John’s disciples say: ‘Are we doing wrong, then, if we live according to John’s teaching? John was certainly a strict preacher, but he did not give us such a teaching!
‘Look, the order of the Essenes, which we know, is strict too, and truthfulness is the first law among them; but what use is all their truthfulness to them? And what use are their other strict rules? Who esteems them? They count for nothing either among the Greeks or among us Jews; only among the Romans are they said to have a few followers! However good and pure the teaching by which they live may be in itself, it is certainly quite excellent for a few people who have withdrawn from the whole world, but entirely unsuitable for all humankind!
‘What use are all the words, however beautiful and powerful, on behalf of a universal sense of brotherhood!?
‘Look, this house is a large house, a hospitable house, and a house that seeks its equal in the beautiful cause of brotherhood; but can you reasonably expect it always to be ready to take in and provide for all people, who are certainly our brothers?! Even if it had the best disposition and the best will for this, it certainly lacks the necessary means, such as space, provisions and various other things!
‘Furthermore, suppose a couple of poor people have built themselves some hut with the greatest difficulty and gathered a very scant supply of food for winter, with which they themselves can only just manage until the earth begins to bear fruit again. But now ten people come to them—that is, to the two who scarcely have enough room for themselves in their hut—and these ten demand admission, shelter and food! Tell us: can any teaching command these two, or even merely advise them and say that it is good and full of blessing to comply with the request of the ten arrivals and thereby ruin themselves to the last drop of life?!’
I say: ‘Every bird sings and chirps according to the beak it has been given, and you speak according to your worldly understanding and can speak no differently because you understand it no differently! And that is already all I can answer you on this. For even if I told you something higher and wholly true from the heavens, you still would not understand Me, for your hard hearts lack the understanding for it!
‘You fools! Who, then, makes the fruits grow and ripen on the earth; who sustains the earth itself and continually gives it the strength for this?! Do you think God cannot or will not repay anything to someone who, denying himself, sacrifices himself for his needy brothers?! Or do you think God is unjust and demands the impossible from people?!
‘But I think that a truly honest good will and the yearning wish to do good to the poor brother wherever possible are quite possible for everyone!
‘If everyone were inspired through and through with this, there would no longer be such a poor hut on earth that only two people could live in it!
‘Look, this house of My friend Matthew has fed many people today and gave away its entire supply out of a truly good heart; and if you do not believe it, go out to the pantry and up to the grain loft, and you will find no supplies! But here stands the master of the house; ask him whether I speak untruth?!’
Matthew fully confirms My statement and says: ‘Lord! Unfortunately it is so today, and I do not know where I shall get what I need to provide for the guests tomorrow! But it has often been so with me, and I trusted in God—and look, it came again in abundance, so that I could provide very well for the guests!’
‘Look!’ I say in response, ‘that is how an upright person thinks and acts in this world, and does not complain that God has ever abandoned him! And so it has always been, and will be eternally!
‘Whoever trusts in God, God trusts him too, does not abandon him and does not let him come to shame! But those who, like you, do indeed believe in God, that He is One, yet do not fully trust Him because their own hearts tell them they are unworthy of God’s help—God does not help them either, for they have no trust in God, but only in their own powers and means, which they hold virtually sacred and inviolable, and say: “Man! If you want to be helped, help yourself! For every person is his own nearest neighbor and provides first for himself, and by the time he has provided for himself, the one in need of help perishes!”
‘But I say: “If you provide first for yourselves, you are abandoned by God and deprived of His blessing and His otherwise supremely certain help! For God created human beings not out of selfishness but out of pure love, and so human beings should correspond completely in all things to the love that gave them existence!
‘“But if you live and act without love and trust in God, you voluntarily turn what is heavenly within you into what is hellish, turn away from God and become servants of hell, which in the end will not withhold your deserved reward either, which is called death in the wrath of God!
‘“You also said that the Essenes, who live according to the school of Pythagoras, are not well received by anyone because of their pure philanthropy, except by a few Romans.
‘“I too do not esteem them, since they do not acknowledge the immortality of the soul; but nevertheless the worst among them is better than the best among you!
‘“I now tell you openly: among all who have been born of women since the beginning of the world, none greater than John has ever come forth. But whoever from now on will be the least among My disciples in the true kingdom of God will be much greater than he whom you call your master, yet have never understood! For he showed you the way to Me and leveled the way before Me and to Me; but the world within you has blinded your hearts, and therefore you do not wish to recognize Me, although you are already with Me!
‘“Go, then, and provide for your world, for your wives and children, so that they may certainly not have to go about naked and no hunger or thirst may ever creep upon their bellies; but shortly it shall become apparent what good you have obtained for them thereby! This I tell you: God will not provide for them! And I can tell you this with the fullest right and in the deepest truth.
‘“Whoever has wealth, property and a trade that can bring him much profit, but saves the profit for himself and his children and looks down with bitterly disposed eyes and heart upon his poor brothers, and shuns the poor children who, lacking all earthly possessions, suffer hunger, thirst and cold, and sends them away when they come to him and ask him for alms. Also whoever says to a brother: ‘Come to me in a few days or weeks and then I will do this and that for you’; but when the brother, hoping and relying upon this, comes and reminds the one who promised that he is now there as he was asked to be, the one who promised excuses himself, saying that even now he is unable to do anything, yet secretly has the means for it—truly, truly, I tell you: he is an enemy of God! For how will he love God, whom he does not see, when he does not love his brother whom he sees before him and whose distress he knows!
‘“Truly, truly, I tell you: whoever abandons his brother in distress at the same time abandons God and heaven! And God will abandon him before he expects it.
‘“But whoever does not abandon his poor brothers, even if God were to draw him into a trial, shall then also be blessed before he expects it, more abundantly in time and eternity than our host’s pantries and grain stores have now been blessed!”’
John’s disciples say: ‘We are quite happy to believe that! For these are completely empty!’