Volume 11 · Chapter 34

THE ARRIVAL IN BETHANY When we came near Bethany, that same helper, who talked to Me before, came to meet us and said with tears in his eyes that his master had died the same day he was sent out and that he rested in his grave for already four days.

[GGJ.11_34,02] It was especially a custom of the Jews in Palestine not to keep a dead person in the house after sunset but to lay him in a specially prepared grave right after he was declared dead – a custom that was justified because of the fast decomposition.

[GGJ.11_34,03] After the helper met Me, he hastily went to the house, which was not far away, to tell the sisters about My coming. As was the custom of that time, they were visited by a large crowd of acquaintances and friends for days, in order to comfort them and to ease the painful separation and their loneliness, for in the beginning, the mourning women could not leave the house at all. The decency of that time required that they would completely mourn as visible as possible, which also had to be noticeable through much wailing.

[GGJ.11_34,04] Maria and Martha were not free of the deeply rooted customs of their people, but did not really like this depressing wordy stuff, especially because they were deeply convinced of a spiritual continual life. They waited with great expectation for My coming to find real comfort by My word. It did not come into their mind that I would raise their brother from the dead, but they nevertheless hoped to find counsel and help with Me against the Pharisees who put themselves immediately on the forefront and were already looking with eager eyes at the fat inheritance and had already made appointments with the temple guard to secure the inheritance for them.

[GGJ.11_34,05] The helper, who spoke to Me first, came into the house and he first met Martha. She was as usual doing the housekeeping, this despite her grief and as far as this was possible because of the presence of the Jews, and she tried to put everything in order just like when her brother was still alive, for he always showed an exemplary order and supervision of the tasks that were necessary on such big property and which were distributed among the workers.

[GGJ.11_34,06] Me and My followers did not yet come close to the house, but I was still outside the small village in order to avoid a sensation. But Martha came now hastily to us while we took a little rest at the side of the road, and when she saw Me, she ran to Me while she was loudly weeping.

[GGJ.11_34,07] I strengthened her in her soul, and now she spoke to Me the well- known words (Martha): “Lord, if You would have been here, my brother would not have died.”

[GGJ.11_34,08] With this she meant that it would have been easy for Me to make him healthy again, just like I had done for so many other people.

[GGJ.11_34,09] That is why she added (Martha): “For I still know very well that everything You ask God is given to You by Him.”

[GGJ.11_34,10] Those words were only a repetition of My words since I often told them by My teaching: ‘For whatever the Son asks the Father, is given to Him’. But these words were no firm conviction of the fact that I Myself am the Father, despite there were so many proofs of who was living in Me and which for a long time had to open the eyes of those who were close to Me.

[GGJ.11_34,11] In order to further open her heart for faith and insight, I said with great persuasiveness: “Your brother will rise again.”

[GGJ.11_34,12] But Martha as well as her sister Maria became innerly so uncertain because of the seemingly almost insurmountable blow of fate. So much so that for the moment only the great distress that came over them stood before their eyes, and the former firm faith in Me and My mission moved completely to the background. In this way, people are mostly showing an apparent strong faith as long as the outer conditions of life are favorable. But they immediately fall back again into uncertainty, and even disbelief, as soon as a little test comes over them, which according to them had to be turned away by God because they counted themselves among the believers and so it should be God’s duty to protect them against all evil.

[GGJ.11_34,13] How long will under age children dare to give instructions to the teacher as to how he has to educate them? I, the Teacher, do not educate My children as they want but as it is best for them.

[GGJ.11_34,14] Also Martha, instead of being awakened by My words and instead of first to awaken the brother of love, the deceased faith, by herself she therefore answered: “I well know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the youngest day.”

[GGJ.11_34,15] I answered her: “Do you not know that every day is the youngest day, and that I am the resurrection and the life? Whoever believes in Me will live, even if he dies physically. And whoever lives and believes in Me will die no more. The one to whom the power is given to awaken souls so that they will have the truest, clearest and purest life in themselves, will he not be able to bring back the bodies to life who are first created by the soul? Do you believe that?”

[GGJ.11_34,16] Only now a ray of remembrance awakened in Martha about what she heard before concerning the awakening of the dead and thereby the hope that I would want to do the same here, and with hopeful love she said to Me: “Lord, yes, I believe that You are the Christ, the Son of God who came into the world to save us.” 157

[GGJ.11_34,17] After she said that, she wanted to fall down before Me but I prevented her to do this and admonished her to be cheerful and to sent Maria here and to remain silent herself about what we talked about.

[GGJ.11_34,018] And Martha went immediately to comply with My wish.