"Yes, I am ready, after all that I have seen and heard, I am ready to confess him a prophet sent from God."
"He is far more than a prophet, O Rabbi Amos," answered John. "Never prophet did the works Jesus does. It seems that all power is at his command. If you witnessed what I witness daily, as he traverses Judea, you would say that he was Jehovah descended to earth in human form."
"Nay, do not blaspheme, young man," said Rabbi Amos, with some severity of reproof.
John bowed his head in reverence to the rebuke of the Rabbi, but nevertheless answered respectfully and firmly. "Never man did like him. If he be not God in the flesh, he is an angel in flesh invested with divine power."
"If he be the Messiah," I said, "he cannot be an angel, for are not the prophecies clear that the Messiah shall be 'a man of sorrows'? Is he not to be 'the seed of the woman'? a man and not an angel?"
"Yes," answered John, "you remember well the prophecies. I firmly believe Jesus to be the Messiah, the Son of God. Yet, what he is more than man, what he is less than God, is incomprehensible to me and to my fellow-disciples. We wonder, love and adore! At one moment we feel like embracing him as a brother dearly beloved; at another, we are ready to fall at his feet and worship him. I have seen him weep at beholding the miseries of the diseased wretches which were dragged into his presence, and then with a touch—with a word, heal them; and they would stand before him in the purity and beauty of health and strong manhood."
"And yet," said Nicodemus, a rich Pharisee, who entered as John was first speaking, and listened without interrupting, "and yet, young man, I heard you say that Jesus, of whom you and all men relate such mighty deeds, has remained at Bethany to recover from his fatigue. How can a man who holds all sickness in his power, be subject to mere weariness of body? I would say unto him, Physician, heal thyself!"
This was spoken with a tone of incredulity by this learned ruler of the Jews, and, stroking his snowy beard, he waited of John a reply.
"So far as I can learn the character of Jesus," replied John, "his healing power over diseases is not for his own good. He uses his power to work miracles for the benefit of others through love and compassion. Being a man with this divine power dwelling in him for us, he is subject to infirmities as a man; he hungers, thirsts, wearies, suffers, as a man. I have seen him heal a nobleman's son by a word, and the next moment seat himself, supporting his aching head upon his hand, looking pale and languid, for his labors of love are vast, and he is often overcome by them. Once Simon Peter, seeing him ready to sink with weariness, after healing all day, asked him and said, 'Master, thou givest strength to others; why suffer thyself, when all health and strength are in thee as in a living well, to be weary?'
"'It is not my desire to escape human infirmities by any power my Father hath bestowed upon me for the good of men. Through suffering only can I draw all men after me!' he replied."