The hostess now comes with her new husband, greets Me most warmly, and asks Me and all the other guests whether we would like to take the morning meal, since it is already fully prepared.
But I say, ‘Dear Irhael, wait a little longer. The disciples will immediately bring up several more guests. They too should share in breakfast and at the same time learn from My mouth that you two have become a lawful married couple. They should also see that your house ranks not last but now, in all things outwardly and inwardly, among the very first houses of this city, and that this is why I took lodging in this house.’
As I say this to the married couple, Peter and My John are already opening the door, and Matthew enters between them, bows deeply, and says, ‘Lord, I am here, fully ready to serve You alone! I do have a post as a scribe here, which enables me to live and support my little family. But if You need me, O Lord, I shall leave my post at once, and You, O Lord, will not let my little family come to ruin!’
I say, ‘Whoever follows Me should care for nothing except to remain with Me in time and eternity. But look here at this house and these two owners: they will receive your family in My name and provide for them in the best way, and likewise for you whenever you come here by day or by night.’
But Matthew, who knew this house from before, when it was more a ruin than a house, could not cease marveling and said, ‘Lord, a great miracle must have happened here! For the house was a ruin, and now it is a palace that probably has few equals in Jerusalem! And these truly royal furnishings! It must have cost an infinite amount!’
I say, ‘Only hold firmly and clearly in your mind that with God very many things are possible which seem impossible to people, and you will easily understand how this former ruin could now be transformed into a palace! But do you have enough writing material?’
Matthew says, ‘I am supplied for two days. If I should have more, I will get it at once!’
I say, ‘It is enough for ten days; after that we shall obtain material elsewhere. Remain here now and take the morning meal with Us. But after six o’clock we shall go onto the mountain. There I shall proclaim salvation to these peoples. But you, write down everything said directly from My mouth in three chapters, and divide these into short verses in David’s manner. Look around for a couple of other scribes as well, who are to copy what you write, so that this place too may retain a written testimony.’
Matthew says, ‘Lord, Your will shall be followed most precisely.’
After this necessary conversation with Matthew, the other disciples enter, followed by the priests and the other notables of this city, who greet Me with the deepest contrition. The leading priest steps forward a little and says, ‘Lord, You have well prepared this house for Yourself, so that it may be worthy to lodge You. Solomon built the temple with great splendor, so that it might be worthy to serve as a dwelling for Jehovah among people; but people profaned this dwelling through their many vices that cry out to heaven! And Jehovah left the temple and the ark and came to us on the mountain, just as You, O Lord, were first in Jerusalem, found little welcome, and therefore came to us, Your long-standing true worshipers! And so it will now happen as it is written:
‘“In the last time the mountain where the Lord’s house stands will surely be higher than all mountains and will be raised above all hills, and all the heathen will hasten to it. And many peoples will also go and say: come, let us go onto the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, that He may teach us His ways and we may walk on His paths. Yet nevertheless His law will go forth from Zion, and the Lord’s word from Jerusalem.” (Isaiah 2:2–3)
‘But we are all exceedingly glad, like a bride from Jerusalem when her bridegroom comes and for the first time offers her his heart, his hand, and his greeting! For truly, Lord, Jerusalem, the chosen city of the great King, has become so wicked as to be fit to piss on and hiss at, and is not worthy of You. We do not exactly consider ourselves worthy either, for what does it take to be found worthy before God? But this is nevertheless certain: if the Lord now has only two evils to choose between, He will choose us as plainly the lesser! And this is now being wonderfully fulfilled before our eyes. You are He whom we have awaited for so long; therefore hosanna to You who come to us in the name of the Lord!’
I say to the speaker, ‘Yes, you have now spoken quite rightly, but I also tell you: when you hear My teaching, only then will you truly share in the salvation that I shall proclaim to you today from the mountain’s height. For even though grace comes freely to you from above, that is nevertheless not enough, for it does not remain unless it is grasped most actively. It is just as if you stood hungry beneath a tree rich in fruit, and the wind shook it and ripe figs fell down, but you did not pick them up and eat them. Would they satisfy your hunger?
‘Thus it is not hearing alone, but acting according to My teaching, that will first make you share in the salvation that has come to you from Jerusalem. Have you understood that?’
The speaker says, ‘Yes, Lord, for only God can speak as You do!’
‘Well then,’ I say, ‘since you have grasped this, let us take the morning meal! But after the meal, record that last night I joined Irhael in marriage to the physician Joram and blessed them, and that henceforth no one is to take offense at them anymore! But now sit down to the morning meal. Let it be!’
Everyone now sits down—and there are many of them—to take the morning meal, which consisted of the finest milk and honey bread.