, then you will please Me better than the Jews who kiss the gold of the temple and chase away the poor from their front door with dogs. Therefore, I also will soon let them be chased away and scatter them among foreign nations over the whole world, and they will in future have no more country of their own and possess no more kingdom. But let us let them go their own way and sin until their measure will be full."
8
After these few words of Mine, Zacchaeus thanked Me again, and he asked Me for advice, as to what he should do with his eldest son who was already 16 years old, but since 3 years he had become insane and from day to day he fell into greater madness. He already had called all known and best doctors for his son, and they all had tried to heal him, but all their knowledge and trouble had not only no result, but his son was after each treatment of a doctor worse than before.
9
Then I said to Zacchaeus: "Friend, no earthly doctor can heal such affliction with his herbs. But bring your son here, then you will see the power of God's glory."
10
Then Zacchaeus ordered his helpers to bring his son firmly bound out of his safely locked-up room.
11
Then the helpers said: "Lord, that will be very difficult in the presence of these foreign guests, because firstly he rages almost continuously, and secondly he stinks worse than all pestilence because he constantly smears himself with his excrements."
12
Then I said: "Just bring him here, for I want to see and heal him."
13
A helper, who was of high esteem in the house, said: "O Friend, only God can heal him, but on this Earth no human being anymore. If You also heal him, then You are not a human being, but a God."
14
I said: "Do not worry about that, but do what you have been told."
15
Then the helpers went to bring the son, and all My disciples were shocked when they saw him and said: "He is in a still worse condition than what we have seen in the region of the Gadarenes."
16
But I stood up, threatened the evil spirits in the son and commanded them to leave him immediately forever.
17
Then they still pulled the son once more back and forth, and in the form of many black flies they left the son who became then completely healthy.
18
Now I said to the helpers: "Now bring him outside to the spring and clean him. Give him also clean clothes and bring him here again, so that he can partake with us of the midday meal."
19
And so it was done. Now when the son was sitting at our table, healthy and clean, all the relatives and acquaintances that were living in the house came to our room, and they were extremely surprised about this fast healing of the son. And Zacchaeus thanked Me enthusiastically for this healing.
20
And the chief helper said to Me: "Lord, You are not a human being like we are, but You are a true God whom we men want and will always worship."
21
While the helper was still speaking, the midday meal was set on the table and we began to eat.