ON LOVE; PART XDXXI

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GoodWill IS Love in Action

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The Gospel of Thomas

These are the hidden words that the living Jesus spoke. And Didymos Judas Thomas wrote them down.

(51) His disciples said to him: “When will the <resurrection> of the dead take place, and when will the new world come?” He said to them: “That (resurrection) which you are awaiting has (already) come, but you do not recognize it.”

(52) His disciples said to him: “Twenty-four prophets have spoken in Israel, and all (of them) have spoken through you.” He said to them: “You have pushed away the living (one) from yourselves, and you have begun to speak of those who are dead.“

(53) His disciples said to him: “Is circumcision beneficial, or not?” He said to them: “If it were beneficial, their father would beget them circumcized from their mother. But the true circumcision in the spirit has prevailed over everything.“

(54) Jesus says: “Blessed are the poor. For the kingdom of heaven belongs to you.“

(55) Jesus says: “Whoever does not hate his father and his mother cannot become a disciple of mine. And whoever does not hate his brothers and his sisters (and) will not take up his cross as I do, will not be worthy of me.“

(56) Jesus says: “Whoever has come to know the world has found a corpse. And whoever has found (this) corpse, of him the world is not worthy.“

(57) Jesus says: “The kingdom of the Father is like a person who had (good) seed. His enemy came by night. He sowed darnel among the good seed. The person did not allow (the servants) to pull up the darnel. He said to them: ‘Lest you go to pull up the darnel (and then) pull up the wheat along with it.’ For on the day of the harvest, the darnel will be apparent and it will be pulled up (and) burned.“

In the last essay we discussed the Master’s ideas behind the fifty seventh saying from the Gospel of Thomas which represents Thomas’ version of the Parable of the Wheat and the Tares as we see it in Matthew’s Gospel. We noted that this is one of the few parables that the Master explains to His disciples after offering it to the people and that the explanation is also a very parabolic saying which is understood by many as about the end days as they see apocalyptic notes in it. We of course DO NOT see the eschatological value as the point that the Master is making but that there is a reality behind the outer story that IS His intent and that this is a similar idea to the Truth of the parable itself which is also seen by many for its apocalyptic value which is likely more based in the interpretation than on the parable itself. Remembering that this IS a parable and that the further explanation is parabolic as well gives us the needed insight for right discernment of this story which Thomas offers in a rather abbreviated form; Thomas also frames this in a way that make a bit more sense from our perspective.

We should see here that it IS the Kingdom that is sowing the seed, the good seed, into the field and if we can see this in the reality of the Kingdom, we will see that the Master is speaking about men who are focused upon the Kingdom Within, the Kingdom of God, who are the good seed sown. The enemy is of course the devil or Satan which we KNOW as the ways of the world itself and here too the sowing is of men who are so focused, their attention IS on the things of the world. And so the story then goes that it is not possible to KNOW the good seed from the seed of the tares or weeds which is rendered here as darnel; it is not possible until they can bear their fruit. The rest of this IS the story itself of what happens to the tares, they are pulled up at the harvest and burned while the wheat is put into the barn as we take a piece from Matthew’s version. The story IS the story, the Truth is that the tares CAN NOT be discerned from the wheat until the time of harvest and in the continual motion of Life in this Earth this is a thing that is constantly happening….there is not one big planting and then one big harvest at the end. In a previous essay we looked at this idea of darnel and found this:

Wikipedia says this of darnel: Darnel usually grows in the same production zones as wheat and is considered a weed. The similarity between these two plants is so extensive that in some regions, cockle is referred to as “false wheat”. It bears a close resemblance to wheat until the ear appears. The ears on the real wheat are so heavy it makes the entire plant droop downward, but L. temulentum, whose ears are light, stands up straight. The wheat will also appear brown when ripe, whereas the darnel is black.

This makes clearer the decision of the householder in Matthew’s version of the parable, and the person cited above, that the servant not pull up the tares but wait until the harvest. As we can see, the Truth of what IS the good seed and what IS the bad can be indistinguishable until they are ready for harvest and are bearing fruit. As they grow they can give us the impression of something being of God but it is really not, or vice versa, and the truth of it is not known until the idea bears its fruit. We should note here that this parable is found only in Matthew’s Gospel and follows upon the Master’s explanation of the Parable of the Sower where the Master explains, again using seed and sowing as His reference, that the Kingdom of God grows only in the ‘good ground‘, that in the other types of ground, the wayside, the stony and the thorny can not support the growth of the Kingdom and we often reference that the ‘good ground’ is the man in whom the Kingdom grows and where the seed grows and bears fruit. This IS one way of looking at the Kingdom in man. In this same series of sayings there are several other parables regarding the Kingdom of God and there but one other that reflects the apocalyptic tone ascribed by doctrine as this one. The sequence is the Parable of the Sower, the Master’s explanation of the nature of a parable, the Masters interpretation of the Parable of the Sower, the Parable of the Wheat and the Tares, the Parable of Kingdom as a Grain of Mustard Seed, the Parable of the Kingdom as Leaven and then the Master’s explanation of the Parable of the Wheat and the Tares. This is followed by the Parable of the Treasure in the Field, the Parable of the Pearl of Great Price and finally the Parable of Drawing in the Net which also has some presumed apocalyptic meaning. By and large however ALL of the Truths behind ALL of these parables are concerning the Kingdom of God and what the Kingdom can be likened to.

It is our contention here that the ideas related to final judgement are ideas that are misplaced and that are misunderstood and ideas which man has fixated on in his search for understanding of the words of the Master under the doctrinal approach of heaven and hell as it is yet taught as Christianity. Does the Master intentionally give us this idea in His interpretation of the Parables of the Wheat and the Tares and the Drawing in the Net? or do men see them in this way because it IS their belief. We must remember here again that these are Parables and they ARE parables to which we should liken the Kingdom of God. Here, if we can Truly understand that the Kingdom IS within and than in that Kingdom Within is then the place of the God Within and the Christ Within, then these eschatological ideas have NO True basis and can be interpreted in other ways. Let us look here at the interpretation of our subject parable again:

“Then Jesus sent the multitude away, and went into the house: and his disciples came unto him, saying, Declare unto us the parable of the tares of the field. He answered and said unto them, He that soweth the good seed is the Son of man; The field is the world; the good seed are the children of the kingdom; but the tares are the children of the wicked one; The enemy that sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the world; and the reapers are the angels. As therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire; so shall it be in the end of this world. The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity; And shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Who hath ears to hear, let him hear” (Matthew 13:36-43).

First we should see that the interpretation does not completely follow along with the parable itself. If we see the Son of man as the Christ and then as the Christ Within, we can see that those men who are so focused, those who are keeping His words and who ARE striving toward that goal are populating the world as wheat from this good seed sown. Understanding that the devil, the enemy, IS the ways of the world, sin if you will, we can see that men who are so focused upon the self and the self in the world are also populating the world but as tares, as weeds, as darnel. Next, we should try to see that the angels ARE the Souls of men, the True men, whose lives in form have resulted in them being wheat or tares and that the Soul, KNOWING only what IS right, harvests each man’s Life. The rest of this is but the story that covers the Truth of the parable and here we should remember that the Master says these things to His disciples, He says them as a parable, and concludes His saying with those telling words: “Who hath ears to hear, let him hear“.

Are we right here in our understanding? We DO NO KNOW. Are we more right than the apocalyptic ideas that doctrines presume? YES we ARE. We do not dispute that there will be an end, we only dispute the fanciful ideas founded in Christian eschatology. There IS an end and here and in many other sayings the Master tells us ALL to be ready as He tells His disciples to be ready in parables told only to them; this readiness should be seen however as for our individual lives, that we are producing that good fruit, that our lives are the lives of wheat and not tares. We should note here one more thing that is never covered by the Master insofar as we can discern and that is that after this end of the world there IS still Life and in the next round of manifestation those who have found the Truth and lived as His disciples in the world will have a sure starting place as participants in His Kingdom…..for the rest of humanity that dies in those days we DO NOT KNOW.

And so here we have the greater reality of this fifty seventh parable from our perspective and its relation to the ideas set forth by Matthew. Thomas gives us no context, he just offers a list of sayings of which some can be seen to follow upon the previous. Matthew in this case gives us perspective and that perspective is that this is one of many parables offered by the Master that show us His Kingdom.

The next group of sayings from the second half of Thomas’ Gospel are:

(58) Jesus says: “Blessed is the person who has struggled. He has found life.“

(59) Jesus says: “Look for the Living One while you are alive, so that you will not die (and) then seek to see him. And you will not be able to see (him).“

(60) <He saw> a Samaritan who was trying to steal a lamb while he was on his way to Judea. He said to his disciples: “That (person) is stalking the lamb.” They said to him: “So that he may kill it (and) eat it.” He said to them: “As long as it is alive he will not eat it, but (only) when he has killed it (and) it has become a corpse.” They said to him: “Otherwise he cannot do it.” He said to them: “You, too, look for a place for your repose so that you may not become a corpse (and) get eaten.“

(61) Jesus said: “Two will rest on a bed. The one will die, the other will live.” Salome said: “(So) who are you, man? You have gotten a place on my couch as a <stranger> and you have eaten from my table.” Jesus said to her: “I am he who comes from the one who is (always) the same. I was given some of that which is my Father’s.  I am your disciple! Therefore I say: If someone becomes <like> (God), he will become full of light. But if he becomes one, separated (from God), he will become full of darkness.“

(62) Jesus says: “I tell my mysteries to those who [are worthy] of [my] mysteries. Whatever you right hand does, your left hand should not know what it is doing.“

We will continue with our thoughts in the next post.

Aspect of God	Potency	Aspect of Man	In Relation to the Great Invocation	In relation to the Christ
GOD, The Father	Will or Power	Spirit or Life	Center where the Will of God IS KNOWN	Life
Son, The Christ	Love and Wisdom	Soul or Christ Within	Heart of God	Truth
Holy Spirit	Light or Activity	Life Within	Mind of God	Way

Note on the Quote of the Day

This daily blog also has a Quote of the Day which may not be in any way related to the essay. Many of these will be from the Bible and some just prayers or meditations that may have an influence on you and are in line with the subject matter of this blog. As the quote will change daily and will not store with the post, it is repeated in this section with the book reference and comment.

Values to Live By

A Love of Truth—essential
for a just, inclusive and progressive society;

A Sense of Justice—recognition
of the rights and needs, of all.

Spirit of Cooperation—based
on active goodwill and the principle of right human
relationships;

A Sense of Personal Responsibility—for
group, community and national affairs;

Serving the Common Good— through
the sacrifice of selfishness. Only what is good for all
is good for each one.

The world of the future depends on what each one of us chooses to do today.

From a previous essay and Quote of the Day we reprise these words:  It is interesting to note that the ideas of the Quote of the Day embody much of the Master’s teachings and can set the stage for the beginning of each man’s revelation and realization of the Light of the Soul; that is, that by the intentional practice of these ‘rules’ of conduct one can put himself in the position of a follower of the Master and an keeper of His word and this regardless if he has ever heard of the Christ or wants to be affiliated with any ideas Christian. By keeping these sound principals of Life in mind and practicing them a man can lift himself up above and beyond the world of men and into the world of the Good, the Beautiful and the True as it exists for those in whom the Christ Within, the God Within, is awakened. Ponder on this.

Let the peace of God rule in your hearts!

• ¹⁴ The Gospel of Thomas; Translated by Stephen J. Patterson and James M. Robinson; http://gnosis.org/