Christ, the Light of the World

May you experience the presence of Christ, the Light of the World, everywhere, in everyone, so that hope will abound in your life and the world you live in. There is no corner of the planet where Christ is not. And may you share the light of Christ that is within you with everyone you meet, wherever you are, everyday.


Wilfredo Juan Baez

Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Gospel of Thomas - coda 16

Gospel of Thomas, coda 16

Jesus said, "Perhaps people think that I have come to cast peace upon the world. They do not know that I have come to cast conflicts upon the earth: fire, sword, war.
For there will be five in a house: there'll be three against two and two against three, father against son and son against father, and they will stand alone."

From an ancient Gnostic perspective, the world is an evil place.  Matter is evil.  The values of the world are material.  The God who created the world is not the true God of Jesus Christ.  There is good in the world, and it is of the true God, but that good does not belong to the world and must be freed from the world.  This good is a spiritual good.  Jesus came into this world, sent by the one True God, to rescue this good.  So, according to Thomas, Jesus doesn’t come to bring about agreement with this evil world or even to redeem it, but to destroy it, and replace it with a new world, a world that is a divine one, where the one True God reigns or rules.  The world Jesus comes to is one that is already conflict ridden.   Jesus hasn’t come to redeem or fix it, but to restore what was lost to God.  But the world as it exists does not have as its basis goodness, but ignorance of that goodness.

In reading 16a, I wonder how literally we should take these words “fire, sword, and war.”  Is it possible to read this fire Jesus brings as the fire he baptizes with, that truth that is kindled and bursts into flame and spreads destroying the world, but purifying it as well?   Is it possible that the sword Jesus wields is a sword of truth that cuts through illusion and falsehood and brings about transformation?  Is it possible the war Jesus brings is a war against evil and ignorance and falsehood?  Jesus does not agree with the world as it is and confronts it rather than accept it.  Perhaps Jesus is saying, “Let there be truth on earth and let it begin with me,” rather than “Let there be peace on earth.”  And “let there be justice on earth.”

How is this even possible?  Jesus leads people out of the world and their world conditioned existence.  He leads them out of their identity with their bodies and families and cultures into identity with himself, the Spirit and God.  This places them at odds with their families and culture and so they stand alone in the direct presence of God and the Kingdom of Heaven.  This means that they are playing by a completely different set of rules and values than the world is living by.  By living by this spiritual rule rather than worldly rules they are free in the world, living as such in a spiritual world within the physical world, but not being of the physical world or subject to it.  Of course, family members, community members don’t understand and don’t approve and may even seek to bring them back to their senses.  But the Kingdom of God and life in it takes precedent over all other things for them.

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