Nathanael says, ‘Up to this point it was for me to speak with you; from here onward everything lies in the Lord’s hand. What He wills, we too shall will and do. For all of us are still very poor in spirit; therefore we must remain with Him so that the kingdom of heaven may become ours. With the Lord we also wish to bear every suffering and every persecution, so that we may have true comfort in Him and with Him. In His name we wish to be gentle in all our thoughts, judgments, wishes, and desires, and in everything we do and leave undone, so that we may become true possessors of the true soil, which is the pure love of God in our hearts.
‘Nor shall we shun the land where things are harsh and unjust; we are to hunger and thirst for true righteousness, for we have with us Him who can truly satisfy us in this for eternity!
‘But we ourselves wish to be full of mercy toward everyone, whether they act justly or unjustly toward us, so that in the Lord’s eyes we may be considered worthier of God’s great mercy.
‘Likewise, as far as possible, we wish everywhere to guard our hearts against every impurity, as here before you, so that the Lord may not depart from us when we behold Him. For with an impure heart one cannot approach God and behold, in spirit and in all truth, His face and the fullness of the wonders of His works!
‘But if we are pure in heart, we must be peaceable, patient, and gentle toward everyone, since an angry heart can never be pure, because anger always springs from the soil of pride. But if we have a peaceable heart, we can then approach with full confidence, as children, Him who brought us the state of being children of God and Himself taught us to pray to God as our Father.
‘If, as you think, we are also persecuted in other lands and places for our surely most righteous cause, that does not matter, my friend, for in return we have Him and, through Him, the heaven of heavens! And so we are already blessed here, more than blessed, whether people love us or despise and persecute us for His sake, for He is a Lord over everyone and everything. For we too serve in closest attendance upon Him whom all the heavens obey and stand ever ready to serve, as we saw for ourselves yesterday and on earlier occasions. This alone is already our highest reward and highest honor! Therefore do not worry about us, for we know and recognize where we stand.’
The high priest was greatly astonished at this speech full of resolve and said, ‘Truly, if I were not needed here and did not have a wife and children and various other things, I would go with you myself!’
Nathanael says, ‘But we have left wives, children, and possessions and have followed Him, and our wives and children are still alive! I tell you, as I see it: whoever cannot leave something in this world, whatever it may be, out of love for Him is not worthy of His grace! Whether this offends you or not, that is how it is. For my heart tells me so, and in the heart everything is truth once the spirit has awakened within it in living thought in God. He does not need us, but we need Him.
‘Have you ever helped Him lift the great sun above the wide horizon and spread its heavenly light over the wide earth? Or have you ever seen, still less forged, the fetters the Lord lays upon the winds, how He holds the lightning and the mighty thunder, and the sea in its depths? Who can say that they have ever helped the Lord in anything? But if that is so, how can anyone whom the Lord tells to follow Him still think of wife, children, and possessions and not follow Him entirely unconditionally—Him, the Lord of all life, all heavens, and all worlds, for whose coming we have hoped so long, and who has now come in precisely the manner foretold of Him by all the prophets and patriarchs?’
The high priest now says, ‘If only I were not the high priest, truly I would do what all of you have done! But I am the high priest, and since, as I have heard, you will now remain with us only one more day, I am as necessary here to these people still weak in faith as the eye is for seeing. Therefore you will surely see that I must remain here not so much because of my wife, my children, and my possessions as because of these people weak in faith, who for a long time yet will be unable to free themselves completely from the long-implanted idea of the Messiah’s nature and the purpose of His appearance. The effort will be bitter for me! But what can I do?
‘I now firmly believe that your Master is the promised Messiah—but my congregation? You saw how a multitude left even during the sermon! They are full of offended unbelief and will now diligently spread it, and many who have remained here and were full of faith yesterday are now also full of doubt and do not know what to believe!
‘But now think of me, who am an oracle to all of them, and what work I shall have! If I do not convert them, they will remain anything you please, except what they should be, until the end of the world! And look, that is the main reason why I must above all remain here, and I believe the Lord will not be ungracious to me because of it. For although I am not in His company bodily, I shall always remain in it spiritually, and shall strive to serve Him most faithfully as a faithful servant and shepherd of His flock, wholly according to His teaching I have heard here. And I think this too will be right in His eyes!’
I say, ‘Yes, this is entirely right and dear to Me! For you are to be a capable instrument for Me in this congregation, and your reward in heaven shall one day be called great! But now it has become evening, so let us go home again. Let it be.’
After these words we set off down from the mountain on our way home. But many people were still there, although many had left, full of unbelief and anger, before I finished the sermon.