gospel of Thomas 109

Jesus said, "The kingdom is like a man who had a hidden treasure in his field without knowing it. After he died, he left it to his son. The son did not know (about the treasure). He inherited the field and sold it. And the one who bought it went ploughing and found the treasure. He began to lend money at interest to whomever he wished."

Reading this parable from Jesus, it reminds me of a time in satsang when I was telling a parable. It started okay, and then it somehow went astray halfway through. And when I had finished, someone piped up and said, I lost the track of that parable halfway through. And my response was, yes, so did I. And I think Jesus rather lost track with this one. You see, these teachings are not rehearsed in any way. They just come spontaneously. And usually nuggets of wisdom are there. But every now and again, it's just a mess.

And that's what I feel about this verse from the Gospel of Thomas. It starts okay: the kingdom is like a man who had a hidden treasure in his field without knowing it. Yes. We all have a hidden treasure. And the great tragedy is that we don't know about it. We've lost touch with our essence. We've lost touch with the divine that is within us. We don't know about it. And that's terrible. And not knowing about it, of course, we can't really tell our sons and daughters about it. We can't help others to find their treasure. We don't even know we have it ourself. So this part of the parable makes sense.

But then he goes on, the son who inherited the field sold it. And the one who bought it went ploughing and found the treasure. Well, I don't really see how to interpret this. Yes, if we plough, if we plough the field, we will find the treasure, regardless of whether we've bought the field or sold it, or whatever. We need to look, and we might chance upon it, even without knowing what we're looking for. We just need to look inside. That's all: look inside; we need to plough that field.

But the last part of the parable is what really puzzles me. Jesus ends this verse saying, the man who had found the treasure began to lend money at interest to whomever he wished. Lending money at interest, of course, means one doesn't need to work anymore. One can live off the interest. One can become totally lazy. And that's the basis of capitalism. But in spiritual teachings, it's usually advised against, because one has become a parasite, living off the work of others. That's why in Islam, the charging of interest is outlawed, it’s against Islamic law. And Jesus at other points also speaks against it. Lending money at interest is not really a good thing.

But here Jesus seems to be implying that the lucky man who had found the treasure did just that, presumably saying that he had a good life thereafter. If we find the treasure within us – if we find God within us – yes, on the whole our life will be good thereafter. But not at the expense of others.

So all in all. I don't feel Jesus was living up to his usual standards with this parable. If I had been compiling the Gospel of Thomas, I would have left this verse out. But perhaps you like it rather more than me.