Chapter 22 — The Roman Judge Commends the Boy Jesus

DTT.01_022,01 The judge said, “Dearest boy, who must have come straight down from heaven, you are already wiser than all the wise who ever lived on earth! What will become of you? Yes, you are a true Messiah, a mediator between God and humanity. No wise man has ever set out the differences between matter, soul and spirit so clearly and in so few words. Truly, this teaching deserves a reward of its own. Nothing like it has ever been heard!”

DTT.01_022,02 I said, “Let that be, noble friend! What reward could you give Me that I could not return to you at once a thousandfold? Truly, whoever does good to a fellow human being in need, out of true and pure love for God and for others, does it to Me and will be repaid a thousandfold. The same holds for the wrong and evil a person does to others!”

DTT.01_022,03 The judge said, “Can you tell me more exactly what you call the wrong and evil one should not do to others? I should like to know, because as a judge I am often obliged to bring great harm and hardship on a fellow human being, very often against my will. But our law is inflexible and makes no exceptions, even for one’s own children. So give me an answer I can rely on!”

DTT.01_022,04 I said, “Had you made the laws, you could change them. But they express the long-established, carefully considered will of the people, and you are appointed to bring those who offend against it to just account. If you do strictly, conscientiously and justly what the law prescribes, you do good, not evil.

DTT.01_022,05 “Everyone who lives as a member of a large society must abide by its laws of order and make them principles for their own life. If they refuse, they stand alone and are plainly the weaker party. They must bear the necessarily bitter consequences of defying the common order.

DTT.01_022,06 “A judge appointed by the people, or by their ruling representative, be he a king or even an emperor, who strictly and justly applies the law he knows thoroughly, can only do good. He clears the field in which humanity is sown of weeds. In doing so you fulfil your duty and benefit those who love and seek to uphold order.

DTT.01_022,07 “But as a judge you look chiefly to the improvement of the person who has gone astray rather than simply to their punishment. That is a virtue from heaven in your heart, for you follow the eternally true principle of love of neighbour: ‘What you would not reasonably wish anyone to do to you, do not do to your fellow human beings.’ In this you are in right order before God and before people and need not trouble yourself about what is truly good or evil.

DTT.01_022,08 “Had those who sit in the seat of Moses and Aaron acted in this way, you Romans would never have subjugated them. But they were no longer faithful to the old law, given alike to all people. They made their own rules to suit their desires, so God turned His face away from them and put them under the stern rod of the Gentiles. Their great and obstinate stubbornness will keep them under it.

DTT.01_022,09 “You are a Gentile and recognise Me. These are Jews and are supposed to be children of Jehovah, yet they do not recognise Me and are hardly likely to do so. How is that? It reminds Me of a prophet’s words, spoken even then to deaf ears: ‘He came to His own, to what was His, and His own neither recognised nor received Him.’ But be that as it may, I have shown you how matters truly stand. It is time to look more closely at the passages the chief priest found that supposedly do not fit Me!”