IN THE WORDS OF JESUS–Part 843

ON LOVE; PART XDXXXII

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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.

(63) Jesus says: “There was a rich person who had many possessions. He said: ‘I will use my possessions so that I might sow, reap, plant, (and) fill my storehouses with fruit so that I will not lack anything.’ This was what he was thinking in his heart. And in that night he died. Whoever has ears should hear.“

(64) Jesus says: “A person had guests. And when he had prepared the dinner, he sent his servant, so that he might invite the guests. He came to the first (and) said to him: ‘My master invites you.’ He said: ‘I have bills for some merchants. There are coming to me this evening. I will go (and) give instructions to them. Excuse me from the dinner.’ He came to another (and) said to him: ‘My master has invited you.’ He said to him: ‘I have bought a house, and I have been called (away) for a day. I will not have time.’ He went to another (and) said to him: ‘My master invites you.’ He said to him: ‘My friend is going to marry, and I am the one who is going to prepare the meal. I will not be able to come. Excuse me from the dinner.’ He came up to another (and) said to him: ‘My master invites you.’ He said to him: ‘I have bought a village. Since I am going to collect the rent, I will not be able to come. Excuse me.’ The servant went away. He said to his master: ‘Those whom you invited to the dinner have asked to be excused.’ The master said to his servant: ‘Go out on the roads. Bring (back) whomever you find, so that they might have dinner.’ Dealers and merchants (will) not enter the places of my Father.“

(65) He said: “A [usurer] owned a vineyard. He gave it to some farmers so that they would work it (and) he might receive its fruit from them. He sent his servant so that the farmers might give him the fruit of the vineyard. They seized his servant, beat him, (and) almost killed him. The servant went (back and) told his master. His master said: ‘Perhaps <they> did not recognize <him>.’ He sent another servant, (and) the farmers beat that other one as well. Then the master sent his son (and) said: ‘Perhaps they will show respect for my son.’ (But) those farmers, since they knew that he was the heir of the vineyard, seized him (and) killed him. Whoever has ears should hear.“

(66) Jesus says: “Show me the stone that the builders have rejected. It is the cornerstone.“

(67) Jesus says: “Whoever knows all, if he is lacking one thing, he is (already) lacking everything.“

In the last essay we discussed the sixty third saying from the Gospel of Thomas; we see here the same basic message that we find in the Parable of the Rich Fool from the Gospel of Luke. Both are a lesson in that reality which simply says that ‘you can’t take it with you’ and while this lesson is lost on the many millions of men around the world that see their lives as here in this world and who become obsessed with accumulating ALL that one can, it is also lost on those other millions that may not have wealth nor possessions nor the ability to acquire them and who replace these ideas with other worldly pursuits. In the parable from Thomas some of the commentators see the idea of using one’s riches, as the Interlinear frames this, as investment thereby taking a more modern look at the idea but if we can see this idea of riches in the same light as we see the treasures of one’s heart, this saying takes on a totally different tenor. The deeper and Truer reality of this saying as well as the parable from Luke is much more than wealth and possessions; we can see this here in Thomas’ use of the word riches and the use of those riches to create wealth and possessions, which idea likely gives rise to the interpretation of investment, and we can see this ever so clearly in Luke as the parable moves quickly to “Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life“. We should note here that we are using this idea of riches from the Interlinear as it captures what we see as the reality of the Master’s message much more so than the other renderings of wealth, possessions and even money. In Luke we should also be able to glean the Truer meaning from the Master’s words as said by the rich man to himself: “thou hast much goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry” (Luke 12:19, 22). Here in this sentiment we should be able to see the opposite look as we find in Thomas; here the rich man uses his wealth to define his treasure, his ease, while in Thomas we find the idea that he uses his treasure to define his wealth.

Can we see these ideas here? When it comes to the things of the world a man will use the “treasure of his heart” which represents those things that are important to him, and which idea we should see in the rendering of riches in Thomas’ saying, to live his Life in the world and, being worldly focused, to accumulate worldly things. Conversely, if a man has worldly things that have come to him by his good fortune or by inheritance of whatever other way, that these accumulated possessions then become the “treasure of his heart“, his focus in Life in the world. The Master’s words are a caution against these things happening in the Life of a man and an instruction to the disciple and the aspirant and any who can see their Truth in keeping His words and the Master makes this ever so clear in His other teachings and sayings but no where so profound as “Sell that ye have, and give alms; provide yourselves bags which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not, where no thief approacheth, neither moth corrupteth. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also” (Luke 12:33-34). Here again we should read more than sell and give in the attitude, more than purses in this idea of bags and a better understanding of the idea of the “moth corrupteth“. We must be able to understand through all these words that the Master’s phrasing of the “treasure of his heart” refers to every thought, attitude and action and NOT merely wealth and possessions. From our perspective one of the most enduring fallacies of the doctrinal teachings of the church is that this idea of treasure IS the possessions and the wealth only and the belief by some that these can be transferred to heaven as we see in these words from John Gill on a similar verse: But lay up for yourselves treasure in heaven; That is, either be concerned for, and seek after heavenly treasure, the riches of glory, the joys and glories of another world, which infinitely excel everything that is valuable on earth; and which can never be corrupted, or taken away: or rather, lay up your earthly treasures in heaven; that is, put them into the hands of God in heaven; and this is done, by liberally communicating to the poor; by which means men “provide themselves bags which wax not old, and a treasure in heaven that faileth not”, (Luke 12:33) ⁸.

We have discussed these ideas many times throughout the course of our writing on this blog and we do so again as this is one of the most important concepts for the aspirant and the disciple and for any who Truly strive toward the Kingdom and toward discipleship. This treasure is every thought and every attitude and every action of a man that takes his attention, every thing this IS become important and upon which he focuses his Life. Be it on the things of the world, then these sayings above apply to the man as his correction and as his caution; be it on the things of God and one will have done or will be be doing these things that the Master teaches and eliminating from his Life every attachment and every attraction to the things of the world…..”Ye cannot serve God and mammon” (Matthew 6:24, Luke 16:13). We should remember here the Master’s carefully chosen words that call this the  “treasure of his heart” as it applies to men and that He tells us clearly the reality that “For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also“; here, regardless of how one may view the heart of man, the message IS largely the same. There is a story that we found in Vincents writings about King Gondoforus and which we previously posted in In the words of Jesus part 387 where there was a similar theme to our thoughts today and we repeat this here because it is appropriate to our better understanding of the Master’s message on treasure and because this story also includes Saint Thomas who we assume IS the same Thomas whose gospel we are discussing. We should be careful to understand here that this IS a story and that its meaning is also parabolic. Vincent’s introduction and the story go thus:

The beautiful legend of St. Thomas and Gondoforus is told by Mrs. Jameson (“Sacred and Legendary Art”): “When St. Thomas was at Caesarea, our Lord appeared to him and said, ‘The king of the Indies, Gondoforus, hath sent his provost, Abanes, to seek for workmen well versed in the science of architecture, who shall build for him a palace finer than that of the Emperor of Rome. Behold, now I will send thee to him.’ And Thomas went, and Gondoforus commanded him to build for him a magnificent palace, and gave him much gold and silver for the purpose. The king went into a distant country and was absent for two years; and St. Thomas, meanwhile instead of building a palace, distributed all the treasures among the poor and sick; and when the king returned he was full or wrath, and he commanded that St. Thomas should be seized and cast into prison, and he meditated for him a horrible death. Meantime the brother of the king died, and the king resolved to erect for him a most magnificent tomb; but the dead man, after that the had been dead four days, suddenly arose and sat upright, and said to the king, ‘The man whom thou wouldst torture is a servant of God; behold I have been in Paradise, and the angels showed to me a wondrous palace of gold and silver and precious stones; and they said, ‘This is the palace that Thomas, the architect, hath built for thy brother, King Gondoforus.’ And when the king heard these words, he ran to the prison, and delivered the apostle; and Thomas said to him, ‘Knowest thou not that those who would possess heavenly things have little care for the things of this earth? There are in heaven rich palaces without number, which were prepared from the beginning of the world for those who would purchase the possession through faith and charity. Thy riches, O king, may prepare the way for thee to such a palace, but they cannot follow thee thither.”⁴.

The crux of the message here, and the Master’sTrue message as well, IS in these bolded words at the end of this story. The rest is but the story and while the intent is to show that there are palaces in heaven, we should understand that this IS NOT palaces as we would understand them in the world and here we should see that to strive for the same riches in heaven as one would find in the Earth becomes as sort of oxymoron as this striving would be for a worldly heaven. This also may be in some way related to the misunderstood idea of mansions rendered in several translations from John’s Gospel.

Our next saying is a lengthy one and can be understood as Thomas version of the Parable of the Great Feast or the Parable of the Wedding Feast and we present the three versions together here:

• From Thomas: “A person had guests. And when he had prepared the dinner, he sent his servant, so that he might invite the guests. He came to the first (and) said to him: ‘My master invites you.’ He said: ‘I have bills for some merchants. There are coming to me this evening. I will go (and) give instructions to them. Excuse me from the dinner.’ He came to another (and) said to him: ‘My master has invited you.’ He said to him: ‘I have bought a house, and I have been called (away) for a day. I will not have time.’ He went to another (and) said to him: ‘My master invites you.’ He said to him: ‘My friend is going to marry, and I am the one who is going to prepare the meal. I will not be able to come. Excuse me from the dinner.’ He came up to another (and) said to him: ‘My master invites you.’ He said to him: ‘I have bought a village. Since I am going to collect the rent, I will not be able to come. Excuse me.’ The servant went away. He said to his master: ‘Those whom you invited to the dinner have asked to be excused.’ The master said to his servant: ‘Go out on the roads. Bring (back) whomever you find, so that they might have dinner.’ Dealers and merchants (will) not enter the places of my Father.“
• From Matthew: “The kingdom of heaven is like unto a certain king, which made a marriage for his son, And sent forth his servants to call them that were bidden to the wedding: and they would not come. Again, he sent forth other servants, saying, Tell them which are bidden, Behold, I have prepared my dinner: my oxen and my fatlings are killed, and all things are ready: come unto the marriage. But they made light of it, and went their ways, one to his farm, another to his merchandise: And the remnant took his servants, and entreated them spitefully, and slew them. But when the king heard thereof, he was wroth: and he sent forth his armies, and destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city. Then saith he to his servants, The wedding is ready, but they which were bidden were not worthy. Go ye therefore into the highways, and as many as ye shall find, bid to the marriage.  So those servants went out into the highways, and gathered together all as many as they found, both bad and good: and the wedding was furnished with guests. And when the king came in to see the guests, he saw there a man which had not on a wedding garment: And he saith unto him, Friend, how camest thou in hither not having a wedding garment? And he was speechless. Then said the king to the servants, Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. For many are called, but few are chosen” (Matthew 22: 2-14).
• From Luke: “Then said he unto him, A certain man made a great supper, and bade many: And sent his servant at supper time to say to them that were bidden, Come; for all things are now ready. And they all with one consent began to make excuse. The first said unto him, I have bought a piece of ground, and I must needs go and see it: I pray thee have me excused. And another said, I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to prove them: I pray thee have me excused. And another said, I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come. So that servant came, and shewed his lord these things. Then the master of the house being angry said to his servant, Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in hither the poor, and the maimed, and the halt, and the blind. And the servant said, Lord, it is done as thou hast commanded, and yet there is room. And the lord said unto the servant, Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled. For I say unto you, That none of those men which were bidden shall taste of my supper” (Luke 14:16-24).

Here we have three significantly different versions of the same idea, the same parable or story told by the Master. Thomas version, as is normally True, comes to us without any context, it is merely a saying. Matthew begins this as one of the many “The kingdom of heaven is like unto” sayings so that the context becomes that this feast by this king IS like the Kingdom of God and this idea provides us with significant insight; Matthew also expands the idea to see the invited guests who make excuse not to come as murderers and then, when the wedding feast is filled, we find the rather obscure words about the wedding coat. In Luke, while there appears to be no context we should note that the preceding verses ARE in regard to the treatment of the poor and how these should be the invitees to a feast and this sets the tone for the rest as we read: “For whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted. Then said he also to him that bade him, When thou makest a dinner or a supper, call not thy friends, nor thy brethren, neither thy kinsmen, nor thy rich neighbours; lest they also bid thee again, and a recompence be made thee. But when thou makest a feast, call the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind: And thou shalt be blessed; for they cannot recompense thee: for thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just. And when one of them that sat at meat with him heard these things, he said unto him, Blessed is he that shall eat bread in the kingdom of God” (Luke 14:11-15). While this has no direct bearing on the ideas offered in the parable above, this does set the stage if you will for the Master’s message and relates this to the Kingdom by way of the of the comment of the man who realizes that “Blessed is he that shall eat bread in the kingdom of God“.

There are several ways to look at the ideas in these parables and we have discussed the versions from Luke and Matthew in previous posts (In the Words of Jesus part 108). This however is quite some time ago and we will reprise our ideas here in this discussion as well as add to them today’s greater understanding. Some view this parable as though it IS eschatological in nature but we do see beyond this as we also see beyond the idea of the feast itself; the meanings here are to be found in the IDEA that many who have access to the Kingdom turn away from it as they are focused upon the ways of the world, that they CAN NOT tear themselves away from the attractions and the attachments that they have in the world. There is more that we will come to in the next post and we close here for today with some of the commentary on the words from Thomas’ Gospel:

• Robert M. Grant and David Noel Freedman write: “Here Thomas rewrites the parable of the banquet in Luke 14:16-24, adding some minor details from a similar story in Matthew 22:1-10. Much of the narrative differs from the gospel parables, however. According to Luke, the first man to be invited had bought a field which he had to see; another had bought five yoke of oxen and had to test them; the third had just been married. In Matthew only two are mentioned: one goes away to his own field, the other to his own business. As it is told in Thomas, the parable develops the notion of business dealings from Matthew, and the mention of a wedding (also in Matthew, but not as an excuse), as well as the recurrent sentence, ‘I excuse myself from the banquet,’ from Luke. The excuses offered in the Lucan parable reflect the rural atmosphere (field, oxen); those in Thomas seem to be more urban in character, and the idea of buying a village is alien to the environment of the synoptic gospels.” (The Secret Sayings of Jesus, p. 170).
• R. McL. Wilson writes: “In Thomas the first guest invited must settle with merchants who owe him money, the second has bought a house, a third a village (the official translation reads ‘farm’, but the word is KWMH) and must go to collect the rent. The remaining excuse does mention a wedding, but here the man has to arrange a dinner for his friend who is about to be married, or possible (in Schoedel’s translation) to direct the wedding banquet. Here Grant and Freedman see only a re-writing of Luke with some minor details from Matthew, but it may be questioned if this is a sufficient explanation. On the other hand they would seem to be correct in suggesting that the excuses in the Lucan parable reflect a rural background, while those in Thomas are more urban in character. The true explanation may rather be that here we have a parable developing in the course of transmission, on its way, in fact, from a Palestinian to a Hellenistic environment.” (Studies in the Gospel of Thomas, p. 101).
• Joachim Jeremias writes: “The parable of the Great Supper in the Gospel of Thomas 64 ends with the sentence, ‘Tradesman and merchants shall not enter the places of my Father.’ Even if the reference is, in the first place, to the prosperous who decline the invitation, its generalized terms convey the idea of a sharp attack on the rich. This attitude of class-consciousness is to some extent in line with that of Luke in this parable (14.16-24) which he introduces as a sequel to the warning not to invite the richer and prosperous  but the poor, lame, halt, and blind (14.12-14). By his repetition of this list in 14.21 he indicates that the parable is intended to be a hortatory illustration of 14.12-14: one should behave like the host in the parable who symbolically invites to his table the poor, the lame, the blind, and the halt. But that is surely not the original intention of the parable: in it, as we shall see, Jesus should rather be regarded as vindicating before his critics his preaching of the good news to the poor: he is saying, in effect, ‘While you are refusing salvation, God is calling the despised to share the salvation of the people of God.'” (The Parables of Jesus, p. 44-45).
• Funk and Hoover write: “In place of the three initial invitations, Thomas has four and they vary somewhat from the invitations found in Luke. The first wants to be excused because some merchants are coming to repay a debt that evening; the second has just bought a house; the third has to arrange a marriage banquet for a friend; and the fourth has just purchased an estate. Thomas appears to have exaggerated the commercial basis for rejecting the invitations, which accords with his own concluding generalization in v. 12: ‘Buyers and merchants will not enter the places of my Father.’ As in Luke, the slave then goes out into the streets and brings back whoever happens to be about at that hour. However, Thomas does not describe them as poor and handicapped.” (The Five Gospels, p. 510)

These commentaries largely miss the point that we make in favor of comparison of who and how many are invited and why they have refused; these things ARE the outer story and ARE of NO use in the True moral. Some see this idea “Tradesman and merchants shall not enter the places of my Father” (translation unknown) or “Buyers and merchants will not enter the places of my Father“, and like renderings as those who are excluded from the Kingdom but the reality is found again in the focus of the man and while this is not stated such, this IS the reality of His words.

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.

We present here again what we call the Lord’s Prayer and do so as it relates to our ideas above on the Millennium Development Goals. One could say that it is the responsibility of God to take care of these billions of people but this one would be short sighted and unawares of the Truth of the Master’s words and the Word of God. In the Truth that “there is no respect of persons with God” (Romans 2:11) we should see that He did not do this to these people, it is the natural way of the Plan of God that puts men where they can best progress and in this time of much escalated population growth we find the situations that we find. From the Master’s words on Love and in sayings like that from John which clearly tells us that: “But whoso hath this world’s good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?  My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth” (1 John 3:17-18); we should be able to see our own role here and, for those of us who can believe that we are aspirants to discipleship, we should be able to see it ever clearer in this prayer as we pray that His Kingdom would come, the Kingdom that is within us ALL, and that His Will be done which IS our Will if we are among those who DO keep His words and strive toward the realization of the Kingdom of God for He does tell us clearly that “Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven” (Matthew 7:21). And, we should note that the ideas of us and we in the rest of this prayer are in reference to ALL men, ALL of the nearly 7.2 billion that are here in this Earth today….and so IS the idea of OUR.

Our Father, which art in heaven,

hallowed be thy name;

thy kingdom come;

thy will be done,

in earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread.

And forgive us our trespasses,

as we forgive them that trespass against us.

And lead us not into temptation;

but deliver us from evil.

[For thine is the kingdom,

the power, and the glory,

for ever and ever.]

Amen.†

Let the peace of God rule in your hearts!

• ⁴ Word Studies in the New Testament; Marvin R Vincent D.D. 2nd edition, 1888
• ⁸ Bible commentaries on BibleStudyTools.com
• ¹⁴ The Gospel of Thomas; Translated by Stephen J. Patterson and James M. Robinson; http://gnosis.org/
• † From the Gospels of Matthew and Luke; this version is from the Book of Common Prayer of 1662