Jacob of Crete

142:2.1There was in Je­ru­sa­lem in at­ten­dance upon the Pass­over fes­tiv­i­ties one Ja­cob, a wealthy Jew­ish trader from Crete, and he came to An­drew mak­ing re­quest to see Je­sus pri­vately. An­drew ar­ranged this se­cret meet­ing with Je­sus at Flav­ius’s home the evening of the next day. This man could not com­pre­hend the Mas­ter’s teach­ings, and he came be­cause he de­sired to in­quire more fully about the king­dom of God. Said Ja­cob to Je­sus: “But, Rabbi, Moses and the olden proph­ets tell us that Yah­weh is a jeal­ous God, a God of great wrath and fierce anger. The proph­ets say he hates evil­do­ers and takes vengeance on those who obey not his law. You and your dis­ci­ples teach us that God is a kind and com­pas­sion­ate Fa­ther who so loves all men that he would wel­come them into this new king­dom of heaven, which you pro­claim is so near at hand.”

142:2.2When Ja­cob fin­ished speak­ing, Je­sus re­plied: “Ja­cob, you have well stated the teach­ings of the olden proph­ets who taught the chil­dren of their gen­er­a­tion in ac­cor­dance with the light of their day. Our Fa­ther in Par­a­dise is change­less. But the con­cept of his na­ture has en­larged and grown from the days of Moses down through the times of Amos and even to the gen­er­a­tion of the prophet Isa­iah. And now have I come in the flesh to re­veal the Fa­ther in new glory and to show forth his love and mercy to all men on all worlds. As the gospel of this king­dom shall spread over the world with its mes­sage of good cheer and good will to all men, there will grow up im­proved and bet­ter re­la­tions among the fam­i­lies of all na­tions. As time passes, fa­thers and their chil­dren will love each other more, and thus will be brought about a bet­ter un­der­stand­ing of the love of the Fa­ther in heaven for his chil­dren on earth. Re­mem­ber, Ja­cob, that a good and true fa­ther not only loves his fam­ily as a whole—as a fam­ily—but he also truly loves and af­fec­tion­ately cares for each in­di­vid­ual mem­ber.”

142:2.3Af­ter con­sid­er­able dis­cus­sion of the heav­enly Fa­ther’s char­ac­ter, Je­sus paused to say: “You, Ja­cob, be­ing a fa­ther of many, know well the truth of my words.” And Ja­cob said: “But, Mas­ter, who told you I was the fa­ther of six chil­dren? How did you know this about me?” And the Mas­ter replied: “Suf­fice it to say that the Fa­ther and the Son know all things, for in­deed they see all. Lov­ing your chil­dren as a fa­ther on earth, you must now ac­cept as a re­al­ity the love of the heav­enly Fa­ther for you—not just for all the chil­dren of Abra­ham, but for you, your in­di­vid­ual soul.”

142:2.4Then Je­sus went on to say: “When your chil­dren are very young and im­ma­ture, and when you must chas­tise them, they may re­flect that their fa­ther is an­gry and filled with re­sent­ful wrath. Their im­ma­tu­rity can­not pen­e­trate be­yond the pun­ish­ment to dis­cern the fa­ther’s farsee­ing and cor­rec­tive af­fec­tion. But when these same chil­dren be­come grown-up men and women, would it not be folly for them to cling to these ear­lier and mis­con­ceived no­tions re­gard­ing their fa­ther? As men and women they should now dis­cern their fa­ther’s love in all these early dis­ci­plines. And should not man­kind, as the cen­turies pass, come the bet­ter to un­der­stand the true na­ture and lov­ing char­ac­ter of the Fa­ther in heaven? What profit have you from suc­ces­sive gen­er­a­tions of spir­i­tual il­lu­mi­na­tion if you per­sist in view­ing God as Moses and the proph­ets saw him? I say to you, Ja­cob, un­der the bright light of this hour you should see the Fa­ther as none of those who have gone be­fore ever be­held him. And thus see­ing him, you should re­joice to en­ter the king­dom wherein such a mer­ci­ful Fa­ther rules, and you should seek to have his will of love dom­i­nate your life hence­forth.”

142:2.5And Ja­cob an­swered: “Rabbi, I be­lieve; I de­sire that you lead me into the Fa­ther’s king­dom.”