60. They saw a Samaritan carrying a lamb going into Judaea. He said to his disciples: Why does he carry the lamb? They said to him: That he may kill it and eat it. He said to them: So long as it is alive he will not eat it, but if he kill it and it become a corpse. They said: Otherwise he will not be able to do it. He said to them: You also, seek for yourselves a place within for rest, lest you become a corpse and be eaten.
So I read Larry's comments about the symbolism of the lamb and then went to the Gospel of Thomas website to check out translation issues and scholarly stuff. And basically everyone is vexed about the arcane symbolism of the lamb.
And maybe its important to know.
But it occurred to me that Jesus was/is a teacher. And he 's sending his disciples out into the world as teachers -- teachers with a teaching the world doesn't particularly want to know/hear. And then it occurred to me that none of these fine scholars who worry at the meaning of this passage in their scholarly journals were every substitute teachers, teaching grade three classes in the public school system.
In this story the payoff is this: He said to them: Find a place within yourself for rest, or you're dead - and then they'll tear you apart and eat you.
As an ex-substitute teacher -- the advice makes perfect sense. As for the secret allegorical meaning of the lamb/Lamb -- I dunno. I jest dunno.
4 comments:
Being eaten ... it really gets me where I live. Have you ever seen the movies, Jaws or The Edge or Jurassic Park? In both movies, people get eaten by animals (a shark and a bear and dinosaurs) and somehow that is much worse then getting murdered by another person ... although, now that I think about it, maybe this is why Hannibal Lector was so scary :-)
"A place within for rest":There is a place of quiet rest near to the heart of God. We can agree that that was what Thomas meant.
Sometimes I have trouble figuring out what my wife meant 2 minutes ago -- let alone what somebody 2000 years ago meant.
Very interesting, kwake, and thanks for your interpretation. I think you're right, we're dead meat if we can't find a quiet place within us to rest. I think of the Light within -- if we don't get in touch with God within us, we will never get in touch with him and we will die and be eaten by the idols of the outside world -- materialism, oppressive competition, etc.
Food for thought.
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