gospel of Thomas 57

Jesus said, "The kingdom of the father is like a man who had good seed. His enemy came by night and sowed weeds among the good seed. The man did not allow them to pull up the weeds; he said to them, 'I am afraid that you will go intending to pull up the weeds and pull up the wheat along with them.' For on the day of the harvest the weeds will be plainly visible, and they will be pulled up and burned."

This is one of those parables from Jesus that the world would have been much better without. Here, with this sort of parable, Jesus lays the foundation for Christianity's obsession with good and bad. And it is this obsessive judgement – the judgemental attitude itself – which causes all the trouble in the world; but especially, the feelings of guilt and shame, which have permeated individuals growing up in Christianised societies for the last two thousand years.

So I really wish Jesus had never said these words, or that Thomas had never reported them. But here they are, written down, for us to mull over. But do not expect a sympathetic commentary from Andy.

Jesus said, the kingdom...is like a man who had good seed. Okay, everything's perfect. Things are just the way they should be. But he goes on, his enemy came by night and sowed weeds among the good seed. And here we have it: these weeds, where have they come from? What is it – in our life, in our being, in the world – which has not come from God, but which has come from an enemy? It's nonsense. And it is totally unhelpful.

And then Jesus continues, the man did not allow them to pull up the weeds. He said, I'm afraid that if you pull up the weeds, you'll pull up the wheat along with them. Well, fair enough, you can have that concern. If you are going to call some things good and other things bad, what do you do about the bad things? You let them be. Trying to pull them up, you will throw the baby out with the bathwater. That's what Jesus seems to be saying as an analogy here.

For on the day of the harvest, the weeds will be plainly visible, and they will be pulled up and burned. Well, yes, in your moment of truth, in your moment of enlightenment, you'll know what is healthy and what is not healthy for you. Everything will be burned up then – your ego, everything you have attachment for– will be burned up in that moment, it's true. So why worry about it beforehand? In this sense, I agree with Jesus.

But the implication here... These words are so easily interpreted that some human beings are good and others are evil or bad, and that at some great judgement day in the future, we human beings will be separated into two groups: those who are good, and are allowed into heaven; and those who are bad, and are sent to hell. And this heaven-hell segregation is the most damaging thing any organised religion has ever done to humanity – this idea that some of us are good and some of us are evil.

Well, hopefully in this day and age, we're beginning to overcome that terrible, horrible assessment of humanity. I hope so. But to do so, we have to tear up one or two of Jesus' parables. Or at least abandon long-entrenched interpretations of them. There is nothing under the sun that is bad. Nothing.