(98) (1) Jesus said, “The Kingdom of the Father is like a certain man who wanted to kill a powerful man. (2) In his own house he drew his sword and drove it into the wall to test whether his hand would be strong enough. (3) Then he slew the powerful man.”
Like many other sayings recorded in Gnostic writings, this one appears to be very provocative on the surface and may have been offensive for those who were taught that killing another person is a major sin. The powerful man symbolizes our ego, which Jesus sometimes called Satan or Beelzebub in the canonical gospels. It inhabits and controls our mind—“our own house.” It takes a lot of preparation and practice to slay it so that Christ can take the ego’s place. The ego is very clever and resourceful. Anyone entering the spiritual path discovers sooner or later that ego has a way of insinuating itself into anything and everything we do. Openness to feedback from others allows us to see the ego better, since it is very good at hiding itself from the light of our consciousness and lulling us into believing that we have conquered it, while in fact it is still going strong.
A slightly different version of this saying can be found in Matthew 12: 22–29: “Then they brought him a demon-possessed man who was blind and mute, and Jesus healed him, so that he could both talk and see. All the people were astonished and said, ‘Could this be the Son of David?’ But when the Pharisees heard this, they said, ‘It is only by Beelzebub, the prince of demons that this fellow drives out demons.’ Jesus knew their thoughts and said to them, ‘Every kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and every city or household divided against itself will not stand. If Satan drives out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then can his kingdom stand? And if I drive out demons by Beelzebub, by whom do your people drive them out? So then, they will be your judges. But if I drive out demons by the Spirit of God, then the Kingdom of Heaven has come upon you. Or again, how can anyone enter a strong man’s house and carry off his possessions unless he first ties up the strong man? Then he can rob his house.’”
99. (1) The disciples said to him, “Your brothers and your mother are standing outside.” (2) He said to them, “Those here who do the will of my Father are my brothers and my mother. (3) It is they who will enter the Kingdom of my Father.”
(1) A longer version of this parable is also found in synoptic gospels. Nobody is a prophet in his/her own home (see also Saying 31). Apparently, early in Jesus’ ministry his family members were shocked by his teachings and thought that Jesus had lost his mind. They tried to retrieve him from the crowd and to take him back home:
“Then Jesus entered a house, and again a crowd gathered, so that he and his disciples were not even able to eat. When his family heard about this, they went to take charge of him, for they said, “He is out of his mind.” (…) Standing outside, they sent someone in to call him. A crowd was sitting around him, and they told him, “Your mother and brothers are outside looking for you.” “Who are my mother and my brothers?” he asked. Then he looked at those seated in a circle around him and said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! Whoever does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother” (Mark 3: 20–21 and 31–35; compare also with Luke 8: 19–21 and Matthew 12: 46–50).
Jesus was clearly aware of his family’s unease with his teachings and their intent to take him back home. He did not feel that it would be productive to talk to them at that point in his ministry. His mother and siblings eventually understood that something extraordinary had happened to him when he was away from home (presumably traveling in India and Tibet, according to extracanonical traditions) and they accepted that he became a different person than the one they knew.
(2–3) People who are ready to hear the word of God and to act on it are our closest spiritual family. Other dedicated seekers will often understand and support us, unlike our own family members who may not be able to comprehend spiritual truths. Unloving or unconscious behaviors of the members of our biological family help us to awaken faster and provide us with the opportunity to be loving, kind, and compassionate towards them. Their hurtful or abusive behavior offers us an opportunity to stand up for ourselves. Our family members and friends may find it difficult to accept that we have turned into someone different from them. We may want to share with them our spiritual experiences and discoveries as well as the insights we receive on the spiritual path, but we can’t do it against their will. If our parents or friends are not comfortable discussing spirituality, it is better not to discuss these matters with them.
100. (1) They showed Jesus a gold coin and said to him, “Caesar’s men demand taxes from us.” (2) He said to them, “Give Caesar what belongs to Caesar, (3) give god what belongs to god, (4) and give me what is mine.”
(1) God doesn’t want us to abandon our current relationships and responsibilities in our society to pursue spiritual goals. Discharging our obligations to other people is an important part of the spiritual path. Intimate interactions with other people allow us to progress faster on the path to awakening than we would if we were to live in total isolation.
(2) Before we awaken we have to respect the rules of the society where we live (e.g., we may have to pay taxes and respect the rules and laws of the society we live in).
(3-4) If we happen to live in an oppressive, intolerant society that worships false gods, we may also have to give respects to these gods, even if we know that they are not real.
Related versions of this saying have been also recorded in canonical gospels (see for example Mark 12: 13–17; Luke 20: 20–26; and Matthew 22: 15–22). What is missing from these is the last part: “and give me what is mine”. Since Christ is living in all of us, we must love Christ in everyone else, and love ourselves as well.
101. (1) Jesus said, “Whoever does not hate his father and his mother as I do cannot become a disciple to me. (2) And whoever does not love his father and his mother as I do cannot become a disciple to me. (3) For my mother gave me falsehood, but my true mother gave me life.”
(1) Hating, or setting aside (as some translate this phrase) your mother and father means overcoming programming they gave you. Our task is to shine the light of consciousness on all automatic behaviors, to analyze all of our presumptions and culturally based ideas about the world that we inherited from our parental home, society, nation, religion, and culture. Nothing we learned should be taken for granted. Everything should be questioned and no stone should be left unturned until we awaken. The goal is to see all other people as equal to us. In truth, everyone deserves our love and respect, and in turn we are worthy of everyone’s love and respect as well.
(2) Many of us hold grudges against our parents. Yet we shouldn’t be quick to condemn them. Instead, we need to see them in the light of compassion. In spite of their mistakes they did the best they could to raise us, and if we were in their shoes, we would have done exactly what they did. Hence, we should forgive them their mistakes and realize that they are worth loving just as everyone else.
(3) Our biological mother passed to us knowledge about the world and the God, which she inherited from her parents or discovered herself during the course of her life. That knowledge is bound to be defective and incomplete if our mother was not fully awakened. Our true Mother (and Father) is God, who gives us life everlasting. Jesus speaks also of the feminine, motherly aspect of God in the canonical gospels: “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing” (Matthew 23: 37 and Luke 13: 34). Please see also Saying 55.
102. Jesus said, “Woe to the Pharisees, for they are like a dog sleeping in the cattle trough, for it neither eats nor lets the cattle eat.”
A contemporary version of this proverb describes a dog guarding an orchard: It can’t eat the apples, but it won’t let anyone else to taste them either. Those who have the knowledge required for us to awaken have an obligation to share it with others for the common good of all of humanity. Ou
r world is on the verge of destruction and our species is dangerously close to extinction. It is essential that the knowledge of God and the tools that allow us to awaken faster are shared with everyone who is interested in discovering the Truth. The time of secrecy is over!
The recently re-discovered Gospel of Judas has even harsher words of condemnation for religious leaders who have access to the truth, yet choose not to share it with the rest of us: “The cattle you have seen brought for sacrifice are the many people you lead astray… For it has been said to the human generations, ‘Look, God has received your sacrifice from the hands of a priest; that is, a minister of error.’ But it is the Lord, the Lord of the universe, who commands, ‘On the last day they will be put to shame.’”
103. Jesus said, “Blessed is the man who knows where the robbers are going to enter, so that he may get up, muster his household, and arm himself before they invade.”
Unfortunate are those who don’t know the hour of their death and those who don’t anticipate that they may get sick or infirm some day. Robbers in this saying may represent diseases that sneak unexpectedly into our bodies. If you knew that you were going to develop lung cancer in your left lung, wouldn’t you prepare for that? Perhaps you would even go as far as having your left lung removed. But how can we tell the future, how can we possibly predict when and where disease or death will strike? Part of the spiritual path is to become more fully embodied, to take care of our bodies and to learn how to feel what is happening within.
As we learn to be present in our bodies, we discover the actual physical locations of energetic blocks within our bodies. These blocks are ultimately responsible for all diseases and afflictions we experience. They form as a result of accumulation of unexamined, suppressed negative emotions, as well as physical and psychological trauma in our energetic bodies. The location of these energetic blocks predicts future sites of disease in our physical bodies. Certain talented people are able to either see and/or feel these twisted knots of energy and to untangle them for healing purposes. This is the basis of many spiritual healing techniques described in books such as Hands of Light and Planet Medicine. When we are completely healed, the divine energy of love can flow through us unimpeded.
We don’t know how much time we have left in this world or how will we die. Our opportunities to do what is needed to awaken may be limited by circumstances that we cannot predict. Therefore it is wise to focus every second of our lives on striving for the Kingdom of Heaven; treating everyone with love and kindness; and overcoming our programming that prevents us from being fully present and open to opportunities for awakening. The sooner we awaken, the less suffering we are likely to incur on ourselves and others. Please see also Saying 21.
104. (1) They said to Jesus, “Come, let us pray today and let us fast.” (2) Jesus said, “What is the sin that I have committed, or wherein have I been defeated? (3) But when the bridegroom leaves the bridal chamber, then let them fast and pray.”
Awakened individuals who are already in communion with God do not need to pray, fast, or mortify their bodies. Fasting may be useful on the spiritual path leading to awakening, but it is unnecessary once a person awakens. An awakened person who falls into the dream (by hurting others or being selfish) may require purification again to return to the awakened state. Only then would prayer and fasting be necessary again. Clearly Jesus did not need that—he remained conscious, and almost all of his actions were guided by love, kindness, and compassion.
Two potential exceptions that are known from the synoptic gospels include the story of the fig tree that withered after Jesus cursed it (Matthew 21: 18–19) and his violent encounter with the merchants and moneychangers in the temple (Matthew 21: 12–13). However, these examples show us that love may require assertive or even violent actions in certain circumstances. The first example was a practical, visual demonstration of the teaching that those of us who do not awaken and bear fruit (in the form of other awakened people) will wither and die like that unfortunate, barren fig tree.
The violence against the merchants in the temple was also a loving act, meant to bring all involved closer to awakening. The Jewish religion had drifted so far away from the God of Love that the temple reminded Jesus of a bloody slaughterhouse and noisy marketplace rather than a space filled with quiet and peace where one could meditate, still the mind and body, and connect with God. Jesus tried to shake up the foundations of Jerusalem’s religious establishment by targeting one of the temple’s major sources of income. Unfortunately, the commercial enterprise run by the Jewish priesthood acquired a life of its own, and no admonitions were powerful enough to change the status quo. It took the physical destruction of the temple and Jerusalem by Roman armies in A.D. 70 to shut the unholy business down. Incidentally, the temple does not need to be rebuilt ever again, since the whole universe is the true Temple of God.
There is one interesting example in the synoptic gospels where Jesus made a clear mistake—his response to a Canaanite woman in need wasn’t initially as loving as it should have been, to say it nicely. Yet when she called him on that, he quickly corrected himself:
“Leaving that place, Jesus withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon. 22A Canaanite woman from that vicinity came to him, crying out, ‘Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me! My daughter is suffering terribly from demon-possession.’ Jesus did not answer a word. So his disciples came to him and urged him, ‘Send her away, for she keeps crying out after us.’ He answered, ‘I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.’ The woman came and knelt before him. ‘Lord, help me!’ she said. He replied, ‘It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to their dogs.’ ‘Yes, Lord,’ she said, ‘but even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters’ table.’ Then Jesus answered, ‘Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted.’ And her daughter was healed from that very hour” (Matthew 15: 21–28).
105. Jesus said, “Whoever will come to know his father and mother will be called the son of a whore.”
The son of a whore is a child conceived without love. When you become conscious of the self-destructive and unloving attitudes acquired from your parents you realize that you have to change, leaving all of that behind. That knowledge should not preclude you from remembering another commandment: “Honor thy father and thy mother.” You can reach your full potential only when you learn to balance both lessons, rejecting negative influences and honoring all the good things you learned from your parents. In order to awaken the Christ within, you have to free yourself from prejudices and judgments that were imprinted in your mind by your parents. We didn’t come here to be carbon copies of our parents, but to overcome their limitations. To awaken, we need to transcend our programming and free ourselves from the behavioral and thinking patterns blindly followed by our parents. In the Gospel of Mark, Jesus put it this way: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me” (Mark 8: 34). It is very difficult to overcome the programming we inherited, but it’s absolutely necessary for awakening. We have to unlearn everything we were taught to believe. We need unconditional love to be the guiding light on our path instead of listening to those who claim to be wise but whom are actually lost and confused.
On another level of meaning, this may have been a sarcastic response of Jesus to the accusations that he was born out of wedlock—see John 8: 41, where the Jews protest, “We are not illegitimate children” (the unspoken accusation being that Jesus was an illegitimate child himself). According to some traditions, his true biological father was a Roman soldier named Panthera or Pantera (see for example Origen, in Against Celsus 1.28: 32). Professor James Tabor, who wrote The Jesus Dynasty, re-discovered in Germany a gravestone of a Sidonian archer named Tiberius Julius Abdes Pantera, who was in fact stationed in Palestine around the time of the birth of Jesus.
106. (1) Jesus said, “When you make the two into one, you will become sons of man, (2) and when you say, ‘Mountain, move away,’ it will move away.”
People who unify the opposites within become whole and are thus ready to return back to the Oneness. In the “orthodox” gospels it is faith that moves mountains, but Gnostic teachings tell us that we can move mountains only when we become whole and reach unity with one another. When we reach the Kingdom of Heaven, each of us becomes a Christ and then anything is possible. Jesus was able to walk on water, pass through walls, change his appearance at will (shape-shift), heal the sick, multiply bread, raise the dead, and so on. He promised us that we will be able to do even greater things when we awaken (John 14: 12). The only limit to what is possible will be our imagination. Rejoice! It is our inheritance and the next step of human evolution.
Secrets of God Page 16