We too continue eastward and soon come to a little village about twenty field paths from the mansion. All its inhabitants hurry joyfully toward us and gently ask how they can serve us. But I say to them, ‘Is there no one sick among you?’ They answer yes and say, ‘Yes, we have a man who is completely crippled with palsy!’
I say, ‘Then bring him here, so that his health may be restored!’ One says, ‘Lord, that will be difficult. This man crippled with palsy is so contracted that for a full three years he has been unable to leave his bed, and the bed he lies in is hard to carry away, since it is fastened to the floor. Would You not trouble Yourself to go to the sick man?’ I say, ‘If the bed is hard to move, then wrap the sick man in a mat and bring him here!’ At this command several people hurry into the house where the man lies, wrap him in a mat, bring him out to Me in the street, and say, ‘Lord, here is the poor sick man!’
But I ask the sick man whether he believes that I could heal him. Then the sick man looks at Me and says, ‘Dear friend, You certainly look as though You could; You do seem to be a true healer! Yes, yes, I believe it!’
I then say, ‘Well then, rise and walk! Your faith came to your aid. But in future beware of those particular sins of yours, so that you do not fall into palsy again, which a second time would be worse than now!’
And immediately the sick man rises, picks up the mat and begins to walk. Only when he realizes through this that he is completely healed does he fall down before Me and give thanks, saying at last, ‘Lord, there is more than human strength in You! Praised be God’s strength in You! O blessed is the body that bore You, and more than blessed the breast You suckled!’
But I say to him, ‘And blessed are all who hear My words, keep them in their hearts and live according to them!’ The sick man says, ‘Lord, where can one hear You speak?’
I say, ‘You surely know Jonael, the high priest of Sychar, who offered sacrifices on Gerizim? Look, he has My word; go and learn it from him!’ The healed man says, ‘Lord, when can he be found at home?’ I say, ‘He is standing here beside Me; ask him yourself, and he will tell you!’
Here the healed man turns to Jonael and says, ‘Worthy high priest of Jehovah on Gerizim, at what time might I enter your house?’
Jonael says, ‘Until now your work has consisted of lying down and patiently enduring your suffering, so you have little to miss at home. Go with us through this day and listen; much more will happen, and tomorrow you shall learn everything else!’
The healed man says, ‘If I may be considered worthy to walk in such company, I shall follow you with every joy! For, dear friend, when one has had to languish in a hard bed for three full years, often in unspeakable pain, and is now suddenly healed of the grievous affliction by a pure miracle of God, only then does one truly feel the value of health! And what a joy it is to be able to walk with straight legs! Therefore I would now like to go before you dancing and leaping like David, and with great shouts of joy praise the Lord’s great goodness!’
Jonael says, ‘Go and do likewise, so that before our eyes what is written of the Lord may be fulfilled: “And the lame man will leap like a stag!”’
Then the healed man throws the mat away, hurries ahead of the company and begins leaping and shouting for joy, letting nothing disturb his joy. For the Roman mercenaries and bailiffs with their commanders come toward him; the two young men had scattered them onto a side path two to three field paths from Jairuth’s mansion. Disturbing his joy, they ask what he is doing. But he is not put off by this and says, still hopping and leaping as though paying no heed to the chief commander’s question, ‘When people grow merry, the livestock grow sad; for people’s joy brings death to the livestock! So just Jurahel! Jurahel! The people full of joy, the livestock sad on the heath! Jurahel, Jurahel!’ The healed man goes on like this, which angers the chief commander, and he forbids him to make such noise.
But the recovered man says, ‘Why do you forbid me my joy? For three full years I lay in bed crippled with palsy! Had you come to me and said, “Rise and walk,” and had I become as healthy through such a pronouncement as I am now, then I would have revered you and every word from your mouth as divine. But since you are not such a person, and your power compared with that of my new Lord is sheer nothing, I obey the mighty Lord—and so once more, Jurahel, Jurahel, Jurahel!’
The chief commander now most sternly forbids him to keep making such a spectacle and threatens him with punishment; but at that moment two of the young men come to the merry man and say to him, ‘Do not let your joy be disturbed!’
When the commander sees the young men he already knows, he immediately shouts to his completely unarmed troop, ‘Flee! Look, two servants of Pluto again!’
When the chief commander gives this order, the whole Roman capture legion takes to its heels as nothing like it had ever been seen before. But the recovered man leaps and shouts for joy all the more, calling after those fleeing, ‘Jurahel, Jurahel! When people are merry, the livestock are sad!’ Then he grows calmer, returns to Jonael and says to him, ‘Friend, if speaking while walking is not disagreeable to you, could you tell me something of what you have as a new word from this Lord who gave me health? For if I am to make such a word my law, I must first know it!’
Jonael says, ‘Look, we are again approaching a village, which under the new Roman constitution is now a township. The Lord will surely do something there again! But you are following us into the city anyway; in my house or Irhael’s you will find lodging for as long as you please. There you shall be made acquainted with everything. We have very little distance left to the city now. This settlement we are approaching actually already belongs to the city under a new Roman arrangement, but since it chiefly serves the Romans as a fortress, they have separated it from Sychar, enclosed it with a rampart and raised it to a township with its own name. This settlement is not large; in a thousand paces we shall have it behind us. Then we turn left and have scarcely seven field paths to the first houses of Sychar. So just be patient a little longer, and your wish will then be fulfilled at once!’
The recovered man says, ‘O, by Abraham, Isaac and Jacob! If this township is a Roman garrison post, things will go bitterly for us! For the Roman commander will receive us badly, since only a few moments ago he took to his heels before us most disgracefully!’
Jonael says, ‘We leave all that to the Lord who is now with us; He will make everything good and right! But I already see a troop of warriors coming toward us from the township with a white flag; that seems a good sign to me!’
The recovered man says, ‘Oh yes, if it is not an ordinary Roman stratagem! For the fighting forces of the Romans and Greeks are exceedingly accomplished in such things!’