38. THE QUESTION OF SIMON OF CANA
SAYS Simon of Cana: ‘Lord, I would like to raise a
question, which seems important at least to myself,
which you may be inclined to answer for us before we
go out – for our instruction and peace of mind. I beg that You
would hear me.’
[2] I said: ‘I can read your question from your heart more precisely
than you can formulate it, but let not this stop you from voicing it
for your brethren’s sake. For the question is of truly great import
and worthy of a true and unspoiled Jew. Therefore bring out into
the open by all means what makes you heavy breasted.’
[3] Says Simon of Cana: ‘Very well. If it be Your will that I too
speak, then let you all hear me. The question is this:
[4] We shall presently be going to those who have need of us. We
shall be preaching what You taught upon the Mount. This Your
Sermon on the Mount is of a purely divine nature and therefore of
a heavenly goodness beyond all measure. But this teaching is for
the most part in strict opposition to the old Mosaic one.
[5] I am familiar with all the localities along the extensive Galilean
sea coast, as also many times no less so with its inhabitants. There
are indeed many among them who have thrown Moses overboard
for Pythagoras, yet it is not these who would pose too much of a
threat for your teaching. But there are among them also many
families, who so to say live and die for Moses and actually more
still for the Temple – and the parents generally more so than the
children – although the reverse is not seldom the case. If therefore
the children of some ultra orthodox Jews receive Your in many
ways anti-Temple teaching, but not their parents, what shall be
the result?
[6] The parents shall reproach the children for disobedience
according to Moses and curse them – a phenomenon none too rare
among fanatically orthodox Jews.
[7] If this undoubtedly shall be taking place in front of our eyes,
what shall have to be our response, because it can doubtlessly be
taken for granted that such parents shall persecute and curse us
without limit?
[8] In the alternative case however it would be much easier of
course, since by mere virtue of political law itself, the children
cannot be lords over the parents. Besides blessings therefore, we
shall be casting the seeds also of discord, quarrelling, rage, hate
and revenge and shall be hated, persecuted and totally cursed by
thousands. Who shall make good such damage and remove the
thousandfold curse from our loins.’
[9] I said: ‘Do not let this overly concern you. See, there comes
down from Heaven not only the mild, all enlivening sun beam of
spring, but storm, hail, lightning and thunder as well.
[10] Everyone praises the sunbeam indeed, but nobody wants to
praise the hail, storm, lightning and thunder. And winter comes too
soon for all, yet winter is more beneficial to all than spring, and
storm, hail, lightning and thunder are as necessary as the sunset’s
mild beams.
[11] I say into you: it shall come and must come that, for My
name’s sake, one brother shall deliver another to death and thus a
father the son, and the children shall be outraged at their parents
and help them towards death. And you have to yourselves be hated
by everyone of the world as it now actually is, for My name’s sake.
[12] Whosoever among you shall not be offended thereby, but
perseveres until the end, shall gain beatitude, for Satan’s paw does
not easily let go of his prey. Have you understood Me?’
[13] Says Judas: ‘It’s getting better all the time. If this sending has
to draw everybody’s hatred upon us, then God help such
undertaking. Good luck, those who will hate us are going to look
after us and keep us like summer does with the snow. Lord, if this
is Your full earnest, then I as a simple but nevertheless quite
experienced man say to You: Let You nicely stay home with us,
because this seed shall not sprout and bring forth fruit. Hear, if we
shall have reached the stage where after our sermon we shall be
hated of everyone like death itself, what shall be left us to do?
Shall we allow ourselves to also be killed on the quiet side? If that
too, who will then spread Your Word? Hey, think of what You are
asking. Do You not for the sake of the most luminescent Heaven
see You make Yourself sheer impossible, being therewith Your
own greatest enemy and persecutor? Where, where in the whole
wide world is he who, hating me beyond death, will listen to my
sermon that is going to fill his house with discord, hate, rage and
deadly revenge? Speak, what is to be done in such unavoidable
circumstance?’
[14] I said: ‘You talk the way you understand it, but we talk
the way we do. You understand everything in the terrestrially crude
way, while the discussion here is from the Heavens, spiritual.
[15] If however you or anyone else should be so scared of men,
then flee from a city where they persecute you, to another.
Because, verily I say unto you: you shall not have preached in all
the cities of Israel by the time I already, as the Son of Man, come
to you again as One who shall kindle judgment for everyone –
a ruinous fire in his heart, arousing the evil worm in the evildoer’s
breast and the fire shall not go out and the worm not die. You
yourselves however shall be justified for, let all those beware once
who persecuted and laid hands upon you.’
[16] Speaks Judas once again: ‘Yes, once we shall have been
killed, You shall follow us indeed. If however you have now given
us the authority over evil spirits and the power to heal all sickness,
why do You not also at the same time provide us with the power to
call forth fire out of the Earth, under the feet of those who
persecute us, and we shall in a short time convert the whole world
for You.’
[17] I said: ‘And would you be more than is your Master and
Lord? I say unto you all however: the disciple is not above his
teacher and the servant not above his lord. It is enough for the
disciple to be like his master and for the servant to be like his lord.
[18] If however your Master does not avail Himself of
extraordinary power in order to force men into His teaching, why
should His disciples and servants want this?
[19] Since they have called Me, as the Lord and Master of the
house from eternity Beelzebub, how much more shall they call you
of My household so.
[20] Since it cannot however remain hidden to Me what they
intend to or do to you, you can also count on My help at all times.
Does the lioness abandon her young, or in times of danger not
hazard her life for every cub that would be taken from her? So,
surely, I too shall know how to protect you with My life in times
of danger.
[21] Therefore do not fear worldly men. What I taught you at
night, that speak before them by day. And what I said to one or the
other of you in the ear of your heart secretly, that proclaim from
the rooftops and therefore fear none of all those who indeed can
kill man’s body, but cannot kill the soul, which alone lives and has
life and which they are unable to damage in any way.
[22] If however you have to fear, then fear Him who is a Lord also
over your souls and can judge same unto Hell, when He will. And
Him you know now, for it is He who is telling you this now.
[23] Look there before us: a roofed barn. See the sparrows
frolicking thereon. They fly up, then literally fall down from the
roof. At the market, two are bought for a penny. How little is their
worth. And yet not one falls from the roof without the will of the
Father in Heaven.
[24] But I say unto you: the hairs of your head are counted, yet
none comes off your head without the Father’s knowledge and
will. If however the Father cares for things seeming so exceedingly
trivial to you, will He then not take care of those of you who
spread His Word and grace?
[25] Therefore yours is a vain fear and you should never fear, for
you surely are better than many sparrows.
[26] Therefore, go ye out without fear and confess Me before men.
Verily, he who shall confess Me before men, him also will I
confess before the Father in Heaven. But whoever among you shall
deny Me before men out of vain fear, him I too shall deny once
before the Father in Heaven.’
[27] Here Judas takes the word again, saying: ‘This all is spoken
wisely and nicely and certainly is also quite true, but of what use is
all this. The teaching certainly is wondrously glorious, pure and
true. We certainly don’t want to argue any part, while your deeds,
for those of us assembled here, more than testify of Him who
basically carries them out. But by prevalent norms, the teaching
together with the deeds not only shall hardly ever find general
acceptance but, as the main cause for strife in every household to
which it is introduced, it shall be either most ardently persecuted,
or even totally proscribed by the state, making us impossibilities.
What then? When, as the spreaders of Your teaching and deeds on
Earth, we shall have certainly soon expired through stoning or the
sword, by fire or indeed on the cross or the lion’s den, who shall
step in our place and carry on for us?’
39. A PROMISE TO THE FAITHFUL
I SAID: ‘I already said to you that you always speak in
accordance with the wisdom of the world. To give the
world its peace would be to give it still more death than it
is imbued with already in all fullness.
[2] If you are to restore sight to the blind, shall he become seeing if
you tear out his eyes, or shall the lame be straightened if you chop
off his defective foot, or shall the dumb ever gain speech if you cut
out his tongue, pest be healed by more pest, or a burning house be
put out with more fire?
[3] See, just so is it with worldly men today. They are spiritually
dead and have no life other than the animalistic natural one. Their
souls are only flesh and their spirit, as good as dead, resembles the
spirits indwelling the stones, chaining together loose matter by
their judged steadfastness, to become stones of all kinds and forms
– softer and harder ones, some transparent and others not and
colored in accordance with their indwelling spirit.
[4] But should you want to liberate the spirits from the stones, will
you be able to bring this about with lukewarm water? Definitely
not. I say unto you: with such gentle and peaceable treatment, the
stone shall remain firmly what it is. Here a mighty fire has to
come, so that the spirits within the stone get into a great battle.
Only then do they themselves tear the bonds of matter and are
liberated. And see, so also it must now be here.
[5] That which liberates the spirits from the stone, the fire, the
battle, the mighty pressure and blows, that also awakens the hearts
of men turned stone, liberating them, especially the hearts of the
great and the rich, who have hearts of diamond which no earthly
fire can soften.
[6] Therefore take note of what I say: let go of the ludicrous notion
that I have come to bring, through you, the peace of the Earth to
worldly men, but rather the sword.
[7] Understand Me properly. I have come to arouse the yet softer
son against the more unbending hardness of his father and the
more unassuming daughter against her domineering mother and
the gentler daughter-in-law against her mean and envious motherin-
law. Verily, man’s worst enemies shall be those of his own
household!
[8] In truth I tell you: whoever loves his father or mother more
than Me is unworthy of Me. And who has sons and daughters and
loves them more than Me is unworthy of Me. Whoever does not
willingly take his burden – even if it should weigh him down like
the Roman cross of death – onto his shoulders and follow Me, is
quite unworthy of Me and shall not participate in the Kingdom
of God.
[9] Truly I tell you: whoever seeks the life of this world, and also
easily finds it, shall lose life eternal and on judgment day,
following the shedding of his body, I shall not awaken him to
everlasting life, but cast him into Hell for eternal death.
[10] But he who does not seek worldly life, even shuns and
despises it out of true, pure love for Me, shall find eternal life, for I
shall awaken him immediately after the death of his body, i.e. on
his judgment day, or the first day of his new life in the spirit-world,
and shall lead him into My Eternal Kingdom and adorn his head
with the crown of eternal, immortal wisdom and love and he will
then rule forever with Me and all the angels of eternal, infinite
Heaven over all the material and spirit world.’
