- A Heart as Wide as an Ocean
- 1 Wherever Sahng-jeh-nim stayed, sick people who had heard miraculous stories gathered and begged to be cured.
- 2 Sahng-jeh-nim always knew if a sick person was coming to see Him. If He flicked His index finger outward, the disease was cured on the spot. If He folded His finger inward as if pulling something, the disease would be cured slowly.
- 3 One day, someone from a neighboring village came carrying a paraplegic man on his back. Sahng-jeh-nim said, “Why are you carrying somebody like that?” Sahng-jeh-nim flicked His finger, making both men fall over.
- 4 “Look at this fellow! Pretending to be crippled and wanting to be cured. Why did you come here? Do you think I’m a doctor? Do I look like a doctor? What could I use to cure you?”
- 5 He wrote something with His finger on the disabled man’s legs. They all went inside, and Sahng-jeh-nim ordered someone, “Bring Me some water.”
- 6 Sahng-jeh-nim took a sip of water, wet His finger, and with His finger wrote something on the floor next to where He sat. Nobody could understand what He wrote.
- 7 A moment later, He pointed to something on the other side of the room and said to the paraplegic man, “Go over there and fetch that for Me.”
- 8 The man muttered to himself, “Instead of asking a healthy person, He makes a disabled man like me fetch His things.”
- 9 “You!” Sahng-jeh-nim yelled, “Why aren’t you getting up quickly?” And He slapped the man.
“I cannot get up.”
- 10 “You came here because you are sick―did you come thinking I was a doctor? Or maybe an acupuncturist? Here, try a little of My acupuncture.” Sahng-jeh-nim began poking him with a finger, and the man screamed that he was dying.
- 11 “Get up!” Sahng-jeh-nim commanded. Without being aware of it, the man stood up as if there were nothing wrong with him.
- 12 “You fool,” Sahng-jeh-nim said, “give Me enough money to buy some wine, and then run home.”
- 13 Jumping for joy, the man paid his fee. Sahng-jeh-nim said, “You are poor and yet you brought this to pay for healing. How can I accept it?” With this, He gave the man back more money than was offered.
- 14 After witnessing everything, Hyung-yul said, “His heart is as wide as an ocean; and like the ocean, it will never dry up. Deep and shallow water are different.”
- (JSD Dojeon 2,67)
