gospel of Thomas 21

Mary said to Jesus, "Whom are your disciples like?"

He said, "They are like children who have settled in a field which is not theirs. When the owners of the field come, they will say, 'Let us have back our field.' They (will) undress in their presence in order to let them have back their field and to give it back to them. Therefore I say, if the owner of a house knows that the thief is coming, he will begin his vigil before he comes and will not let him dig through into his house of his domain to carry away his goods. You, then, be on your guard against the world. Arm yourselves with great strength lest the robbers find a way to come to you, for the difficulty which you expect will (surely) materialise. Let there be among you a man of understanding. When the grain ripened, he came quickly with his sickle in his hand and reaped it. Whoever has ears to hear, let him hear."

When Jesus uses these words, whoever has ears to hear let him hear, we know that he is speaking in parables. And in this saying, he seems to have mixed together three parables, thrown them together into one short saying. That makes it particularly difficult to unravel the meaning. But let's have a go anyway.

Mary has asked Jesus, whom are your disciples like? I think Mary is getting her own back after Jesus had asked them, who is Jesus like? So now Mary is asking the same question, probably rather playfully. But anyway, Jesus answers, they are like children who have settled in a field which is not theirs. Children – they're innocent, they're naive, they know nothing. So they can't be said to be being evil or wrong even. They're just doing something, without even realising what they are doing.

And this is the way of us whilst we are unenlightened. We go about doing things out of ignorance, without a clue, really, as to what we're doing. Anyway, the children have settled in a field which is not theirs. We have lost our natural space, our natural way of being. And we've taken up residence somewhere else, in a place where we do not belong. And that place is the ideas in our head, particularly the idea of ourself, the ego. It's a place where we do not belong. Anyway, we have settled there.

When the owners of the field come, they will say, ‘Let us have back our field.’ And they will undress in the presence of the owners, in order to let them have back the field, to give it back to them. And this has something of the feel of letting go of the ego. We are undressing. We are getting rid of our masks, showing ourself in our nudity, in our innocence. And we're giving back this thing, which doesn't really belong to us anyway. Or we don't belong to it: the ego. We give it back. It was a bad idea anyway.

Jesus then moves on to a separate parable, from one to the other without much of a pause for breath. Jesus then talks about the owner of a house who knows that a thief is coming. So even before the thief arrives, the owner of the house is vigilant, to guard against that thief. And Jesus seems to be using this as a warning to the disciples.

He goes on to say, You, then, be on your guard against the world. Arm yourselves with great strength, lest the robbers find a way to come to you. For the difficulty which you expect, will materialise. It's a sort of warning here. And my feeling is Jesus is saying, don't allow yourself to be seduced by society. The whole of society has gone astray. And therefore, almost everyone is a robber. They will try and steal your essence away from you so that you fall back into the normal, socially acceptable way of being in the world.

There is a danger, whilst we are searching – there is a danger of falling back into the old way of being. If enough people put pressure on us to go back to that way, occasionally it can happen. We need to be a little bit on guard against that. So Jesus seems to be saying this: just be attentive. Be aware. Watch out. Don't allow other people to take away your spiritual endeavour. Protect against that. Stay on the spiritual path.

Then there's this tantalising part at the end of that sentence: that which you expect will materialise. This can be interpreted in many ways. One meaning is that if we have expectations that something bad is going to happen, then that expectation will cause the manifestation of that negative event. But also it works positively. If we expect to become enlightened, it will happen. It seems to be saying something about the nature of expectation and manifestation, or materialisation.

But he's talking about the difficulty here, the difficulty which you expect will materialise. And I think Jesus is saying, yes, you expect this spiritual journey to be difficult at times. Quite rightly so. For almost everyone it is, at times, very difficult. So he's just saying yes, it's true, this is a difficult journey we are undertaking. It will materialise that way. There will be difficulties. And at those times of difficulty, we need to be resolute. We need to keep focussed on our spiritual search.

And then Jesus goes on with another really quite separate parable. Let there be among you a man of understanding. When the grain ripened, he came quickly with his sickle in his hand and reaped it. To me, this is talking about a master: a man of understanding, someone who has realised the truth. And when the grain ripen – the grain is symbolic of the other seekers – when they ripen, they're ready, they're ready for enlightenment. And at that moment, the master, with his sickle in hand, can trigger the enlightenment of those others who are ripe.

Well, that's what I make of this rather strange trio of parables, lumped together in one saying in the Gospel of Thomas. But maybe you will find some other interpretations. Allow them, trust them. Let them flow into your being. Let them transform you.