The Three Days in the Temple
Conversations of the twelve year old Jesus
- Chapter 9 -
The promise of the Boy Jesus to the Roman judge, and the High priest's wrath about it. How man himself can become the living Word of God and thus God. The refutation of the High priest by the Boy Jesus with the aid of the People's Catechism.
BUT I looked most kindly at the Roman judge and said: "You are a heathen surely, but you are just and your heart is good, and truly when now the true Kingdom of God comes to man upon earth, you and your whole house shall be received into it, shall be blessed, and shall never see death Eternally!"
2
Said the judge: "How can you make such a promise?"
3
Said I: "Nothing easier than that! For I told you that I know that wonderful Boy, and that I am His most intimate friend. When I come to Him then I shall not forget you, and He will bless you, and His blessing will not be without a result!"
4
On this the High priest rose up in wrath and said: "Is then that boy a God that he can bless as if he were a God? Do you not know that only God can bless and His High priest three times a year? How is it that you say of that boy that he too can bless a man and even his whole house? What kind of teachers must there be with you, that their pupils can talk such nonsense?"
5
I said: "Firstly you yourselves have given us such teachers, and if the pupils talk nonsense, it falls back upon yourselves, and thus one foolish act produces another. But if what I asserted of the wondrous Boy is nonsense, i.e. that He blesses those who are His true friends, why then do you teach that parents should always bless the children and the children their parents?
6
Noah was no God, and yet gave a most fruitful blessing to both his sons who covered his nakedness! Just in the same way old blind Isaac was no God when he blessed Jacob and gave him the surname of 'Israel', which means as much as 'Out of thee shall come forth the people of God'! Was such a blessing perhaps a fruitless one?
7
If however you say and ask in your great temple pride if that Boy be a God, what can you say to Me if I say to you: Yes, He is, and that evidently with more right then there is written by you: 'The Lord Jehovah Zebaoth spoke to His Gods'! But if thus, in your arrogance, you are Gods, why should that boy, gifted and filled with so many truly divine qualities, be no God even though He is directly descended from David.
8
But whoever hears God's Word and acts according to it, he has God's Word living within him, and has become himself, in all his nature, a living Word of God, and is therefore in his spirit from God. But if that is so, who can say that then the whole person has not proceeded from God? But if a man, through his being completely filled with the Spirit of God, has become in his whole being the living Word of God, fully filled with the spirit of God, is he then not a God seeing that what is perfectly divine must everywhere be regarded as God, and all the more in the case of man?"
9
The High priest said: "What punishable blasphemy have you again uttered now? It is only a silly fool that can talk like that! That is brainless, idle talk, about which a clear thinker must laugh outright!" Thereupon the High priest himself burst out laughing!
10
But I said: "How is it that you call this nonsense? If it is, then you High priest, scribes and elders, are yourselves the creators and promulgators of the same, and of this I can at once give the clearest proof!"
11
The High priest said: "How will you, you impertinent swine herdsman of Galilee, prove that to us?"
12
I said: "Bring Me the People's Catechism!"
13
The High priest said: "And what will you do with it?"
14
I: "That you will soon see! In the meantime let the book be brought to Me!"
15
The book was brought and the High priest said: "Here it is! Now what are you going to do with it?"
16
I said: That you will see at once!" I opened the book and asked the Roman judge to read aloud the passage which I pointed out. He did it with evident joy.
17
The Roman judge: "'Whoever hears God's Word and does accordingly, has God's Word living within him, and has become himself in his whole being a living Word of God, and is therefore in spirit from God. But where that is so, who then can say that the whole man is not from God? But if a man, through his being completely filled with the Spirit of God, has become in his whole being the living Word of God, is he then not a God seeing that that which is perfectly divine must everywhere be regarded as God, and all the more in the case of man."'
18
Upon that the Roman judge said: "Well, these are to a hair's breadth the same words, which just now the respected priest declared to you as being the nonsense of a swine herdsman! Well, I note that this matter is beginning to become more and more interesting! I am most curious myself to see what the result of it will be!"