‘An example shall make this matter still clearer to you.
‘Look, among those under you are some who have transgressed your laws and are therefore to be chastised. You conduct the prescribed investigations with them and would like to draw their own confession out of them by all kinds of cunning questions. But from their heads they deny everything to your face just as cunningly as you question them cleverly and shrewdly from yours. In this way one lie constantly makes room for another, and you reach no other result with them than that in the end you must sentence them to punishment without their confession, merely on the testimony of witnesses who are often hostile and in whom there is no truth either. In doing so you may always assume that scarcely one out of ten received a just judgment, and the innocent meets the same fate as the guilty!
‘But stand before your poor brothers who have sinned against you, for once, as a person full of love instead of as a judge, and awaken answering love in their hearts. These sinners will faithfully and truly confess to you with repentance and many tears how, when and in what they have sinned against you! But then let the punishment also fall away, for every punishment is itself no truth but its opposite, because it comes not from love but from the wrath of the law and its giver. Yet wrath is itself a judgment, and in judgment there is no love. But where love is lacking, truth too is absent.
‘Therefore hold to pure love and act in its truth and strength, and you will then find truth everywhere and very clearly perceive that there is indeed a universal truth permeating not only this earth but the whole of infinity!
‘If you wished to act thus among people, you would follow Me morally in a wholly valid way and through such following win eternal life for yourself by struggle. But if you remain as you now are, nothing will remain for you beyond the grave but night and an empty, lying existence, which is the death of the spirit of love and truth!
‘For look, this earthly life lasts only a very short time; then comes endless eternity. As you fall, so you will remain lying, if genuine truth has not come alive within you.
‘Now you know everything you need to know for the present. But if you wish for more, go on occasion to the high priest Jonael in Sychar; he will tell you everything he has learned, seen and experienced from Me. Act accordingly, and you will become blessed.’
The colonel, wholly penetrated by the truth of My words, says, ‘Friend, I have now gathered from Your words that You are one of the wisest of this earth’s wise men, and I shall therefore do everything You have advised me. But now I would only like to learn from You Yourself who You really are! For look, apart from the fact that the young men accompanying You have inflicted a complete and most disgraceful defeat upon me, which I can explain in no other way than by necessarily assuming that these young men are gods or genii from the heavens and were therefore able to put me to flight miraculously, I now recognize from Your exceedingly great wisdom alone that You clearly must be more than just an entirely ordinary human being! Surely You have already told and shown many of Your disciples who You are; but You see that I myself am now entirely serious about becoming Your disciple, at least in spirit. So tell me too what I am to think of You Yourself. Who and what are You, and where do You come from, in the ground of the ground?’
I say, ‘First, in the ground of the ground I have already told you, and in such a way that you could easily grasp it if you reflected on it properly; and second, I have just referred you to Jonael for that very reason. When you come to him, you will learn everything you still lack. But now detain us no longer, for the day is beginning to draw to its end, and I still have much to accomplish today!’
The colonel says, ‘Then allow me to accompany You as far as the city!’
I say, ‘The way is open, and if you wish to accompany Me with good intent, do so. But if any motive from hell is present within you, however secretly, remain at home, for such companionship would bring you no blessing at all. You have already tested My power.’
The colonel says, ‘Far be that from me, although I would have reason for it in these critical times, when the time of the myths draws ever nearer, in which the Jews expect from their God a mighty deliverer from Rome’s rule. And now here and there one hears Jews whispering to one another that such a deliverer is already supposed to be on earth! So I could very easily imagine that You were this deliverer. Yes, I have already secretly thought so. But be that as it may, I recognize You as one of the wisest of the wise and therefore love You as a true friend of humanity. So such thoughts of mine shall in no way prevent me, for truth’s sake, from following You personally now to Sychar, and spiritually throughout my life, although I know well that as a Roman I shall erect no triumphal arch for myself by doing so! Now I have revealed myself entirely to You and therefore ask once more whether I may accompany You. If You say yes, I shall accompany You; but if You say no, I shall remain here!’
I say, ‘Well then, accompany Me with all those here at your side, so that you may have valid witnesses beside you.’