SAYING 60: [The saw] a Samaritan carrying a lamb as he went into Judaea. He said to his disciples, “Why is this man carrying the lamb?” They said to him, “So that he might slaughter it and have it to eat. He said to them, “He will not eat it while it is alive, but rather when he has slaughtered it so it becomes a carcass.” They said, “He cannot do it [eat the lamb] otherwise.” He said to them, “You, too, seek for yourselves a place of rest within yourselves, lest you become a corpse and be devoured.”
As far as strange sayings in Thomas’s Gospel go, this is one of the strangest.
At face value, the sequence of events is fairly clear: Jesus sees a man carrying a lamb. He asks the disciples why he is carrying it. They respond by saying it’s because he intends to slaughter the lamb and eat it. Jesus affirms this and points out that the lamb cannot be eaten until it is slaughtered and becomes a carcass. They agree, of course, and say “He can’t eat the lamb until it’s slaughtered,” and then comes the lesson: Jesus says, “Seek for yourself a place of rest within, otherwise you will become a corpse – like the lamb – and be devoured.”
Thus endeth the lesson, but…what is the actual point Jesus is trying to make here? Well, one way of understanding this is to say that Jesus simply wants us to seek a place of rest [or salvation] within ourselves so that we do not become slaughtered and consumed by the World.
In other words, as long as you remain alive – awakened to the reality of your inseparable connection with the Source of Life – you cannot be killed or eaten.
The world is death and a corpse, as we’ve seen in previously in Saying 56, for example:
Jesus said, “Whoever has become acquainted with the world has found a corpse, and the world is not worthy of the one who has found the corpse.”
So, our goal is to remain focused on what is real and on what – and who – is alive forevermore: The Christ within us and the Christ outside of us.
Finding that rest within ourselves is key to staying alive and awake and it is our constant shield against being slaughtered and devoured by the illusion of separation perpetuated by the World around us.
Above all, never allow yourself to be carried along like a lamb to the slaughter, but understand the ways of this World will always seek to tie you up, and lead you to the place of death so you can be eaten and consumed.
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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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