The Great Gospel of John
Volume 9

Jesus' Precepts and Deeds through His Three Years of Teaching

The Lord in Galilee

- Chapter 66 -

The healing of the 10 lepers.

After a little hour we came near a small village or market place, and there, 10 men came to us who suffered from a malicious leper disease. They all came from near Nazareth and had to stay already for a whole year in the open air because no one wanted to accommodate them in an inn, and also no doctor could help them.

When they came very close to Me, the 10 recognized Me and also some of My disciples. They stood still, raised their voice and said: "O Jesus, dear Master, we know You and Your godly power, have mercy on us, for we not only often suffer pains that are hardly bearable, but everyone flees away from our presence."

I said to them: "May your faith help you. Return now again to the little market place and show yourselves to a priest who is also a doctor (which the Jewish priests are usually imagining themselves to be), and he will give you a valid certificate for the world saying that you are now completely clean. But then go away and be useful to the people by the work of your hands, and commit no more sin, so that not something worse will happen to you than up to now, for it is the sin of lewdness that brings about such afflictions to the body. Now go, and do what I have commanded you."

Then the purified men went hastily back again to the market and went to a priest, showed themselves to him and asked him to give them a certificate.

And the priest looked at them, saw that they were completely clean and gave them, in return of a little offering - as this was the custom - to each one of them a personal certificate that consisted of a small sheet of donkey's skin that was made smooth and marked with a star.

With that certificate they went then to an inn, and after they showed the mentioned certificate they were accepted as guests in the inn without any objection.

One of them said however to his former fellow-sufferers: "Listen, that dear Master Jesus of Nazareth has set us free from our serious affliction by His miraculous godly power. Therefore, I consider it as our first duty to turn around immediately, go to meet Him and express once more our thanks to Him."

Then the others said: "You are right, but the sun has already set and it starts to get dark, and He will not stand there now waiting outside of the market until we come back and express our thanks to Him orally. We thank Him in our heart, and He, who also knows what a person thinks, will not hold it against us if we will not go to meet Him to the place where He probable cannot be found anymore."

But the one said: "If the dear Master Jesus knows the thoughts of men also from a distance, as we have already experienced with Him, then He will also know that I will now return to the place where we were cleansed, to give Him there the honor that is due to Him - no matter if He will be there or not."

The others said: "You must do what seems good and right to you. We however think that we are not acting wrongly when we do what seems good and right to us."

Then the 9 went into the inn, but the one returned to the place where he was cleansed and where I was still staying because of the pleasant evening. When he came to me, he felt great gladness that he could still meet Me at the same place where 1/2 hour ago he was cleansed of the malicious leper disease together with the other 9.

At once he fell on his face before Me and praised God with a loud voice (the healed leper): O Jesus, dear, good Master, Son of the living eternal God who are one with Him in nature and Being, and therefore can also do everything what the Father can do, I thank You and praise You because you have shown such great mercy to me and also to the others, my fellow-sufferers. Honor, glory and praise to You as much as to the Father in Heaven who has come in You, His Son, to us poor sinners to fulfill what He faithfully and openly has promised through the mouth of the patriarchs and prophets. O, may Your love, mercy and compassion remain with us always, and make, o Jesus, also the blind of spirit to see that."

I said: "Stand up, because your great faith has helped you. You are a Samaritan and have recognized Me, and you have come and have given the honor to God as it is proper. Therefore, you also will remain in My love. But what about the other 9? Were they also not cleansed just like you? And if they were cleansed, then why did they not come with you to give honor to God, just like you? Is there no one else except you who turned around to give honor to Him who made him healthy? So a stranger knows better what is due to God than those who let themselves be honored as children of God. Therefore, that honor will soon be taken away from the children and be given to the strangers."

The Samaritan kneeled again before Me on the ground and I said once more with friendly words to him: "Stand up completely now and go to the inn, for your faith has helped you. However, say also to your companions, who are Jews, what I have said to you."

Then the healed one stood up completely and went to the inn, and there he met his companions who were eating heartily bread and wine.

When he came to them, they asked him immediately if he still was able to find Me somewhere.

And he told them very seriously and openly what I had said to him.

Then the 9 were overtaken by fear that they could fall back again into the leper disease. Then they did not eat and drink anymore and they regretted that they also did not do what the Samaritan had done.

Soon after that, I came with My disciples and moved into the same inn. A big room was immediately assigned to us, and the innkeeper himself, who also was more a Samaritan than a Jew, asked us at once what we wanted to eat and drink.

And I said: "Just give what you have, and we will eat that."

Then the innkeeper ordered his servants immediately to bring bread and wine, and later a right number of fishes would be well prepared for us.

As the innkeeper had ordered, so it was done.

While we were heartily eating the bread and the wine for some time, the personnel were drawn by curiosity to us in order to see and to hear who we were and from where we came. But when they saw us, they realized that we certainly must be the same by whom the 10 lepers were cleansed, because these had given a precise description of us before, and so the servants recognized us very soon as the miraculous saviors.

That was also immediately told to the innkeeper, and so he also paid immediately more attention to us and inquired about our situation and our work. He came to sit at our table, took also bread and wine and asked one of My disciples if we were perhaps the same men of whom there was One named Jesus who has completely cleansed the 10 lepers only with the power of His word.

The disciple, whose name was James the little, said however: "There at the head of the table sits the Lord. Ask Him, then He will give you the right answer."

Then the innkeeper came immediately to Me and said: "Listen, Friend, are You that wonderful Savior, who outside of the market has cleansed those 10 from their malicious leper disease, only by the power and might of His word? Are You now the already widely known Jesus of Nazareth?"

I said: "Bring them here who told you that. They will surely tell you again if I am the One."

Then the innkeeper went immediately away and brought some of those who were cleansed to us, and at once they said with one voice (the healed ones): "Yes, yes, that is the One who has shown to us, ungrateful ones, that great mercy."

And now also the 9, who did not turn around before, fell down before Me and gave Me the honor.

But I said to them: "Since you were driven to Me by fear that you might be affected again by the leper disease, you have now also come to give God the honor. It will be forgiven to you this time and you will remain clean, but in the future My blessing will not remain with those who after they have received mercy are too lazy to give honor to the One from whom they have received the mercy. Now stand up and go, and from now on do not sin anymore."

Then those who were cleansed stood up, gave once more thanks and went again to the room that was assigned to them.

Now the innkeeper knew with whom he was dealing. He became at once full of respect for Me, left the room and went to the kitchen and ordered his female cooks that they had to prepare the very best fish, which also happened.

Footnotes

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