Jesus Christ

53.4 Jesus is formidable. He looks like the archangel posted on the threshold of Eden. He has no flashing sword in His hand but the beams from His eyes strike the impious mockers like lightning. Jesus has nothing in His hands. All He has is His wrath. And full of wrath, He walks fast and solemn between the benches, He scatters the coins which had been sorted out so meticulously according to their values, He overturns the benches and tables, and everything falls on the ground with great noise, in the bustle of rebounding metals and beaten wood, angry cries, shrieks of terror and shouts of approval. He then snatches from the hands of the stable-boys some ropes with which they were holding oxen, sheep and lambs, and He makes a very hard lash, in which the slip-knots are real scourges: He lifts it, swings it and strikes mercilessly with it. Yes, I can assure you: mercilessly.

The unforeseen storm hits heads and backs. The believers move to one side admiring the scene; the guilty ones, chased as far as the external wall, take to their heels, leaving their money on the ground and abandoning in a great confusion of legs, horns and wings, their animals, some of which run and fly away. The bellows, bleatings, and fluttering of turtle doves and pigeons, added to the burst of laughter and shouting of the believers at the escaping usurers, overcome even the plaintive chorus of lambs, slaughtered in another yard.

• Jesus Christ

53.5 Priests, rabbis and Pharisees rush to the spot. Jesus is still in the middle of the yard, on His way back from the chase. The lash is still in His hands.

«Who are You? How dare You do that, upsetting the prescribed ceremonies? From which school are You? We do not know You, neither do we know where You come from.»

«I am He Who is Mighty. I can do anything. Destroy this true Temple and I will raise it to give praise to God. I am not upsetting the holiness of the House of God or of the ceremonies, but you are perturbing it, allowing His House to become the centre of usurers and merchants. My school is the school of God. The same school that the whole of Israel had when the Eternal God spoke to Moses. You do not know Me? You will know Me. You do not know where I come from? You will learn.»

• Jesus Christ's reproaches to the Pharisees
• Pharisees

I am He Who is Mighty. I can do anything. Destroy this true Temple and I will raise it to give praise to God.

• Prophecies of Jesus Christ
• Who is Jesus? How Christ defines himself

You do not know Me? You will know Me. You do not know where I come from? You will learn.

• Prophecies of Jesus Christ

«Listen, Israel! Deuteronomy states: “You are to appoint judges and scribes at all the gates… and they must administer an impartial judgement to the people. You must be impartial; you must take no bribes, for a bribe blinds wise men’s eyes and jeopardises the cause of the just. Strict justice must be your ideal, so that you may live in rightful possession of the land that Yahweh your God is giving you”.

Listen, Israel. Deuteronomy states: “The priests and scribes and the whole of the tribe of Levi shall have no share or inheritance with Israel, because they must live on the foods offered to Yahweh and on His dues; they shall have no inheritance among their brothers, because Yahweh will be their inheritance”.

Listen, Israel. Deuteronomy states: “You must not lend on interest to your brother, whether the lack be of money or food or anything else. You may demand interest on a loan of a foreigner; you will lend without interest to your brother whatever he needs”.

The Lord said that.

But now you see that in Israel judgements are administered without justice for the poor. They are not inclined to justice, but they are partial with the rich, and to be poor, to be of the common people means to be oppressed. How can the people say: “Our judges are just” when they see that only the mighty ones are respected and satisfied, whereas the poor have no one who will listen to them? How can the people respect the Lord, when they see that the Lord is not respected by those who should respect Him more than everyone else? Does he who infringes the Lord’s commandment respect Him? Why then do the priests in Israel possess property and accept bribes from tax-collectors and sinners, who make them offerings to obtain their favours, while they accept gifts to fill their coffers?

God is the inheritance of His priests. He, the Father of Israel, is more than a Father to them and provides them with food, as it is just. But not more than what is just. He did not promise money and possessions to His servants of the sanctuary. In eternal life, they will possess Heaven for their justice, as Moses, Elijah, Jacob and Abraham will, but in this world they must have but a linen garment and a diadem of incorruptible gold: purity and charity, and their bodies must be subject to their souls, which are to be subject to the true God, and their bodies are not to be masters over their souls and against God.

I have been asked on what authority I do this. And on what authority do they violate God’s command and allow in the shade of the sacred walls usury on their brothers of Israel, who have come to obey the divine command? I have been asked from what school I come and I replied: “From God’s school” Yes, Israel, I have come from and I will take you back to that holy and immutable school.

53.7

He who wants to know the Light, the Truth, the Way, he who wants to hear once again the voice of God speaking to his people, let him come to Me. You followed Moses through the deserts, Israel. Follow Me, because I shall lead you through a far worse desert, to the true blessed Land. At God’s command, I will draw you to it, across an open sea. I will cure you of all evils lifting up My Sign.

The time of Grace has come. The Prophets expected it and died waiting for it. The Prophets prophesied it and died in that hope. The just have dreamt of it and died comforted by that dream. It is now here.

Come. “The Lord is about to judge His people and have mercy on His servants”, as He promised through Moses.»

• Bible - Book of Deuteronomy
• Judges and magistrates
• Preaching of Jesus Christ
• Preaching of Jesus Christ in the Temple of Jerusalem

I have been asked on what authority I do this. And on what authority do they violate God’s command and allow in the shade of the sacred walls usury on their brothers of Israel, who have come to obey the divine command? I have been asked from what school I come and I replied: “From God’s school” Yes, Israel, I have come from and I will take you back to that holy and immutable school.

• Authority of Jesus Christ

53.7 He who wants to know the Light, the Truth, the Way, he who wants to hear once again the voice of God speaking to his people, let him come to Me. You followed Moses through the deserts, Israel. Follow Me, because I shall lead you through a far worse desert, to the true blessed Land. At God’s command, I will draw you to it, across an open sea. I will cure you of all evils lifting up My Sign.

The time of Grace has come. The Prophets expected it and died waiting for it. The Prophets prophesied it and died in that hope. The just have dreamt of it and died comforted by that dream. It is now here.

Come. “The Lord is about to judge His people and have mercy on His servants”, as He promised through Moses.

• Coming to God and Jesus
• Discipleship - Following Jesus Christ

53.7 He who wants to know the Light, the Truth, the Way, he who wants to hear once again the voice of God speaking to his people, let him come to Me. You followed Moses through the deserts, Israel. Follow Me, because I shall lead you through a far worse desert, to the true blessed Land. At God’s command, I will draw you to it, across an open sea. I will cure you of all evils lifting up My Sign.

The time of Grace has come. The Prophets expected it and died waiting for it. The Prophets prophesied it and died in that hope. The just have dreamt of it and died comforted by that dream. It is now here.

Come. “The Lord is about to judge His people and have mercy on His servants”, as He promised through Moses.

• Bible - Book of Deuteronomy
• Bible - Book of Exodus
• Bible - Gospel of John
• Exodus
• I am the Way, the Truth and the Life

A man, muffled up, is leaning against the rustic wall supporting a terrace, the nearest to the boundary of the property. He must have climbed up there along a path coasting the torrent.

When he sees Jesus approaching him, he shouts: «Go back. Back! Have mercy on me!» And he uncovers his trunk dropping his tunic to the ground. If his face is covered with scabs, his trunk is one big sore. Some of the sores have already become deep wounds, some are like burns, some are whitish and glossy, as if there was a thin white pane of glass on them.

«Are you a leper? What do you want of Me?»

«Don’t curse me! Don’t stone me. I have been told that the other evening You revealed Yourself as the Voice of God and the Bearer of Grace. I was also told that You gave assurance that by raising Your Sign, You will cure all diseases. Please raise it on me. I have come from the sepulchres… over there… I crept like a snake amongst the bushes near the torrent to reach here without being seen. I waited until evening before leaving because at dusk it is more difficult to see who I am. I dared… I found this man, the man of the house, he is good. He did not kill me. He only said: “Wait over there, near the little wall”. Have mercy on me” and as Jesus is going near him, all by Himself, because the six disciples and the landlord, as well as the two strangers, are far away and are evidently disgusted, he adds: «Don’t come nearer. Don’t! I am infected!» But Jesus proceeds. He looks at him so mercifully, that the man starts crying and kneels down almost touching the ground with his face, moaning: «Your Sign! Your Sign!»

«It will be raised when it is time. But now I say to you: Stand up. Be healed. I want it. And be the sign in this town that must recognise Me. Rise, I say. And do not sin, out of gratitude to God!»

The man rises slowly. He seems to emerge from the long flowery grass as from a shroud… and is healed. He looks at himself in the last dim light of the day. He is healed. He shouts: «I am clean! Oh! What shall I do for You now?»

«You must comply with the Law. Go to the priest. Be good in future. Go.»

The man is on the point of throwing himself at Jesus’ feet, but he remembers he is still impure, according to the Law, and he restrains himself. But he kisses his own hand, and throws a kiss to Jesus and weeps. He weeps out of joy.

54.3

The others are dumbfounded. Jesus turns away from the healed man and rouses them smiling. «My friends, it was only a leprosy of the flesh. But you will see leprosy fall from hearts. (...) »

• Healing and physical miracles
• Jonah (keeper of the olive grove at Gethsemane)
• Miracles of Jesus Christ
• Simon the Zealot (apostle)

«I have been told that the other evening You revealed Yourself as the Voice of God and the Bearer of Grace. I was also told that You gave assurance that by raising Your Sign, You will cure all diseases. Please raise it on me. I have come from the sepulchres… over there… I crept like a snake amongst the bushes near the torrent to reach here without being seen. I waited until evening before leaving because at dusk it is more difficult to see who I am. I dared… I found this man, the man of the house, he is good. He did not kill me. He only said: “Wait over there, near the little wall”. Have mercy on me” and as Jesus is going near him, all by Himself, because the six disciples and the landlord, as well as the two strangers, are far away and are evidently disgusted, he adds: «Don’t come nearer. Don’t! I am infected!» But Jesus proceeds. He looks at him so mercifully, that the man starts crying and kneels down almost touching the ground with his face, moaning: «Your Sign! Your Sign!»

«It will be raised when it is time. But now I say to you: Stand up. Be healed. I want it. And be the sign in this town that must recognise Me. Rise, I say. And do not sin, out of gratitude to God!»

• Cross
• Prophecies of Jesus Christ