When I ended this speech, a toll collector whose heart had long been glowing for Me, although he was conscious of many sins, came to Me out of the crowd; he fell on his face before Me and said:
‘O Lord! Here in the dust before You lies one who is indeed a great sinner, but nevertheless dares to love You beyond all measure! Look, Lord, it is already high noon; I would gladly invite You and all Your disciples to table, if I were worthy that You should enter beneath my house’s roof! I and my house are too unclean and sinful for You; but in my kitchen pure food and drink are prepared. O grant me, a poor sinner, the grace of having the food brought here for You by pure hands!’
I say: ‘Kisjonah! Rise, I shall go with you into your house and dine with you at midday; may a great salvation come upon your house, not because of your sins; therefore all your sins are also forgiven you as though you had never sinned!’
Then the toll collector Kisjonah rose, and I went with him and many disciples into his house; over a hundred in number found abundant hospitality there, and there was no lack of the best wine.
But besides My disciples, a great crowd of people from all the places of Galilee and also Judea was gathered there, accompanying Me as far as Kisjonah’s house. Since there was no room for them in the house, Kisjonah had bread and wine served to them outside because they were with Me;
naturally, on such occasions there was never a lack of Pharisees, who followed Me everywhere from Capernaum. When they now once again saw Me eating and drinking quite cheerfully and joyfully, and how at table I also extended My hands in all friendliness to the repentant toll collectors, which means those regarded by the Jews as inveterate sinners, and even called them My dear friends, the Pharisees and other strict Jews were once again beside themselves.
But the Pharisees and strict Jews were particularly vexed when, after the meal, I went walking arm in arm with the toll collectors in a beautiful large garden by the lake and also behaved with heartfelt goodness and friendliness towards Kisjonah’s five very charming daughters, because they were truly filled with the most inward love for Me. I even called them, most lovingly and kindly, My dear brides, which seemed dreadfully sinful to the Pharisees!
But when towards evening I finally freely promised Kisjonah that I would remain with him for at least three days and perhaps even longer, the Pharisees and strict Jews were utterly beside themselves. ‘So!’ they said, ‘he associates with such rabble, such arch-sinners and toll collectors, eats and drinks in friendship with them, gets positively drunk, and then walks like a fine gentleman with the most sinful daughters of arch-sinners, courts them, and finally preaches God’s Gospel with such sweet, tender words to such arch-whores, instead of commanding us to seize and burn these monsters! A fine Messiah that would be for us! Now that the five voluptuous whores have won him over, he even wishes to remain here God knows how long.
‘Let us move on; what more should we do with him! We now know perfectly what he amounts to. We have been around him for a considerable time; has anyone among us ever seen him pray? Who ever saw him fast? He does not honor the Sabbath; the greatest arch-heretics and heathens, Greeks and Romans, toll collectors, arch-sinners and voluptuous, supple whores are his friends and delight, and then a good meal and many cups of the best wine!
‘In a word, he is nothing other than, first, a cunning magician from the school of Pythagoras, who supposedly knows how to work by it; besides, he is a fine speaker, which every man must be in order to bring his art to people more easily. He does indeed take no money for it; but is that really so praiseworthy? Oh, all magicians do that in their first year, so as to become famous all the sooner; once they have fame, even kings often have insufficient treasures to satisfy such artists!
‘But what would this man need money for?! He receives food and drink for free, as much as he ever wants, and otherwise needs nothing. Besides, second, he is a glutton, a complete drunkard and a companion of sinners, and thus has a life to his liking; and third, he needs neither God nor His law, for he imagines that he himself is a god, or at least a son of His, whom our God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob is said to have begotten with Mary of Nazareth, whom we know only too well! Who among us is so stupid that he would not recognize such a newly baked, truly heathen magician’s prank at the very first glance?!
‘In brief, we now know enough, and so it is high time to remove ourselves from him; otherwise he will yet do something to us, and we shall belong to the devil beyond rescue! Just look how he courts the five daughters of this most hated toll collector, and how they positively worship him! I wager a thousand pounds against a stater that if this prophet and healer comes to Jerusalem today, he will all too soon make the most intimate acquaintance and form the sweetest friendship with the queen of all whores, the world-famous Mary of Magdala! Perhaps also with Mary and Martha of Bethany, who are said to receive the most visits from the great of Jerusalem after Mary of Magdala!’
Another, who has somewhat better eyes, says to the first speaker, who is a Pharisee: ‘You are certainly not entirely wrong, but if you recall the almost similar scene in the toll collector Matthew’s house, we judged in the same way there too, but were then nevertheless beaten by the immense breadth of his wisdom and could not reply to him one for a thousand! What if he were to speak out against us here again? Would you really take on the defense for us all?’
The first says: ‘What you know, I know too; for I have experienced everything just as you have. He will find excuses in the greatest quantity; for that he is a speaker and a chief magician. But our understanding must guide us here, and our understanding now guides us and says: leave before you belong entirely to the devil—and we shall surely follow such advice from our understanding? Or should we seriously wish to belong to the devil?! No, by God! May that be eternally far from us all; for we have Abraham as our father, and his Father is God; and so we will not let ourselves be hoodwinked by this magician like the heathens!’
The second says again: ‘But his teaching is pure and entirely suited to human nature, and nothing devilish shows through anywhere. I do not entirely share your opinion here, since Moses himself fundamentally taught us the same as this Nazarene!
‘To love God above everything and the nearest brother as oneself, not to repay evil with evil, even to do good to enemies and bless those who curse us, while being humble and full of gentleness—truly, no devilry whatever shows through that!’
The first says: ‘For you, of course not, because you already belong to the devil. Do you not know that the devil is precisely most dangerous when he appears in an angel’s garment of light?’
The second says: ‘If you take such old wives’ tales as the guiding rule of your life, then there is no longer a word to be said to you! Where, then, is the ox or ass who has ever seen and spoken with a Satan in a divine angel’s garment?! Truly, here you and all your hangdog companions do this man an injustice!
‘We know nothing wicked of him, but much that is good and unheard-of wondrous! Why, then, should we judge him at once when we see that he deals with sinners as with the righteous and has much patience and great loving forbearance with them?!’