ON LOVE; PART CCCLXXIII

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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.

(18)  The disciples said to Jesus: “Tell us how our end will be.”  Jesus said: “Have you already discovered the beginning that you are now asking about the end? For where the beginning is, there the end will be too. Blessed is he who will stand at the beginning. And he will know the end, and he will not taste death.”

(19) Jesus says: “Blessed is he who was, before he came into being. If you become disciples of mine (and) listen to my words, these stones will serve you.  For you have five trees in Paradise that do not change during summer (and) winter, and their leaves do not fall. Whoever comes to know them will not taste death.”

(20)  The disciples said to Jesus: “Tell us whom the kingdom of heaven is like!”  He said to them: “It is like a mustard seed.  <It> is the smallest of all seeds.  But when it falls on cultivated soil, it produces a large branch (and) becomes shelter for the birds of the sky.”

(21)  Mary said to Jesus: “Whom are your disciples like?” He said: “They are like servants who are entrusted with a field that is not theirs. When the owners of the field arrive, they will say: ‘Let us have our field.’ (But) they are naked in their presence so as to let them have it (and thus) to give them their field.” “That is why I say: ‘When the master of the house learns that the thief is about to come, he will be on guard before he comes (and) will not let him break into his house, his domain, to carry away his possessions.’ (But) you, be on guard against the world! Gird your loins with great strength, so that the robbers will not find a way to get to you.” “For the necessities for which you wait (with longing) will be found. There ought to be a wise person among you! When the fruit was ripe, he came quickly with his sickle in his hand, (and) he harvested it. Whoever has ears to hear should hear.” ¹⁴

In the last post we finished our discussion of the nineteenth saying from the Gospel of Thomas and found some interesting ways to see the words of the Master as He first tells the disciples that if they continue as such and keep His words that they will come to that state of True discipleship in which they could command the stones to their service. We discounted the various renderings that frame the the conditional statement as “if you become disciples of mine” and various other like renderings, in favor of the interlinear wording of “if you should be to me disciples” which we considered as the Master’s words in the accepted gospels that say “If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed” (John 8:31). Of the several translations that we have available, the Layton comes closest to our view in his rendering this as “If you exist as my disciples and listen to my sayings“. As we noted we took this view because these men to whom He offers such deep sayings as this ARE already His disciples. This reality of keeping His words is the entry key to discipleship and the fullness of the expression of the Love and the Power of the Soul is found in staying in His word as it becomes the total focus of the man who can say with the Master that “I have overcome the world” (John 16:33) and it IS in this state of KNOWING that one can move the mountain and uproot the sycamine and cast it to the sea as we read in the synoptic gospels or, command the stones as we read here. From our perspective, these are the effects of the same expression of the Soul in the world of men. The prior verse is in regard to the joy of the one who can realize that he IS the divine man, the Soul, and that is simply all that this says; that the man so has such realization of Truth is blessed and this idea is likely a continuation of the prior saying where the man realizes that he IS the eternal part and not the body that is born and dies and in this realization the man understands somewhat that the idea of time only controls the events in the Earth and on this physical plane.

In this combination of the realization of the Truth of the Soul as the eternal and True man, the Christ Within, and the ongoing relationship of discipleship with the Lord through keeping His words, comes the fuller realization of the effects of True discipleship and the reality that in its fullness the man can move the mountain as well as these other ideas that are offered in the gospels. It is in this state, and we must understand that this IS ALL by degree, that the man can understand the Truths of Life and this next part on the five trees is for us a teaching on the very nature of the Spiritual man showing that beyond the physical form and the personality is a Soul that is itself a Trinity and that beyond this is yet the ONENESS of Spirit that IS the man and beyond this the essence of Life itself. These are the five trees and these dynamic spiritual Aspects are immovable  and unchangeable and the Master ends in saying again that to KNOW these things is to “not taste death“, a reality that is found in the realization of one’s divine nature. While there is difference in presentation, there is little difference between the Truths uttered here and those of the accepted gospels and the both tell us the way to eternal Life and the Kingdom of God.

The next saying, the twentieth, seems to be Thomas understanding of the Parable of the Mustard Seed. In the accepted gospels this parable is offered by the Master as a teaching on the nature of the Kingdom of God while in Thomas the Master gives a similar teaching but in response to the question by His disciples: “Tell us whom the kingdom of heaven is like!“. We should note here that this translation that we are using, the Patterson and Robinson, is the only one from our available translations that renders the question as whom; all others render as what. Here the interlinear gives us whom as well and while this may spark some interest, we do not see how it may effect the understanding of the whole idea. Some of the available comments on this saying are:

• Joachim Jeremias writes: “The conclusion of the parable of the Mustard Seed in the Gospel of Thomas (20) runs as follows: ‘. . . it produces a large branch and becomes shelter (sceph) for the birds of heaven’. This is possible a free allusion to Dan. 4.9, 18; Ezek. 17.23; 31.6; 3.9, 18 Th., while in Matthew (13.32) and Luke (13.19) it is a free quotation from Dan. 3.18 Th. The unrealistic description of the mustard-seed as a tree, which only occurs in Matthew and Luke, but not in Mark or the Gospel of Thomas, is also derived from Dan. 3.17.” (The Parables of Jesus, p. 31).  “In the Gospel of Thomas (20), too, a similar introduction to the parable of the Mustard Seed: ‘The disciples said to Jesus: Tell us what the Kingdom of Heaven is like’, is secondary by comparison with Mark 4.30, where Jesus himself puts the question, since such questions from the disciples are characteristic of the Gospel of Thomas.” (The Parables of Jesus, p. 98).
• Funk and Hoover write: “The Fellows judged the version in Thomas to be the closest to the original. It was therefore given a red designation. The three synoptic versions have been accommodated to a greater or lesser degree to the apocalyptic tree theme and so were designated pink. This parable is a good example of how the original Jesus tradition, perhaps shocking in its modesty or poorly understood, is revised to accomodate living and powerful mythical images drawn from the Hebrew scriptures.” (The Five Gospels, p. 485)
• J. D. Crossan quotes Pliny’s Natural History 19.170-171 as saying: “Mustard . . . with its pungent taste and fiery effect is extremely beneficial for the health. It grows entirely wild, though it is improved by being transplanted: but on the other hand when it has once been sown it is scarcely possible to get the place free of it, as the seed when it falls germinates at once. There is, on other words, a distinction between the wild mustard and its domesticated counterpart, but even when one deliberately cultivates the latter for its medicinal or culinary properties, there is an ever-present danger that it will destroy the garden. And, apart from those domesticated types, such as brassica nigra or sinapis alba, there is, as Douglas Oakman emphasizes, the wild mustard, charlock, or sinapis arvensis, whose ‘plants have from time immemorial been found as weeds in grain fields’ (1986:124). The mustard plant, therefore, is, as domesticated in the garden, dangerous and, as wild in the grain fields, deadly. The point is not just that it starts small and ends big but that its bigness is not exactly a horticultural or agricultural desideratum.” (The Historical Jesus, p. 278). “The point, in other words, is not just that the mustard plant starts as a proverbially small seed and grows into a shrub of three or four feet, or even higher, it is that it tends to take over where it is not wanted, that it tends to get out of control, and that it tends to attract birds within cultivated areas where they are not particularly desired. And that, said Jesus, was what the Kingdom was like: not like the mighty cedar of Lebanon and not quite like a common weed, like a pungent shrub with dangerous takeover properties. Something you would want in only small and carefully controlled doses – if you could control it.” (The Historical Jesus, pp. 279-279).

Most of the commentary here does not lend itself to commenting upon the words but rather upon the comparison to the accepted gospels as Thomas sources as in Jeremias above or a comparison against some unknown source as in Funk and Hoover. In Crossan, we have a new dynamic however were the idea of the mustard tree itself is being scrutinized and there are some interesting points in this commentary which we will pick up in a bit. We have reviewed this parable from the synoptic gospels before; there are three versions:

• From Matthew’s Gospel we read: “The kingdom of heaven is like to a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and sowed in his field: Which indeed is the least of all seeds: but when it is grown, it is the greatest among herbs, and becometh a tree, so that the birds of the air come and lodge in the branches thereof” (Matthew 13:31-32).
• According to Mark: “Whereunto shall we liken the kingdom of God? or with what comparison shall we compare it? It is like a grain of mustard seed, which, when it is sown in the earth, is less than all the seeds that be in the earth: But when it is sown, it groweth up, and becometh greater than all herbs, and shooteth out great branches; so that the fowls of the air may lodge under the shadow of it” (Mark 4:30-32).
• Luke tells this to us as: “Unto what is the kingdom of God like? and whereunto shall I resemble it? It is like a grain of mustard seed, which a man took, and cast into his garden; and it grew, and waxed a great tree; and the fowls of the air lodged in the branches of it” (Luke 13:18-19).
• And Thomas tells us “It is like a mustard seed.  <It> is the smallest of all seeds.  But when it falls on cultivated soil, it produces a large branch (and) becomes shelter for the birds of the sky” (Thomas 20).

The point of ALL of these is in the growth of the Kingdom and while doctrine believes that this is somehow the Kingdom in the Earth through the church and the gospel, we understand this as the growth of the Kingdom in the individual man in the world as it starts from the smallest seed planted in the heart, the consciousness, of the man, the Kingdom within. Doctrine sometimes seems to forget that these are parables and that there need not be any True relevance to a tree or a mustard seed but that these are just examples of ideas that can help in one’s understanding to the hidden Truth. We noted the last time that we discussed this parable that the method of planting is different and we discussed as well the doctrinal presentation; all this is available in In the Words of Jesus part 618. Here in Thomas version we find that the seed falls, it is not planted per se, but simply falls as the seeds of tress are wont to do. From our perspective, it does not really matter how the seed gets to the ground and while Thomas version offers that the ground is cultivated, this likely does not matter either as the parable is not about seeds or trees but what happens to the seed which IS the symbol of the Kingdom when it is somehow planted….it grows. This is the action of the Kingdom in the heart of the man in the world….once it is planted it grows and not only this, it grows into a “great tree” as Mark tells us and produces a “large branch” as in Thomas and in this we should find the idea of the protection of the man in the world from the wiles of the world. In the idea of a man entering into discipleship and the Kingdom of God is the idea of maintaining that focus upon the Soul and the things of God and to be able to overcome the lures of the self and the things of the self in the world. This attraction and attachment is hard to overcome and not so hard at times to resist and it IS in the growth of the Kingdom that a man can overcome as in this growth there is the added strength and the added ability for the expression of the Truth of the Love and the Power of the Soul through the form and, since this ALL works in Life by degree, this growth is of that degree.

In the third comment above are some interesting observations about the pervasive nature of this mustard tree, how quickly it can germinate and how it can take over the garden. Can we see here an added understanding from this choice of the mustard seed as the example of the Kingdom by the Master? Not only does it grow, it grows quickly and can ruin the garden as we read above and can grow out of control. In the Truth of the Kingdom is this not what one would want, that the Kingdom of God take over one’s Life and ruin one’s attraction and attachment to the things of the world and that it grow so totally out of control that it can quickly make a disciple of the man in whom that seed IS planted. Is this not the goal?

We will continue with our thoughts in the next post.

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.

Today’s quote of the day is a repeat of the Mantram of Unification which is an affirmation of the Oneness of the human family from the perspective of the disciple and the aspirant and any who hold these ideals as important. In this we find the essence of the two ideas that we have discussed from Values to Live By and that these are firmly grounded in the desire to Love not hate; to serve and not exact due service and to heal and not to hurt. It is Love shown as Truth and justice that is at the heart of this mantram.

Mantram of Unification

The sons of men are one and I am one with them.
I seek to love, not hate;
I seek to serve and not exact due service;
I seek to heal, not hurt.

Let pain bring due reward of light and love.
Let the Soul control the outer form, and life and all events,
And bring to light the love that underlies the happenings of the time.

Let vision come and insight.
Let the future stand revealed.
Let inner union demonstrate and outer cleavages be gone.
Let love prevail.
Let all men love.

The Mantram of Unification is a meditation and a prayer that at first affirms the unity of all men and the Brotherhood of Man based on the Fatherhood of God. The first stanza sets forth several truly Christian ideals in Unity, Love, Service and Healing. The second stanza is a invocation to the Lord and to our own Souls asking that from the pain (if there can truly be any) incurred in focusing on the Spirit and not the world will come Light and Love into our lives and that we begin to function as Souls through our conscious personalities. We ask that the spiritual control of our lives will bring to light for us the Love that underlies world events; a Love that the world oriented man will not see working out behind the scenes and also that the Love that we bring forth, individually and as a world group, can be seen by all and ultimately in all. Finally, in the last stanza we ask for those things that are needed for Love to abound. Vision and insight so that we can direct our attention properly; revelation of the future in the sense that all can see the Power of Love in the world; inner union so that we do not fall back into the world’s ways, that we faint not; and that a sense of separation, the antithesis of brotherhood, ends as we know it today. Let Love Prevail, Let All Men Love.spiritual control of our lives will bring to light for us the Love that underlies world events; a Love that the world oriented man will not see working out behind the scenes.

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/