gospel of Thomas 114

Simon Peter said to him, "Let Mary leave us, for women are not worthy of life."

Jesus said, "I myself shall lead her in order to make her male, so that she too may become a living spirit resembling you males. For every woman who will make herself male will enter the kingdom of heaven."

This is the last verse in the Gospel of Thomas, at least in the version that I have here. And what a shame that the gospel didn't finish with one verse fewer. For by our modern standards, this verse is a joke. It's farcical.

Simon Peter said, women are not worthy of life. So Simon Peter is a misogynist, that's all. He's a woman hater.

But we shouldn't hold that against him. There is actually a great field of antagonism between men and women, and not just in men towards women, but equally in women towards men. Because sexually and for reproduction, men need women, and women need men. At times we seem so alien to each other. And yet there is, biologically, a built in dependence. And what we really resent more than anything is that dependency.

And that resentment comes out in all sorts of ways, and this statement by Simon Peter is just one of them: let Mary leave us, for women are not worthy of life. That's what Simon Peter said. He is just angry towards women, and he hasn't resolved that within himself yet. I would have expected more of Jesus in his reply. But let's look at what he says.

First of all, he does not agree with Simon Peter. He doesn't throw Mary out. He doesn't say women are not worthy of life. Jesus says, I shall lead her. And he wants to lead her into heaven, into enlightenment. But here, he implies that she first has to become masculine. And I disagree totally with this.

To be fair to Jesus, he was living in a time when most religions did not accept women into their ranks. And frankly, I think most women would not have been interested in these strange male clubs, living by male rules, very goal oriented and selective.

A woman who is in her femininity is so close to God already. That feminine aspect is such a creative force, an open flow: dancing, eating, singing, living life. This is feminine. And this is our buddha nature too. The masculine ways are all to do with the mind. And it is the mind that has separated us, apparently, from our divinity. It's the masculine mind that makes everything into concepts, that divides everything up. This is where all our troubles lie.

And so it's true: if a man, living his masculinity, becomes enlightened, it's a wondrous thing. It's amazing. For him, it's the best thing that can happen. But for many women, if they are living their femininity, it's not such a big deal to get enlightened. Okay, there's still the ending of the ego and all that that entails. But in terms of lifestyle, nobody would notice any difference.

Anyway, Jesus says that she has to become male in order to enter the kingdom of heaven. And he's wrong, plain wrong. So this verse shows us that even Jesus is fallible, is susceptible to the conditioning of his time. But instead of being disheartened by that, we should take heart. If even Jesus – a master of his calibre – can make such gross mistakes, even the likes of us, who are no doubt making equally big mistakes, even we can become masters. Even we can become enlightened and enter the kingdom.

So this brings us to the end of this series of talks on the Gospel of Thomas. As we've seen, Jesus has many times touched on the truth in deep and paradoxical ways. And at other times, he has shown himself to be all too human, just like the rest of us. And for me, that was the great message that Jesus brought: is that to live life fully, yes, we must find the divine within us and live that; but that does not mean that we need to abandon being human. We are both. And we should never forget it.