Gorgias the son of Philip exceeded the rest of us in his rejoicing at the
return of Jesus, and in the largeness of his expectation, saying that it
could not be that our Master, when he adventured to work a sign, would
suffer himself to be surpassed by any, albeit the most cunning magicians.
“Now,” said he, “I have heard an Alexandrine say that there are certain
magicians which, in the middle of the market‐place, in return for a few
obols, will drive out demons and diseases, and call up the souls of
heroes, and costly banquets, tables, dishes, and dainties, all as though
ready for a feast; all which at the magician’s wand shall vanish away. If
therefore a common magician can do such things for hire, how much more can
Jesus do greater things than these for the Redemption of Israel!” Judas
also spake after the same manner, and he said that perchance it was well
done of Jesus not to work a sign in heaven at first; for had he worked the
sign too early, it would have been counted cheap, and would have been
despised. “Much wiser,” continued he, “to hold the sign back till the
people crave for it, and till the Pharisees (supposing forsooth that he
cannot do it) venture to promise obedience to Jesus on the condition that
he work a sign in heaven. For thus shall they be taken in their own
snare.” Only John was doubtful, saying to Judas, “Hast thou then forgotten
how once in our presence our Master said he should work no sign in
heaven?” But Judas replied that our Master had more than once changed his
course, suiting it to the needs of the time; “And,” said he, “when he
shall once perceive that the Redemption of Sion dependeth upon the working
of a sign in heaven, then, trust me, the sign will not long be wanting.
And so strongly am I assured thereof, that it would even seem to me to be
a friendly deed to tell the Pharisees how Jesus hath said that he will
never work the sign, and in this way to move them to ask Jesus to work the
sign; to the intent that they may dig a pit for Jesus and fall into it
themselves.”
Now this he spake jesting; but (as I afterwards learned) Judas had indeed
moved the Pharisees even, as he said, to ask Jesus to work a sign in
heaven. And Judas it was that had sent to Eliezer that message whereof I
have before made mention. But these things Judas did, not because he
desired (at that time) to harm Jesus, but wishing to help him, and
supposing that he should help him by forcing him to do that which, of
himself, Jesus would not do. Howbeit of all these things we, at this
present, knew nothing; and we took the words of Judas as if spoken in
jest. But John shook his head and made no answer.
It was in the winter, in the month called Chisleu, that we returned to
Capernaum. But it came to pass, on the first Sabbath day after that we had
returned, we went into the synagogue after our custom, and Jesus taught
the people; and the hand of the Lord was present among them, and the
people were very attentive to hear him. But when he had ended his words
there rose up Abuyah the son of Elishah; and he spake after the manner of
the Galileans, saying that it was not right that Israel should be any more
divided against itself, but that all should confess that Jesus was the
Anointed or Christ, if indeed he could shew that he was the Christ. “But
the proof,” said he, “is, as we all know, the working of a sign in heaven.
For signs on earth and in the deep, false prophets can work; but not in
heaven. Now, therefore, this is the sum of the matter: thou wouldst have
us, the Scribes and teachers of Israel, to believe in thee and to follow
thee. Our answer is, Work a sign in heaven such as Elias worked, and
straightway we follow thee.”
While Abuyah was speaking his last words, a hesitation and a gasping
overcame him, so that he was almost speechless. For he was abashed by the
aspect of Jesus and by the stillness of the multitude. And, to say the
truth, when Abuyah spake those words, “such as Elias worked,” we held our
breath; expecting when the fire of heaven should come down, as in the days
of Elias, and should consume Abuyah, and Eliezer, and all the enemies of
Jesus; or else we thought that the earth should have opened and swallowed
them up, as the earth swallowed up Korah and his fellows. But when Eliezer
had ended all his words, and no gulf yawned nor fire came down from
heaven, then indeed our hearts sank within us. But Abuyah and Eliezer
began to be of good cheer; for they perceived that they had been well
advised, and that Jesus would work no sign in heaven.
When Jesus made answer to Abuyah, the people listened to him and were
silent; but their hearts no longer inclined unto him as before. For indeed
his words were not easy to understand. But he bade the Pharisees note the
signs of the times, even as they noted the signs of the weather, and
therein, he said, they should find proof enough. Moreover he spake those
same strange words which he had spoken before to us privately, to wit,
that they should have no sign but the sign of the prophet Jonah. Having
said these words he departed from the synagogue; and at sunset, finding
that the hearts of all men were turned from him, he gave command once
again to launch the boat and to pass over unto the other side.
Never before were the minds of the disciples so troubled as now: for we
had all been assured, in the very depth of our hearts, that Jesus had even
for this cause returned to Capernaum, because he purposed now at last to
work a sign in heaven. Neither could we in any way understand why he
should thus suffer the slanderers to triumph, delaying so long the
Redemption of Sion. Judas especially inflamed our grief, saying that all
was now lost, and that one sign in heaven would have been better worth
than a thousand discourses about the Kingdom of Heaven.
But suddenly we were silent; for we heard the voice of Jesus speaking; and
he told us that he had formerly been tempted in a like fashion, even as
the Pharisee had tempted him; for he had been led by the Spirit into a
wilderness, and there in some vision the Evil Spirit had placed him upon
the battlements of the Holy Temple, bidding him cast himself down as a
sign unto the multitudes of them which were walking in the courts of the
Temple; and the Evil One had said unto him, “If thou be the Son of God,
cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give His angels charge
concerning thee; and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any
time thou dash thy foot against a stone.” But Jesus had made answer,
saying, “It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.” Now
therefore we all understood (after a dark fashion, and, as it were,
obliquely) that Jesus esteemed the temptation to perform a sign in heaven
to be a temptation from Satan. But why he so esteemed it, was hid from the
most of us, and we feared to ask him thereof.
When Jesus lay down on the sleeping‐cushion, I questioned Nathanael why
Jesus would work no sign in heaven. “For,” said I, “signs on earth and in
the bodies of men he daily worketh; as but now, when he raised up the
daughter of Jairus (all men supposing her to be dead): and again, at
another time, albeit he neither said nor did aught, a woman was healed,
though she did but touch him, and that too in a throng: so powerful was
the mere garment of our Master to work healing. And when Jesus perceived
the woman (discerning the pressure of her hand, albeit in the midst of the
throng), then, as thou rememberest, he was neither wroth nor chid the
woman for thus, as it were, stealing a miracle; but bade her go in peace,
and be healed of her disease. Wherefore then worketh he no sign in heaven?
Did not Moses and Elias work signs in heaven? Yet our Master is greater
than they.” To these words Nathanael made no answer for a while; but at
last he said, “Concerning Moses and Elias, and concerning what they did or
did not, I am not able to speak. But as touching Jesus of Nazareth, thus
much I know, that he lightly esteemeth all signs, both in heaven and in
earth, except they reveal the mercifulness of God. For he teacheth that
heaven and earth shall pass away, but his words shall remain for ever. And
assuredly he seemeth to me to be greater than Moses and Elias, yea, though
he should work no sign at all. For he moveth upon the face of the earth
like unto the Son of God, and looketh upon all things that are, as being
the servants of his Father. But seeing that they are the servants of his
Father, he loveth them; yea, he cherisheth even the flowers of the fields;
the sky also, and the winds, and the waters seem to him as the ministers
of his Father; and the more he loveth the Father, the more he loveth his
Father’s servants; neither will he check them nor chide them save
according to his Father’s will, but submitteth himself unto them even more
willingly than others submit themselves. For this cause he endureth to be
cold, and an‐hungered, and athirst, and homeless; neither doth he chide
the frost, nor stamp on the ground to make the wheat spring up for him;
nor strike waters from the rock; nor bid the stones come together at his
word for to build him an house.” “But is not this patience,” asked I, “the
condition of a slave?” “Yes, truly is it,” replied Nathanael, “but what
saith our Master? He that is to be greatest among men must be as he that
is least; he that is to rule must be as he that ministereth; he that is to
be king over all must be as the slave of all. Only it is needful that we
serve not unwillingly, but willingly. But whoso serveth the Lord in all
things willingly, he is no slave, but a son.
“For this cause, in part methinks, Jesus calleth himself the Son of man;
as if to shew that he is willingly subject to all the fleshly weaknesses
wherewith the All‐Wise hath encompassed the souls of men to the end that
they may depend on Him. For he teacheth that he, being the weakness of
man, shall be made strength and exalted to the very throne of God, and we
with him; so that we shall reign with God, and the Kingdom of God shall
also be a Kingdom of man, according as it is said, ‘What is man that thou
art mindful of him, and the son of man that thou visitest him? Thou madest
him to have dominion over the works of thy hands: thou hast put all things
in subjection under his feet.’”
“Yea, but,” said I, “the Psalmist speaketh only of the things of the
earth, to wit, the ‘sheep and oxen and the beasts of the field, the fowl
of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the
paths of the seas.’”
But to this Nathanael made answer, “In the Kingdom of God the Son of man
shall be Lord over all things in heaven and earth, not on earth merely;
yea, over death itself, and over the Evil Nature in man. For this cause,
even as an earnest of that which is to come, our Master checketh and
chideth diseases and devils in them which be possessed. For our Master
hateth the devils and diseases even as he hateth the sins of men,
esteeming them as the work of Satan, and not as the work of his Father.
But the course and appointed order of the world he esteemeth as the
vesture of God, whereof he would not disturb one single fold.”
Now herein Nathanael spake truly. For once only (as I have heard) did
Jesus so much as appear to adventure to alter the course of the world. It
was on a winter evening, and the disciples were on the lake; but I was not
with them. A great storm had suddenly come down on them (as storms are
wont to come down from the mountains round about the lake) and the boat
was now well‐nigh filled with the waves and like to sink. Then the
disciples lifted up their voices for fear, and ran to Jesus as he slept
upon the cushion, and besought him, saying, “Master, carest thou not that
we perish?” Then he arose in grief for them, as it seemed, that they
should, after so cowardly a fashion, tremble before the winds; and he
opened his mouth to rebuke them. “And all this while,” said Matthew (for
he was present), “the winds yet raged, and the waves beat in upon the
deck, and in another instant, methought, we had been all dead men. But
Jesus, noting this, turned himself from us toward the sea, and then (as if
it were revealed to him that he, being the safety of the world, could not
be wrecked by any turbulence of winds or waves, and therefore that the
storm was to cease), behold, he stretched out his hands to the tempest,
praying; and straightway the storm seemed to abate a little; and then,
perceiving the will of the Father, he stood up like some great king or
emperor, and rebuked the storm, bidding it be still; and immediately there
was a great calm.”
Now on this only occasion did our Master appear to change the course of
the world; and methinks, even here, he did it only in appearance. For he
spake as he was moved by the Holy Spirit, it being revealed to him that
the storm must needs cease lest the fortunes of the world should be
shipwrecked, if the Son of man should perish. But if Xanthias findeth
fault with this story, saying that on this only occasion our Master spake
after the manner of a Mænad, and not worthily of himself, to this I reply
that, if Jesus of Nazareth was the Son of God (as I doubt not), then it
was fit that he should feel faith, yea, a singular faith in God his
Father. And if Caius Cæsar, the first Emperor, could be assured that he
was not to be drowned, saying to the boatmen that they must be of good
cheer because they carried Cæsar and his Fortune; how much more might the
true Emperor of men be assured that the Fortune of mankind should not be
shipwrecked, yea, and rather than this should come to pass, that the storm
must cease? For this cause I incline not to the opinion of Xanthias; who
saith that Jesus rebuked not the storm, but the disciples, bidding them
not be fearful and of little faith. And, though I was not myself present,
yet was the matter reported to me afterwards by one that had heard the
relation thereof from Matthew the son of Levi, as I said above.
While I spake with Nathanael, there came into my mind certain words of my
Greek friend, whom I had met at Capernaum (I mean the Alexandrine
merchant), how he had praised Jesus in that he breathed a spirit of
soberness and peace, so that, wheresover he might be, he seemed happy and
at home; and I told this to Nathanael. But he said, “Thy friend said well;
for to Jesus the world is as a great instrument of music giving forth
sounds which we hear not, but he both heareth and enjoyeth. And well I
remember how once, in the presence of Jesus, there arose a dispute between
a musician and another, concerning the sense of hearing and the sense of
sight; and the other said, jesting at the musician, ‘To believe thee, the
sun should have a voice if it is to be perfect.’ ‘Nay,’ said the musician,
‘but the sun hath indeed a voice to those which have ears to hearken; for
when it riseth in the east, it is not a large round shining shekel, but it
is a minister of God and crieth with ten thousand times ten thousand
voices, Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God Almighty.’ And thereat Jesus
smiled and said that it was even so, and that in the time to come there
would dwell this power of sound not in the lights of heaven alone, but
also in the earth, and all that therein is; insomuch that the vine‐twigs
and grape‐clusters should have voices of their own and commune with the
children of men.”(9)
By this time we had reached the coast, and we went forth from the vessel,
and took our way to a little village lying in the road which leadeth unto
Cæsarea Philippi. And as Nathanael had been sent on before the rest to
prepare lodging for us, I could find no more occasion that day to converse
with him. But my mind was still beating on the dark saying of Jesus
touching the temptation of Satan, and I still assayed to understand why
Jesus would not work a sign in heaven: for the words of Nathanael had not
sufficed to make the matter clear unto me.
Only concerning the sign in heaven, thus much was revealed unto me, that I
myself was not drawn unto Jesus by his signs and wonders, but by reason of
my love for him and trust in him; and the same was true also of the other
disciples. Moreover Jesus desired that men should be drawn unto him in
this way, by love and trust, and by feeling that he was needful to them,
and not by being astonished at signs and wonders. Further I questioned
myself and said, “If Jesus had caused the sun to stop still, would Abuyah
the son of Elishah, and Eliezer the son of Arak, and the chief ruler of
the synagogue straightway have loved Jesus and trusted in him, as Jesus
desireth his disciples to love and trust in him?” Now I knew that they
might have obeyed him and followed him, but they could not have loved him.
For Jesus was light: but they loved darkness. Wherefore Jesus could not
redeem them nor deliver them, even though he had worked a sign in heaven.
For he could not deliver them which loved him not; no, not though he had
worked ten thousand signs in heaven.