gospel of Thomas 77

Jesus said, "It is I who am the light which is above them all. It is I who am the all. From me did the all come forth, and unto me did the all extend. Split a piece of wood, and I am there. Lift up the stone, and you will find me there."

In listening to these words from Jesus, we must bear in mind that we too are Jesus. We also are the Christ. I am the Christ. You are the Christ. And even if you only intellectually can grasp that, at least bear it in mind as you ponder this saying from Jesus.

If we don't do this, if we set Jesus apart as someone special, someone different, then these sort of sayings will cripple us. They are dangerous teachings. If understood correctly, they have the power to liberate us. They can help us to see who we really are, and help us to feel our own relationship to God. In fact, not even a relationship: they can help us to see and feel that we are God. At the very core of our being, we are nothing but God. We have to at least have this idea in our head as a possibility, before we are even ready to hear these words from Jesus.

It's as if it's a make or break moment. If you can absorb what Jesus is saying, with your heart, and allow it to resonate at the very centre of your being, then this short saying will help you to fly, spread your wings, and allow your being to express its true glory. But if you are not ready for that then these words risk causing you to shrivel back into a shrunken state. They could crush you, these words – as they have for millions of Christians over the centuries.

So remember, as we look at this saying, you are Jesus. You, yes, you. You are the Christ.

And what is Jesus saying? I am the light above the all. I am the light. I am the truth. But the I in this teaching is not something personal. It's not something small. It's not something individual. He is defining the I with this saying.

Who am I? If I look inside myself, I too, will find that I am the light. The personal story, the name, the occupation, the nationality, the religion – this is all trivia. It's not who I am. This is what Jesus is saying here. I am the light. If you ask who I am, that is what I am: I am the light.

I am the light that illuminates the all, but I am also the all. I am the unmanifest and I am the manifest. But I'm not just some small part of the manifest world – one little being, one little body wandering around. No, I am the whole of the manifest existence, undivided. You too are that.

And we can feel this for ourselves, if we drop the ideas of separation, of division – these petty, limiting concepts with which we chop up the world and break apart the beautiful whole, with our minds – our little thinking minds, that are so pretentious, that think they know everything. And yet they know nothing. How can words grasp truth? How can a concept embrace the whole?

Jesus says, from me did the all come forth – everything came from me; and unto me did the all extend – the all is reaching out to me. Again, it's not something personal. He's not saying Jesus is special or different, no. Any one of us, if we look for the essential part of who we are, will come to the same point, the source of all that is. It is there within us. It is the source of our manifest being too.

But it's the same source for all of us, and for the whole of creation. And that is who I am. And that's where everything comes from. And as individual beings, we are reaching out for that, we are extending ourselves to God. Because that is where we are whole.

In fact, we have never left our godliness, and it has never left us. We are that. And yet the feeling of life is a dance between these two: the whole and the part, God and the individual. But remember this always: they are not separate; they are not different. They are merely different expressions of one thing – the thing that cannot be spoken of – the nameless.

I love the last sentences from this saying of Jesus: Split a piece of wood, and I am there. Lift up the stone, and you will find me there. Ah! It's so sublime, I'm not even going to comment on it.