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February 25th 2003
Received by H.R.
Cuenca, Ecuador.
My dear H___:
Allow me to tell you that I have been observing you during the
last few days, and I have understood your complaints — yes,
I know that you would not call them complaints. But it is true that
you feel some discontent with our work in progress.
[H.R.: You are referring to the messages on
the Master’s life.]
Yes, I am. But let me give you a few short explanations in order
to make clear the reasons for my mode of operation.
Firstly, you do not understand the grounds why I so often interrupt
the messages’ natural flow, why I insert messages that have
nothing to do with the topic of your preference — Jesus' life
— such as the latest messages on trust.
I want to give you the assurance that I will continue on with the
subject. In fact, even in this message I will do so, as you will
see very soon. But on occasions I feel the necessity for dealing
with other topics that I find important too. I have my reasons,
and I ask you to trust in my judgment and not to offer resistance.
In the second place, I have realized that you feel confused and
dissatisfied over how I am proceeding with my story of the Master's
life. You would prefer me to communicate the facts, in the style
of diary, in chronological order: On this day Jesus left for such
a place, he taught this or that and cured two lepers. On the following
day, Jesus did this or that thing....
However, my dear brother, things won’t work
this way.
Living on the earth today, the Master perhaps would have written
a book, and later on during a conference tour, he could refer to
his teachings set out in chapter three of his book, for example,
in order to provide more detailed explanations on them, with the
certainty that everybody has already read the pertinent parts and
is aware of his instructions.
Two thousand years ago, the largest part of the population was
illiterate. And even when they might have had the capacity to read,
there were practically no books available. There were no print shops;
books were copied by hand in an expensive and time-consuming process
that was prone to errors.
Each time that the Master visited a town for first time, he had
to repeat his most basic teachings. He repeated and repeated the
same stories, the same parables, the same instructions over and
over again. Of course, he understood this problem, and this was
the reason why he concentrated his efforts in his first year of
public ministry on a limited area around Lake Genesaret, the "Yam"
or Sea, as we called it.
He did not go out and preach every day either, but spent much of
the time with us, working and teaching. You remember the story in
the Bible where he sent us out to preach. This is a true story.
Once he felt that we were ready and sufficiently prepared, he had
to use us to spread his message. At least we could prepare the soil
in the towns, so that people there would already have some basic
knowledge of the Master’s teachings. Later, he would visit
the villages personally and deepen on the rudiments of the teachings
that the population had already grasped.
But, dear friend, it was a time full of frustration for Jesus.
Perhaps I should not say frustration, because I think that he never
got frustrated. But, yes, he felt tired. However, his patience was
exemplary.
Imagine Jesus speaking to us of his spiritual kingdom of love and
peace. Suddenly, one of the disciples interrupts him and asks: “Will
I be one of your ministers?" He uses the word obviously in
the sense of "Secretary of State" and not as "servant."
And in spite of this patent proof of incomprehension on the part
of one of his "initiates," Jesus always knew how to smile,
responding by way of example: “Yes, my confused brother, you
will be a high official when you understand that the office of my
kingdom is Love, and you will be an executive when you execute Love."
And this poor ignorant whose question revealed his limited understanding
could easily have been me.
It is virtually impossible to deliver a series of messages on a
day-by-day basis in the form of a journal without endlessly repeating
the same things over and over again. Don't forget that your understanding
of Jesus' teachings is greater than that which we had then.
It is more constructive and interesting, I think, to describe the
atmosphere in which the beginnings of the Master's public ministry
developed; and it is undoubtedly worth while to take a look at one
or other parable that he explained to us during that time.
With this, I hope to have given the necessary explanations in order
to clarify the reasons for my proceedings. At the very least, I
call upon you to demonstrate some trust in me. In short, whatever
I am doing, I am doing because I find it to be the most appropriate
way to proceed.
Besides this, I have noticed that you tend to compare whatever
I tell you with what you believe you know. Very often, both things
are in contradiction, of course, or they are in conflict. Then,
as a proof of your uncertainty, you frantically scrutinize the entire
documentation on the topic at your disposal, and you start doubting.
In the first place, my dear brother, there is no perfect message.
There is always the possibility of errors. But I hope you can recognise
a certain consistency in what I am communicating. And I hope you
understand that the most important cause of possible errors is precisely
your uncertainty.
In the second place, the “scientific” information that
you use to verify or evaluate the truthfulness of the messages is
based on writings composed one generation or longer after the events
they describe. You know well that the gospels are not, and cannot
be, biographies containing "historical truth," as you
understand this term today. However, when you read how certain scholars
try to extract dates and facts from these stories, and when it turns
out that these dates and facts do not agree with what I am telling
you, your doubts grow.
Lately, we have talked about trust. And I ask you to have this
trust in me. I am aware that your lack of confidence is not directed
against me in the first place, but against yourself. Perhaps it
may be helpful for you to know that I am very satisfied with what
we have achieved so far. I also tell you that your doubts have neither
foundation nor reason to exist. It is true, there are errors in
the messages as you have received them, and there will be more errors
in the future. But in their substance, these messages are correct.
Why do you worry so much about details? Even when you paint a picture,
you change the details, you omit particulars and you add brushstrokes
where reality would not justify them, all this in order to accentuate
whatever you find important, and to leave the observer with an indelible
impression of how you are seeing things. So, consider my messages
as my painting of Jesus: I will suppress details whenever I deem
it convenient, I will detail things at times that do not even figure
in the New Testament, and I will paint a living portrait aflame
with colors. Work together with me, and we will surely achieve a
piece of art.
This is the advice of a friend. Listen to
me.
I will say goodbye now. God bless you,
Judas
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