But scarcely did these two leave the house when others who had only just arrived brought a person who was mute and at the same time possessed. Several Pharisees and scribes whom we have left behind in Matthew’s house two days ago have also followed, to see what I shall do at home and where I shall turn?! They met the two blind men before the house, who immediately told them that a mute and possessed person would now be healed, but said nothing of themselves, for they still had much fear in their hearts.
But at this news the Pharisees hurried so that they would certainly not arrive too late. When they entered the room, they recognized the possessed man, who was mute, and said: ‘Oh, we have known him for a long time! No power can do anything with him! When his devil grows wild, he uproots trees, and no wall or chain is strong enough for him! In fire he does not burn, and woe to the fish when he enters the water! The best thing about him is that he is mute and deaf; if he could hear and speak, no being on earth would be safe from him! Oh, this is a terrible person! Everything flees before him; even the fiercest beasts flee his presence! And he wants to heal him!’
I say: ‘And nevertheless I shall heal him, so that at last you may come to see that all beings must obey God’s power!’
After this I stretched My hand over the possessed man and spoke: ‘Come out of this person, you unclean, evil spirit!’ Then the spirit cried: ‘Where am I to go?!’ I say: ‘Where the sea is deepest, a monster awaits you!’ The evil spirit cried again and immediately came (Matt. 9:33) out of the person.
But immediately afterwards the person took on a very friendly appearance, began to speak full of gratitude and answered everyone most courteously with the gentlest words; and they all satisfied themselves that he had completely lost his deafness and muteness as well.
But the disciples and all the people present began to marvel beyond all measure and said: ‘Truly, this surpasses everything! This has never yet been heard of in Israel! Driving away wind and storm has happened before, though to a lesser degree; apparently dead people have also been made alive again, rocks had to give water, and at Moses’ request manna came from the heavens—of course all this not in such a high degree of perfection.
‘When Solomon was building the temple and for a month no day laborer would lend his hands to the construction, he implored God for workers, and immediately a great multitude of youths came and offered the king their hands for the work; and Solomon took them in and worked with them for a month, as tradition tells us.
‘In brief, many miraculous things have happened from Abraham down to us; but as truly as a God lives and rules over heaven and earth, none equals this miraculous deed!’
This amazement angered the Pharisees mightily, and they could no longer suppress their fury, and therefore said to the people: ‘How can you be (Matt. 9:34) such blind fools?! Did we not make it loudly known to you at our very entry into this room who could be master of such possessed people, since only the chief of all devils alone can do such a thing! He did heal the possessed man, but how?! Through the chief of the devils he has driven this devil away from this person!’
When the furious Pharisees gave Me such testimony before the people, and now also in the presence of the Roman colonel Cornelius, that was the end of it! Completely outraged by this statement, the colonel thundered the sentence upon the Pharisees and scribes: ‘This very day the cross shall be your lot! I will certainly make you recognize the difference between God and devil!’
When the Pharisees had heard this thunder, they began to howl and despair most terribly; but the people cheered and said: ‘Ah! Have you at last found the right man, who will drive out your old devils?! It serves you perfectly right! For you yourselves are entirely like the chief of all devils; you still fight just as he once fought with the archangel Michael for Moses’ body, that is, for the dead matter of his teaching, and you persecute with curse, fire and sword everything that has even a scent of something spiritual! That is also why you are the ones who always act with the devil’s help and encroach upon the old spirit of lies’ trade. Therefore the colonel’s judgment upon you servants of Satan is entirely just, and no pity for you stirs in our hearts!’
Matthew the toll collector steps up to the Pharisees and says: ‘It is about the fourth day since Master Jesus had freed my mother’s old brother from gout on the Sabbath just past. What things you were told then in the deepest depth of the most perfected truth?! Children grasped it almost with their hands and pointed at you with their fingers, so that you had to marvel greatly and were compelled to ask where such wisdom came to Him from! But neither His answers, most full of spirit and instruction, nor His unheard-of deeds could make your eyes clear!
‘If such deeds and teachings cannot open your eyes, and meanwhile in your most evil hearts you only grow ever angrier and thirstier for revenge, tell us, tell us, what do you still lack to be a perfected devil?! Yes, I tell you, as I have told you, that you are worse than all devils together; and therefore before God and all better people it is right and just to exterminate you like ravening beasts!
‘I am certainly a deeply feeling and exceedingly good-natured person, and out of sheer tenderness of feeling cannot even kill a fly or tread on a worm; but I could strike off your heads myself without it making me anxious! Therefore I also praise the colonel Cornelius for condemning you to the gallows—equivalent to the cross.’
When in their great fear the Pharisees saw that no one would take pity on them or intercede for them with the colonel, who exercised the usually inexorable Roman Jus Gladii over all Galilee, they fell down before the colonel, about thirty in number altogether. They declared that earlier they had not meant their words concerning Jesus as evilly as they had been taken, and had only wanted to express more forcefully how the manifest power of God in Jesus, the Master of masters, can and must, when necessary, make even the chief of all devils serve it; for, they go on to say, it would be very sad for people if God had no power over the devils!? But if, as surely can no longer be doubted, the power and strength of the Most High God manifestly work in Jesus, then they must be able to command all devils just as well as all angels and unavoidably compel them to the strictest obedience! We therefore only meant by the exclamation ‘He drives out such devils through their chief’ (!) to indicate that his divine power surpasses everything in heaven, on earth and under the earth. But if we could have meant only this and impossibly anything else by the exclamation for which you condemned us to death, how is it possible that you, high ruler of Rome, could have pronounced such a judgment upon us?! We therefore ask you in the name of the divine Master Jesus most graciously to withdraw your pronounced sentence!?’
The colonel says: ‘If Jesus, the Master, speaks a word for you, I will withdraw my word; if He remains silent, you die without further ado this very day! For I give your words no credence, since the disposition of your hearts is different from what you express with your mouths!’
At these words of the colonel they all now rush to Me and cry: ‘O Jesus, you good Master, we ask you, save and deliver us! Demand hostages from us if you are no longer willing to trust us that we will put no further obstacles in your way from now on! For now we are all more than convinced that you are a purest messenger of God to us, His children who have unfortunately become evil in so very many ways! O Jesus, do not leave our plea unheard!’
I say: ‘Then go home in peace! But take care that you undertake nothing worse; for then I would no longer say to you: go home in peace!’
They vowed everything to Me, and the colonel said: ‘Because He gave you peace, I too give it to you, and withdraw the sentence for now; but woe to you if I learn the slightest thing of you!’
The Pharisees gave thanks, then went home most hurriedly and kept most careful silence, for they all feared Cornelius exceedingly. But in their hearts they brooded all the more incessantly over how they could destroy Me and avenge themselves on the colonel. Yet since no opportunity at all would present itself, they had to put a good face on the game that was bad for them, for their being and nonbeing now depended on it. But this was nevertheless good for My cause; for I could (Matt. 9:35) now proclaim the Gospel of the kingdom of God unhindered in the cities and market towns throughout Galilee for a considerable time, almost until late autumn, and alongside this heal all kinds of plagues and diseases among the people!