gospel of Thomas 107

Jesus said, "The kingdom is like a shepherd who had a hundred sheep. One of them, the largest, went astray. He left the ninety-nine sheep and looked for that one until he found it. When he had gone to such trouble, he said to the sheep, 'I care for you more than the ninety-nine.'"

I find this particular verse from the Gospel of Thomas rather disconcerting. It feels a bit wrong to me somehow. It may be that Jesus had some particular reason for saying this – some context that we're not aware of. Or it may even be that the message has been subtly changed as it has passed down through the generations.

Here, Jesus says that the kingdom is like a shepherd with a hundred sheep. The sheep are us, we are the seekers, we are the sheep. And the shepherd – the shepherd is God, or existence, if you prefer that word. Now, one of the sheep has gone astray. But actually, we have all gone astray. When we lose touch with God, we have gone astray. And if we have found God again, then we are no longer astray, but then we're not really sheep. If we have truly found God, we are God.

So my feeling is that all one hundred sheep have gone astray. Anyway, one has wandered off and the shepherd goes looking for it. And when he finds it, he says this strange thing, I care for you more than the ninety-nine. But that's not my feeling at all. One of the beauties of the spiritual path is that when we rediscover our true nature, our connection with God, it is not a place of discrimination. Existence does not prefer one person to another. There are no chosen people. We are all chosen.

Now, it may be that not everyone is ready yet, to find God. It may be that those ninety-nine sheep are still too bogged down with the material world, with entertainment and making money. In that case, I can understand the shepherd paying more attention to that one sheep. But to say that he cares more for that one sheep is completely incorrect. God cares for everyone equally. And not just us human beings, but for the whole of life. Existence does not discriminate in this way. It's impartial. There's a great equanimity in it.

So this is why I disagree with this teaching from Jesus. God does not care for one more than another. In God, we are one, whether we realise it or not.