Logion 32
naturally is about the same notions as the story we find in the
canonical gospels where Jesus tells Simon to become the rock on which he
can build his church. While the world has mostly blithely assumed he
was talking about real estate, or at least a physical institution, this
is obviously not the case, for that is never what he is talking about.
Jesus was making a pun on the ambivalence of Simon, in listening to him,
Jesus, and the need for Simon to once and for all choose spirit as the
foundation of his "church," because only in spirit can we truly join
with our brothers, in the realization of the oneness of the sonship.
Bringing bodies together is a poor substitute for the true communion of
the spirit. The "city built on a high hill" in that sense is the
equivalent to the community (church) built on the rock of spirit. The
only thing that cannot "fall" is spirit - in this world everything
decays and dies. Here is the famed passage:
Another element that is implied in this saying is the notion that the choice between spirit or the ego is blatantly obvious, "nor can it be hidden." The community of spirit will be easy to recognize as such, it cannot be mistaken for anything else. Again and again, when we get back to these original sayings in Thomas it becomes easier to "hear" that Jesus was just playing with words and symbols, and is always speaking in parables, as indeed he frequently tells us, even in the texts which made it into the New Testament. So he never was telling us to go into urban planning and develop fortified cities on hills. Just like he was never speaking of "bread" either. Here is the passage from Matthew, where you can almost hear Jesus pull his hair out that people keep taking him literally, when he is clearly speaking to them in parables.
Jesus
replied, "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not
revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven. And I tell you that
you are Peter,[a] and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates
of Hades[b] will not overcome it.[c] I will give you the keys of the
kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be[d] bound in
heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be[e] loosed in heaven."
(Mt. 16:17-19, NIV)
Another element that is implied in this saying is the notion that the choice between spirit or the ego is blatantly obvious, "nor can it be hidden." The community of spirit will be easy to recognize as such, it cannot be mistaken for anything else. Again and again, when we get back to these original sayings in Thomas it becomes easier to "hear" that Jesus was just playing with words and symbols, and is always speaking in parables, as indeed he frequently tells us, even in the texts which made it into the New Testament. So he never was telling us to go into urban planning and develop fortified cities on hills. Just like he was never speaking of "bread" either. Here is the passage from Matthew, where you can almost hear Jesus pull his hair out that people keep taking him literally, when he is clearly speaking to them in parables.
Don't you know by now that I am not talking to you about bread? Watch out for the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees! (Mt. 16:11, CEV)
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