Simon of Cana says: ‘Lord, I still have a question that seems extremely important, at least to me, which I would ask You to answer before we go out, for our instruction and the peace of our inner disposition. I beg You to hear me!’
I say: ‘I do indeed read your question in your heart more precisely than you will be able to formulate it; but do not let that prevent you from voicing your question for the brothers’ sake! For the question is truly of great importance and worthy of a genuine, uncorrupted Jew! Therefore state quite openly what weighs upon your heart.’
Simon of Cana says: ‘Well then, since it is also Your will that I should speak, let all of you hear me well. This is the question:
‘We shall now go to those who need us; we shall preach what You taught on the mountain. This teaching of Yours on the mountain is purely divine and thus true beyond all measure and heavenly good. But this teaching is for the most part directly opposed to the old Mosaic teaching.
‘I know almost all the places along the extensive Sea of Galilee, and in many cases their inhabitants no less. There are indeed many among them who long ago threw Moses and all the prophets overboard for Pythagoras; these would not be so dangerous to Your new teaching. But among them are also many families who, so to speak, live and die for Moses, and really still more for the temple, and generally the parents more than the children. Accordingly, the children of such strict Jews will probably accept Your teaching, which in many respects opposes the temple, but their parents most probably will not! What will come of that?
‘The parents will accuse the children of disobedience according to Moses and curse them—something by no means uncommon among such fanatical strict Jews!
‘When this undoubtedly happens before our eyes, what shall we have to do? For it must be assumed beyond all doubt that such parents will persecute us and curse us without limit.
‘In the opposite case it would admittedly be easier, because under the political laws the children can already be masters of their parents. In this way, alongside blessing we shall now also sow much discord, strife, anger, hatred and craving for revenge, and take a thousandfold curse from our loins?!’
I say: ‘Let that concern you little! Look, not only the spring sun’s gentle ray, reviving all nature, comes down from heaven, but also storm, hail, lightning and thunder.
‘Everyone indeed praises the sunbeam; but no one wishes to praise hail, storm, lightning and thunder, and winter always comes too early for everyone. Yet winter is more salutary for everyone than spring, and storm, hail, lightning and thunder are as necessary as the gentle ray of the evening glow! (Matt. 10:21)
‘I tell you: it will come thus, and must come thus, that for My name’s sake one brother will hand the other over to death, and likewise the father the son, and the children will rise against their parents and help bring about their death! But you yourselves must (Matt. 10:22) be hated for My name’s sake by everyone belonging to the actual world as it is now.
‘But whoever among you will not take offense at this, but persevere to the end, will become blessed; for Satan does not let his prey out of his paw at a cheap price! Have you understood Me?!’
Judas says: ‘It keeps getting better! If this mission must bring everyone’s hatred upon us, then God be with such an undertaking! Good luck in martial weather! Those who will hate us will surely care for us and keep us as the hot summer does the snow! Lord! If You are completely serious about this, then as a quite simple man, yet endowed with some experience, I tell You: stay quietly at home with us; for this seed will not sprout and bear a fruit! Listen! When by our preaching and deeds we have brought things to the point in a city where everyone hates us like death, what shall we then have to do? Should we also let ourselves be killed quite calmly?! If that too—who will then spread Your teaching further?! Ha, do consider what You demand! For the brightest heaven’s sake, do You not see that by this You make Yourself quite impossible and are Your own very greatest enemy and persecutor?! Where, where in the whole world is there anyone who hated me more than death and would nevertheless listen to my preaching, which fills his house with every discord, hatred, anger and deadly revenge?! Speak! What is to be done in such an unavoidable case?!’
I say: ‘You always speak as you understand it; but We speak as We understand it. You understand everything in a crudely worldly way, while here speech comes spiritually from the heavens.
‘(Matt. 10:23) But if you and someone else together already have such great fear of people, then flee from a city where you will be persecuted into another. For truly I tell you, you will be far from having preached in all Israel’s cities when I, as the Son of Man, come to you again as One who will kindle judgment, a destroying fire in everyone’s heart, and stir the evil worm in the evildoer’s breast; and the fire will never go out, and the worm will not die—but you will be justified in it. For woe one day to all who have persecuted you and laid their hands upon you!’
Judas says again: ‘Yes, when we have already been beaten to death, You will indeed come afterwards! But since You have already given us power over evil spirits and the strength to heal all diseases, why do You not at the same time also confer on us power over evil people, of whom not infrequently one is worse than all the evil spirits that have ever taken up their dwelling as parasites in human bodies? Give us the power to call fire out of the earth beneath the feet of those who persecute us, and in a short time we shall convert the whole world for You!’ (Matt. 10:24)
I say: ‘Do you wish to be more than your Master and Lord? I tell you all: (Matt. 10:25) the disciple is not above his master, nor the servant above his lord! It is enough for the disciple if he is like his master, and likewise for the servant if he is like his lord!
‘But if your Master and Lord does not employ extraordinary means of force to compel people into His teaching, why should His disciples and servants wish to do so? But if worldly people have called Me, the Lord and Father of the house from eternity, Beelzebub, how much more will they call you, the members of My household, the same! (Matt. 10:26)
‘Therefore you should not fear them either, since you know them. Do you think what will be done to you will be hidden from Me?! I tell you: nothing is so hidden that it could not become manifest before Me, nor anything so secret that I would not know of it.
‘But since what people will demand of you and do to you cannot remain hidden from Me, you may also always expect My help. After all, the lioness does not abandon her young, and in danger stakes her life for every cub that someone might wish to snatch from her—so surely I too shall know how to protect you with My life in the time of danger!
‘So have no fear of worldly people! What I taught you in the night, speak before them by day; and what I said secretly to one or another of you in the ear of your heart (Matt. 10:28), now proclaim upon the roofs. Accordingly, do not fear all those who can indeed kill a person’s body like a ravening animal, but cannot kill the soul, which alone lives and has life, and are unable to do it any harm.
‘But if you do have fear, fear rather Him who is also Lord over your souls and can give these a judgment unto hell whenever He wills! And you already know Him, since it is He who now tells you this!
‘Look here before us at a barn that still has a roof; (Matt. 10:29) look how the sparrows make merry upon it: now they fly up, now they actually fall down again from the roof! At the market one buys two for a pfennig; how slight their value is! (Matt. 10:30) And yet not one falls from the roof to the ground without the will of the Father in heaven.
‘But I tell you: your hairs are numbered, and not one leaves your head without the Father’s knowledge and will! But if the Father cares in this way for things that seem so utterly insignificant to you, will He really leave you uncared for, when you carry forth His word and His grace?!
‘(Matt. 10:31) Therefore your fear is vain, and you should never fear; for you are indeed better than (Matt. 10:32) very many sparrows.
‘Therefore go out without further fear and confess Me (Matt. 10:33) before people! Truly! Whoever confesses Me before people, I too shall confess before the Father in heaven; but whoever among you denies Me before people out of vain fear, I too shall one day deny before the Father in heaven.’
Judas speaks again and says: ‘All that is said very wisely and beautifully, and it is certainly true in this form as well—but what use is it all?! The teaching is indeed wonderfully glorious, pure and true; we need waste no further word on that. Your deeds too testify, at least for us gathered here, more than abundantly to who, in the ground of the ground, He is who performs them. But under the given rules of conduct, the teaching together with the deeds will not only hardly ever find general reception and acceptance; rather, since they actually cause discord in every house into which they are brought, they will either be persecuted most severely or prohibited by the state, and we shall become an impossibility—what then? When, as the earthly bearers of Your teaching and deeds, we shall surely all too soon have finished our death struggle either beneath stones or beneath the sword, in fire, or perhaps even on the cross or in a lions’ pit, who will then take our place and perform our services?!’