Saying 10: “Jesus said, “I have cast fire upon the world, and behold, I am guarding it until it blazes.”
At first glance, this saying seems to sound as if Jesus is talking about the end of the World or some future apocalyptic event that he’s warning us about. But, that’s not the case at all.
The key to making sense of this saying comes by first reminding ourselves that everything Jesus says in the Gospel of Thomas is somehow related to the illusion of separation, our oneness and connectivity with God and everyone else, or the shift in perspective one must have in order to see the reality of oneness with greater clarity. This saying sort of encompasses all of those ideas at once.
What I mean is this: There are two competing realities – the real world of oneness and the false world of separation. In the Gospel of Thomas, whenever Jesus mentions “the world” he is pointing to the false reality; the illusion we have all been taught to believe that we are separate from God and from one another. This is the “world’ that Jesus has come to “cast fire upon.” It’s not the planet earth he is referring to. It’s the “world” or reality marked by an ignorance of the Kingdom reality wherein all things exist by, through and for Christ.
Another way to express what Jesus means to say in this case might be something like: “I have set fire to the entire world system that continues to perpetuate the lie of separation and I won’t stop until it’s completely burned to the ground.”
Jesus is passionate and zealous for people to be set free from the toxic ideas that even the most religious among us claim as the “Gospel truth.” He opposes anyone who suggests that God is angry with His children or that we are separated from God for any reason. His heart is burning with the fierce fury of pure love that consumes every lie that exalts itself against the wisdom of our God, who is love incarnate.
Once we fully embrace this notion that we are already one with the Divine Presence of God – and that we always have been – then this realization of our eternal connectivity with every single other person – who is also always one with the very same God – opens our eyes and the false reality that was built upon the foundations of division, separation and individuality become consumed in the unquenchable flames of truth.
When that lie is finally exposed, it ceases to exist. It vanishes in a puff of smoke and all that remains is reality itself. We now stand in the ashes of the lie that once imprisoned us. We are set free from the illusion.
But, as long as there are others still enslaved by this illusion, the fire must continue to blaze.
All around us people continually accept the delusion. They are blind to the truth, as we once were.
They suffer, as we did, because they believe God is far away. They weep because they are convinced that their hope is “out there” somewhere beyond them, even as the glorious presence of Christ blazes within them, and all around them.
We are moved by their tears. We are acquainted with their sufferings. We know how they feel.
But, the fire is still burning. That cleansing, purifying, healing fire of Christ rages on.
As the darkness is being exposed to the light of this beautiful fire that Jesus himself has kindled, reality breaks through. Blind eyes are opened. The lame learn to dance. The lost are found. The children return home to a Father who was waiting for them with open arms all along.
In this saying, Jesus promises us that this fire will burn until every last lie is eventually, and inevitably, obliterated and everyone is, at last, set free from the illusion.
In that day, you and I will know that Christ is in the Father, and the Father is in us, and we are in them.
Let us guard this fire until that day comes.
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Keith Giles is the author of the 7-part best-selling Jesus Un book series from Quoir Publishing. Keith is also the host of Second Cup with Keith [a new solo podcast available now on the Ethos Radio App, for Apple and Android and on Spotify; and the Heretic Happy Hour Podcast [along with co-hosts Matthew Distefano, Dr. Katy Valentine, and Derrick Day], and the new Apostate’s Anonymous podcast with Matthew Distefano.
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