gospel of Thomas 16

Jesus said, "Men think, perhaps, that it is peace which I have come to cast upon the world. They do not know that it is dissension which I have come to cast upon the earth: fire, sword, and war. For there will be five in a house: three will be against two, and two against three, the father against the son, and the son against the father. And they will stand solitary."

Seeing verses like this, it is no wonder that the Gospel of Thomas was not included in the Bible. The Bible was needed to form a religion, an organisation, a structure. But here, Jesus is not concerned with religions, with organisations. He is concerned with the individual. He is concerned with you.

And the way to change you – to transform you into that which you truly are, to bring you back to your natural self – the way to do that is not through peace, not to console you and say, there there, everything is all right, don't worry. There may be times when such consolations are needed. But it is not the way of a master. A master is here to shake you. A master is here to slap you in the face and say, open your eyes. A master is here, so that you question the way you are in the world, so that a great doubt arises about the way you have been living your life.

The master stirs up dissension. He turns you into a rebel. You cannot any longer listen to society to find out what to do. No, the master will turn you against society. And also your father and mother, your parents: they are no longer the source of wisdom. They are no longer to be relied upon for guidance as to how to behave in the world, how to live in the world. No, we must find a deeper source. We must go looking for the absolute truth.

And this is what Jesus is doing. He is demanding this of us. And it is not through peace, that he stirs up such a passion within us. It is through fire – fire, sword, and war, he says. These are metaphors for the sort of burning energy which the master alights within one. You will feel yourself to be on fire, something burning inside, needing attention, needing expression, needing exploration. And it will feel like a battleground within you – what in Islam is called the inner Jihad; the holy war within, within yourself.

So this is what Jesus is pointing out in this saying. He's not come here to make your life peaceful. He's come here to shake you up totally. In the end, peace will come. But the master does not need to worry about the peace. He knows that will be the endpoint. And by then his work will be done. But the work of the master is to cause a revolution in your spirit; is to change the way you are in the world, totally.

And this is also why Jesus says, there will be five in the house, three will be against two and two against three. Once you start down this path towards liberation, other people will be against you. They will feel threatened as they see you growing, day by day, into yourself. You will be different to them. And you will not feel that you fit in society. Neither will they feel that you fit. And yet, once we've started on the journey, we must see it through to its completion.

So, Jesus also says, you will stand solitary. You will feel very alone. And at times, before enlightenment, that feeling of being alone will feel very lonely indeed. But by the end of the journey, that aloneness has blossomed into the great oneness of all that is. And then there can be no question of anything other than being alone. For you are all, and all is in you.