APPRECIATING AN ADDITIONAL TEN FROM THOMAS

are the follow-ups to the post for January 2019 HOW WILL DEATH TASTE? which was originally intended as a stand-alone piece based on selected sayings from the ‘Gospel of Jesus According to Thomas’.

Who was Thomas?

Thomas, aka Didymus (Twin?) d. 72 AD, was one of the 12 original apostles of Jesus. Born in Galilee in the days of the Roman Empire (same time and place as Jesus?) Died at Parangimalai (St.Thomas’s Mount) Chennai, Chola (India)

The following are the next ten from the remaindered sayings. The introduction to be found in the January post also applies here (as does the conclusion).

Saying 98

Jesus said, “The Father’s kingdom can be compared to a man who wanted to kill someone powerful. He drew his sword in his house and drove it into the wall to figure out whether his hand was strong enough. Then he killed the powerful one.”

This could be the origin of phrases like Look before you leap, Take care, Know yourself, Know your opponent, Know your strength, Step by step, Practice makes perfect, even Drawing it out or What’s the big drawback?

Every Sunday morning my tall father and a mini-I would walk up Whitehall and stop at a military shop-museum near enough on Horseguards Parade. I remember his telling a curator-assistant to take down from the wall his “personal sword”, in its gleaming scabbard, and hand it to me. It was enormous compared to me and worryingly heavy. I felt terrific yet fearful. I think it was a tease that they liked to play on me to brighten a quiet morning. I have a photo of my grandfather, a young Lancer, with his non-ceremonial sword. The Lancers used them to cut through (after lodging lances like charging knights in armour). War is about weaponizing.

Swords pierce. Swords slice. Swords rip open. Swords amputate. All at a single stroke. A long sword has leverage, multiplying its bearers strength. A short sword at speed may kill with surprise or weaved with the arm will bite worryingly like a deadly snake.

Was there a band of anti-Romans, practicing for battle in Judea? Yes, the desert Essenes.

Otherwise, is there perhaps a further test we have to prepare ourselves for whilst in heaven? And if so, why so violent? I really don’t know… are we sure this is Gentle Jesus?

Well, in the Luke and Matthew gospels there are other parables referring to amoral or immoral people. Jesus did not mind causing prissy people offense (the grit in the oyster?) and was criticized for socializing with the shocking:

Matthew 21:31-32 Verily I say to you, that the tax-gatherers and the harlots do go before you into the reign of God,

for John came unto you in the way of righteousness, and ye did not believe him, and the tax-gatherers and the harlots did believe him

Luke 9 and I say to you, Make to yourselves friends out of the mammon of unrighteousness …

(This last line, in and out of context, unsettlingly challenges all congregational exclusivity, by the way)

Luke 12:39-40 `And this know, that if the master of the house had known what hour the thief doth come, he would have watched …

and ye, then, become ye ready, because at the hour ye think not, the Son of Man doth come.’

Jesus compared himself to a thief here. Just think of all the worthy parallels He could have made so why this one, why with a thief? It seems He liked to unsettle folk sometimes.

(This was later taken to an extreme by the rascalous modern guru Gurdjieff who surreptitiously paid a fiercely fractious man to attend with the truth-seeking volunteers at his Prieuré for the sake of the friction he produced, unsaddling them from pretences and predilections about themselves.)

There are plural instances in the OT where men of bad record were picked-out for tasks by their God because they had never stopped believing He exists, despite their crimes. I will not go there now as the literary Thomas was not about the old religious ways, it seems, and for that same reason I will not draw parallels with David and Goliath. In the recorded sayings of Jesus, from all sources, there seem to be a notable number of examples of ‘reversals’, for want of a better expression, such as strengthening the weak and deflating the powerful. And several references to swords.

Saying 99

The disciples said to him, “Your brothers and mother are standing outside.”

He said to them, “The people here who do the will of my Father are my brothers and mother; they’re the ones who will enter my Father’s kingdom.”

Other than claiming Jesus to be entirely extraterrestrial, the obvious explanation here is that the Son of God recognized His heavenly Father only. He certainly said that we are all children of His Father. Yes, we are each the child of God which is nothing but the Truth. Yet clearly He wishes to distance Hisself from his earthly family, even to the point of shaming them before His apostles. Were they against Him or His mission, especially His mother? (If James or Thomas were his actual brothers, can we presume they each backed Him up?) One affect of His miraculous reputation was that the Romans had dithered over forcing Him publicly to desist. Did officials lean heavily on His earthly family to shut Him up?

On the truly dark side, statements that shock have been used to disaffect unsophisticated people enough for ‘brain-washing’ treatments to be applied immediately thereafter, or so we are told.

On a gnostical note, some might say that the mind was code female and the spirit code male, producing brother spirit and mother mind.

Saying 100

They showed Jesus a gold coin and said to him, “Those who belong to Caesar demand tribute from us.”

He said to them, “Give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar,

Each to his own, revenue-wise.

“Of all things money is the least real.”

This was said to me at a time when I could not comprehend it. Now I confirm it is true. My life across the decades has proven it. Trust 101% in God. I don’t mean by paying lip-service to an immaterialist ideology whilst taking out insurance. You can put some windfall from God aside for a rainy day if you wish, but remember it is doing no person any good in the long term. (In my experience, gainmaking moneylenders such as bank owners seldom match-up to humane people so I avoid their gratuitous agencies.)

I certainly cannot commend the maximizing of monetary profits, an excessive ethos urged by echoey educators, adherent corporate advisors, purposeless public pundits and diploma-waving pursuivants. So many overblown bubbles have ended up as teardrops, mighty roarings above that then burst into little whimpers below.

give to God what belongs to God, and give to me what belongs to me.”

Caesar – Jesus – God

These words form an extraordinary sub-plot. To those like me who eschew hierarchy this makes no sense as a sequence. As three separate things it flows better. Let’s knock-off Caesar:

Jesus – God

Is there some kind of dual taxation going on, perhaps to do with the feeding back of a special love or development of spirit? (Religious folk would interpose their commitment to a holy figurehead – a manouevre aimed at minimizing loyalty to more than one superior – before returning special love or sharing a spirited development.)

Yet we are many of us accustomed to God and Jesus being portrayed as the same. (Including the astonishing Saying 77 in the post Scrutinising Afresh Ten By Thomas )

Christians can confuse union with unity. I don’t blame them, all these words are only fractionally appropriate to something beyond verbal explanation. But really, they should not read into John 17:21

that they all may be one, as Thou Father be in me, and I in Thee; that they also in us may be one, that the world may believe that Thou didst send me

purely that Christians should be one in the same way as God and Jesus are one, exclusive unity. It goes on “they also in us may be one” which implicitly states, I hope, that in the final analysis EVERYTHING IS ONE, inclusive union.

Are meditative experiences of the universal consciousness OBEs, out of body experiences? NO, no matter that we may become somewhat detached from our starting point and yet still know our Self, they allow a mysterious form of all-inclusive union and not some singularly exclusive unity.

My own view is that Jesus was a Gold Medal Holder among the Enlightened who was ‘way above’ others, that time around. In fact He said He was in a unique special relationship with God – translating scribes having abstracted that from the Greek abstraction: monogeneis – but none of us are ‘high enough’ to confirm or deny this. We can believe yet not know. The holy natal waters have been muddied by the translation ‘begotten’, which seems perhaps inappropriate. (Back then up until recently there was almost complete ignorance concerning the internal physics-with-chemistry of conception.) When challenged with claiming Himself to be God, a capital crime, He responded that we are all children of God according to Torah, i.e. He held up all true homo sapiens – the majority of us – as consistent and constituent with God. Here and now we improbably are!

Saying 101

“Whoever doesn’t hate their …… and mother as I do can’t become my …….., and whoever ……. love their …… and mother as I do can’t become my …….. . For my mother … , but .. true …… gave me Life.”

Once we set out to fill-in these blanks we betray our filial humours. Better not to try? There are other clearer quotations around like this including Saying 55 (in the post Measuring Out a New Ten from Thomas ).

Saying 102

Jesus said, “How awful for the Pharisees who are like a dog sleeping in a feeding trough for cattle, because the dog doesn’t eat, and ……. … the cattle eat either.”

(Some Thomasian sayings are surprisingly similar in intent. See Saying 39 in the post How Will Death Taste? for a full commentary)

Saying 103

Jesus said, “Blessed is the one who knows where the bandits are going to enter.

…. … get up to assemble their defenses and be prepared to defend themselves before they arrive.”

“Time spent on reconnaissance is seldom if ever wasted”.

From the beginnings of city life there was a great fear of roaming armies of nomadic shepherds with their great flocks of sheep throwing clouds of dust up into the sky as they approached and devouring what lay in their path like land locusts. This resolved into sheep-herding bands of brigands encroaching upon the individual farms that sprung up around the cities. Today isolated farmers fear not so much each other as outside groups passing through. The same happened with cattle wars in the Wild West, the farmers fighting to keep the long-distance cattle drovers from crossing their lands, trampling their grounds with huge running herds making great clouds of dust.

We should assume this Saying of Jesus to be a parable of preparation. (There are various predictions that He will return with clouds, by the way, although usually up in the heavens and signaling glory.)

Saying 104

They said to ….. , “Come, let’s pray and fast today.”

It is well-recorded (including in Saying 14 in the post Ten More From Thomas) that Jesus denied praying or fasting. Even in canon an apparent denial of prayer appears immediately anterior to the Lord’s Prayer.

Jesus said, “What have I done wrong? Have I failed?

What wrong thing did I do that I should need to fast and pray?

Or,

Why do you cling to your culture, despite me, so preventing the new from taking root?

“Rather, when the groom leaves the bridal chamber, then people should fast and pray.”

When it comes to the End of Time, when Heaven departs from the Earth, then by all means fast and pray or do whatever grounds you if you so desire, yet it is too late.

Or the equivalent in Aramaic (a mild, gentle tongue) of “That’ll be the day.”

Saying 105

Jesus said, “Whoever knows their father and mother will be called a bastard (the son of a prostitute).”

Editor’s note: “A bastard.” Literally, “the son of a prostitute.”

The Jewish Talmud does indeed refer repeatedly to the mother of Jesus as being a prostitute by occupation. How could Jesus know about those entries? Was this being written about indiscreetly or broadcast vocally during the earthly time of Jesus?

And was He, or somebody speaking through Him, announcing that God was His Father and His Mother? For many in the world the Virgin Birth, despite it not being an entirely original historical concept, defines the last two thousand years.

Saying 107

Jesus said, “The kingdom can be compared to a shepherd who had a hundred sheep. The largest one strayed. He left the ninety-nine and looked for that one until he found it. Having gone through the trouble, he said to the sheep: ‘I love you more than the ninety-nine.'”

I have such a strong personal aversion to any parent showing favouritism to one of their children, let alone proclaiming that favourite in the manner of the British upper class, that I must search for justication. I suppose that it does not matter much with sheep although the favourite corgi dog of Queen Elizabeth II was reportedly savaged to death by her other corgis.

This story by Jesus appears elsewhere (without specifying the “kingdom”) including a version where the creature fell into a well. I could imagine that a sensitive and humane rescuer (redeemer?) would have their best feelings drawn by a close proximity to the agitated expressions of fear evinced by that lost sheep and the mutual happiness of having placated it hugely. A kind of two-way gratitudinous love, arising from sheer relief at the success of the save.

Individual relationships starting like that are widely recorded, similar to ‘Androcles and the Lion’.

From my experience, entering into understanding with the individual person is absolutely absorbing to God – a group may be of lesser consequence, I would guess. Entering into a mutual understanding through sublime intervention is likely to be deep and clear on God’s part but much muddier on the part of that fortunate person and yet all-embracing, enlightening. “How wonderful is this feeling that I, God having overlooked my wrong-footed tumble, am lifted out of oppression”.

Saying 108

Jesus said, “Whoever drinks from my mouth will become like me, and I myself will become like them; then, what’s hidden will be revealed to them.”

This human society is largely a mirror of our monkey side and is bogus, unreal, made up of fakery and aping and monkey business. What is covered over is the sublime, the truly spiritual that is of Truth and Love and Reality.

What is intended by the active verb “to drink”? Is it merely to hear Him speak? Or is it to listen closely? Or is it to put into practice in one’s own person the pure thoughts flowing from Jesus?

To be like Him I think it must be the last. Although I did not call on Jesus in my personal progression to a good place (that I am not strictly in today, such being the dynamics of life, other than God’s enduring protection manifesting over me and a total lack of doubt over that matter) I was aware of His recorded words and used some of them – discriminately, not exclusively – to help me in decision-making and direction-taking. It did me no harm at all but then my nature has always been resistant to group influence. Jesus is inserted into Christianity (the Jewish messiah-ship or Judean monarchic rule) only by humankind’s tendencies to assumption, presumption, approximations and false parallels, plus the desire to be propped up by others for fear of falling down alone. How many Christians have you heard say that to be anything like Jesus, even in a small way, would be great but impossible as they are not the only begotten Son of God, lol? Grow out of it. Even should we comply with Jesus possessing two natures, one divine, the fact remains that He would not have told you to be like Him if that were not possible. The part of Him that was ‘enlightened human’ is entirely possible to reach without having even heard of Jesus. If I, previously the player of a losing hand, could reach the state of positive enlightenment then for sure you should do so even if you have only a modicum of compassion about you.

See life’s circumstance as a roller-coaster ride: be careful on the way up as quite soon you will be coming down again but if you are near the bottom don’t worry because soon you will be going up again. So be careful and don’t worry!

NigelRaymondOfford (C) December 2019

~ by nigelraymondofford on December 17, 2019.

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