And Jesus said to her, “Believe me, woman, people do not pray to the father either here on this mountain or in Jerusalem. The time has come for people to pray authentically, to the father of life in both spirit and in action. These are the kind of worshippers that the father needs. The father is a spirit and he must be prayed to in spirit and in action.”
And the woman said, “I know that the messiah is coming, and when he does, he will tell us everything.”
And Jesus said, “I am telling you everything.”
And the woman went and called the people.
At that moment, the students returned with bread and asked Jesus whether he would like to eat.
And he said, “I have food that you know nothing about.”
They thought that someone had brought him something to eat.
But he said, “My food is to do the will of the one who gave me life and to accomplish that which he has entrusted to me. Do not say, ‘There is still time,’ as the plowman says, waiting for the harvest. He who does the will of the father will always be full and will know neither hunger nor thirst. Fulfilling the will of God always satisfies a person, it carries its own reward. One cannot say, ‘I will do the father’s will later.’ As long as there is life, it will always be both possible and necessary to fulfill the father’s will. Our life is a field that God planted; and our task is to gather his fruit. And if we gather fruit then we receive a reward: life outside of time. It is true that we do not give ourselves life, but that someone else gives it. And if we labor to gather this life, then we, like the reapers, will receive a reward. I am teaching you to gather this life that the father has given to you.”
Once, Jesus came to Jerusalem. And at that time there was a bathhouse in Jerusalem. Concerning this bathhouse, people said that an angel would descend into it and that the water in the pool would subsequently begin to froth, and that whoever would be the first to plunge into the pool after the water froths up would be healed of whatever sickness he had. And an awning had been made near the bathhouse. And under this awning the sick lay and waited for the water to froth up in the bathhouse and then to plunge in.
And a man was there, debilitated in his ailment for thirty-eight years. Jesus asked him what he was doing. The man related that he had been ill for thirty-eight years and was still waiting to be the first into the bath after the water froths up, so that he could be healed, but that for thirty-eight years he had not been able to get in first, that all the others got into the water before him to bathe.
And Jesus saw that he was old and said, “Do you want to recover?”
And the man said, “I want to, but I don’t have anyone to carry me into the water on time. Somebody always gets in before me.”
And Jesus said to him, “Wake up, take your bed and go.”
And the weak man took his bed and walked off. And it was on the Sabbath.
And the orthodox said, “You cannot carry your bed off today, it is the Sabbath.”
He said, “The one who raised me commanded me to take the bed with me.”
The invalid went off and told the orthodox that Jesus had healed him. And the orthodox grew angry and persecuted Jesus because he had taken such action on the Sabbath.
And Jesus said, “Whatever the father always does, I do as well. I tell the truth to you: the son can do nothing in and of himself. He can only do what he has understood from the father. What the father does is what he does. The father loves the son and because of this he taught the son all that he must do. The father gives life to the dead, and likewise, the son gives life to those he wants to give it to; since the father’s business is life, the son’s business should likewise be life. The father did not condemn people to death, but gave people power according to their will, either to die or to live. And they will live if they respect the son as they do the father.
“I tell you truly: whoever has understood the meaning of my teaching and has come to believe in the common father of all people already has life and is delivered from death. Those who understood the meaning of human life have already left death behind and will live forever. Because just as the father lives independently in and of himself, just so, he planted life in the son himself. And he gave him freedom. Because of this, he is the son of man.
“From now on, all mortals are divided into two groups. Only those that do good find life; and those that do evil will be destroyed. And this is not my judgment, but just what I have come to understand from the father. But my judgment is correct because I judge these things not in order to do what I want, but so that everyone does what the father of all wants. If I convinced everyone that my teaching is true, then that would not prove my teaching. But there is something that proves my teaching—the actions that I teach. They show that I do not teach from myself, but from the father of all people. And my father, the one that taught me, he confirms within the souls of all people the truth of my commandments. But you do not want to understand and know his voice. And you do not hold on to the meaning of this voice. You do not believe that you have a spirit within you, a spirit that has come down from heaven.
“Give some thought to the meaning of your scriptures. You will find the same substance in them as in my teaching. They are commandments about how to live for more than just yourself, how to do good to all people. I teach you in the name of the common father of all people, and you do not accept my teaching, but if someone teaches you in their own name, you believe that. You should not believe in what people say to one another, you should only believe that the son is within every person, and that the son is the same as the father.”
And so that people would not think that the heavenly kingdom was a visible phenomenon, so that they would understand that the kingdom of God is simply the fulfilling of the father’s will and that the fulfilling of the father’s will depends on the strength of every person, and so that all people would understand that life is not given to each person for their individual use, but to fulfill the father’s will and that only the fulfilling of the father’s will can save from death and give life, Jesus told a parable.
He said, “There was a rich man who needed to leave his home. Before his departure, he called his servants and distributed ten talents, one for each, and he said to them, ‘While I am absent, each of you must work with what I have given you.’
“But it happened that when he left, a few residents of this city said, ‘We don’t want to serve him any longer.’
“And so, when the rich man returned from his absence, he called these servants to whom he had given money and commanded them each to report what they had done with his money.
“The first came and said, ‘Look, master, I made ten out of the one that you gave me.’
“And the master said to him, ‘Good, you good servant, you were loyal in a small matter, I will place you in charge of large matters, you will be one with me in all my riches.’
“Another servant came and said, ‘Look, master, I made five from the one talent.’
“And the master said to him, ‘You have done well, good servant, be one with me in all my possessions.’
“One more came and said, ‘Here is the talent that you gave me. I hid it in a handkerchief and buried it. I did so because I was afraid of you. You are a severe man: you withdraw from where you made no deposit and gather where you did not sow.’
“And the master said to him, ‘You foolish servant! I will judge you by your own words. You say that you hid your talent in the earth and did not work with it because you fear me. If you knew that I am severe and that I withdraw from where I have not deposited, then why did you not do as I commanded you to do? If you had worked with my talent, my estate would have grown and you would have fulfilled what I had commanded you to do. But now you have not done the thing for which I gave you the talent, and therefore, you cannot possess it.’