Saying 50: Jesus said, “If they say to you, ‘Where do you come from?’, say to them, ‘We have come from the light, the place where the light has come into being of itself, and established itself, and became manifest through their image.’”
As with our previous saying, I’m going to go with William Duffy’s restored version taken from the literal Coptic version which reads:
Jesus said, “If they say to you, ‘Where do you come from?’ say to them, ‘We come from out of the light, from the place (the Kingdom) where the light has come into being. (Extending it) outward by our hands as one, we stood to our feet [awakened] and appeared forth in our (true) likeness.’ “If they say to you, ‘Who are you to say this?’ say, ‘We are His sons; we are the chosen of the Living Father.’ If they ask you, ‘What is the sign of your Father in you?’ say to them, ‘It is movement with rest.’”
Duffy’s restored translation pulls much more nuance out of the saying which many scholars believe was corrupted by copyists over the years.
Taking this version as our guide, we can see many of the same elements being emphasized as in the previous saying: We are the chosen of God. We are from the Kingdom and will one day return to it.
What is expanded upon here is the pre-existent nature of our being. We come from out of the light, the very place where Light itself – the source of all light – came into existence. This is who we are: the sons and daughters – the children – of God’s eternal Light, made in the image of Light and shining with the pure radiance of God’s Light.
We extend God’s light outward by our hands, as one. When we shine alongside our awakened brothers and sisters God’s light radiates from within us to everyone around us. We are ambassadors of the brilliant, healing light of God and it shines outward from within us as we live and move and have our being in this light.
Standing to our feet – a common metaphor in this Gospel for waking up from our dreamlike slumber in the fantasy world of separation into the glorious reality of our Oneness with all things – we now appear “in our true likeness”; shining bright with the light that cannot be hidden or covered up.
When those whose eyes are still closed to this light ask us, “Who are we to say these things?”, our answer is simply this: “We are – like you – the children of the Light Incarnate – the Father whose own face is like yours and mine.”
When they ask for a sign of the truth of these words, our response is this: “The sign you seek is revealed in every movement you make, and in every breath you take, as you rest in the reality of your own Oneness with the Father.”
In our movements we reflect the life of the Father who lives within us and gives to each of us our own breath of life.
In our resting we are at peace knowing that we are One with the Father and the Father is One with us, and with everything.
** Keith Giles is the best-selling author of the Jesus Un series. He has appeared on CNN, USA Today, BuzzFeed, and John Fugelsang’s “Tell Me Everything.” His latest book, SOLA MYSTERIUM: Celebrating the Beautiful Uncertainty of Everything is available now on Amazon in paperback and on Kindle.
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