But My disciple John asked Me, saying, ‘Lord, if You wish it, this very night I would like to record everything that happened here!’
I say, ‘Not everything, My brother, but only what I told you to note down. For if you were to record everything that has happened and will yet happen here during these two days, you would have to fill many skins with writing. But who would then read and grasp all that? If, however, you record only the main events correctly, in the proper correspondence as it has been given to you, then the upright wise in My name will in any case discover everything that happened here and why, and you will spare yourself a great deal of unnecessary effort. So, My most beloved brother, make your work easy for yourself, and you will nevertheless remain the first recorder of My teachings and deeds forever.’
John kisses Me on the breast, and with the woman and the physician beside us we go into the city and there into Joseph’s house, since it is already quite dark.
When we come into the truly large house, the woman finds preparations in her house for My lodging such as she had never even imagined! There are a great many well-laden tables and a good number of chairs around them. On every table stand brightly shining lamps made of precious metals; the floors are entirely covered with the most beautiful carpets, the walls themselves hung symmetrically with floral tapestries, and a delicious wine sparkles toward the guests from the most beautiful crystal goblets!
The woman cannot compose herself at all, and only after a while of seemingly endless astonishment does she say, ‘But Lord, what have You done? Have You had this arranged by Your disciples, whom You perhaps sent here secretly? Where did they get all these things? I certainly know what I have! Surely nothing of gold and silver, yet everything here abounds in these metals! I have never seen a crystal goblet like this one here, and here stand hundreds, each worth thirty pieces of silver; this wine, these foods and fruits, the fine bread, and the many most costly carpets, one of which surely costs a hundred heavy silver groschen! Oh Lord, do tell poor me whether You brought all this with You, or whether it was borrowed somewhere here in the city?’
I say, ‘Look, dear woman! Outside at the well you said that this house belonged to Me. I accepted this gift from you, and since the house is now Mine, it surely would not have been fitting of Me to lead you, its giver, into an unadorned room! Look, as one hand washes the other, so it is here as well: one honor calls for another! You gave it to Me entirely, with all your heart, as it was before; but now I give it back to you as it is presently furnished. I think you will be quite satisfied with this exchange! For look, I too understand a little about proper adornment and fine taste.
‘And I tell you: all this, like everything else, I learned from My Father! For the endlessly many dwellings in My Father’s house are likewise full of the very finest taste and the highest adornments. You can already see this quite clearly if you look attentively at the flowers of the fields, the simplest of which is more gloriously adorned than Solomon in all his royal splendor!
‘But if the Father so adorns and decorates even the flowers, which last only a short time, how much more will He adorn and decorate His dwelling house in heaven! But what the Father does, I also do, for I and the Father are wholly One in the ground of the ground! Whoever receives Me also receives the Father, for the Father is in Me as I am in the Father. Whatever someone does to Me, they thus also do to the Father; and therefore you can give Me nothing that you would not immediately receive back a hundredfold! Now you know everything necessary.
‘But now let us sit down and eat supper, for there are many hungry and thirsty people among us. Only after we have strengthened our limbs shall we speak further about this point.’
Everyone now sits down at the tables, gives thanks, and then strengthens themselves with food and drink.