SAYING 86
Jesus says: “The foxes have holes and the birds have their nests but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head and rest.”
We should be careful here not to read this saying through the lens of later Gospels like Matthew and Luke which tend to frame this saying around Jesus specifically. The term “Son of Man” is most likely a reference to “the sons of Adam” or simply “mankind” in general.
If we can read it with new eyes, we might find that what Jesus is saying is that the animals – foxes and birds – have found their place of rest here in the earth. But we – the ones made in the image of God – are better than this. We are not satisfied with a place of rest made of sticks or a hovel in the earth we’ve dug out for ourselves as a shelter from the storm. No, as “sons of men” or “children of God”, we are only satisfied when we find our rest in God and God alone. Our home is not here in this world, since this world is a corpse [See saying 56].
Jesus reminds us that our home – our place of true rest – is not to be found in the trees where birds are, or in the ground where the foxes sleep, but in a place that transcends this earthly realm; a place where all things flow from and return to God; a place where the Divine being is at one with all things everywhere.
This “place” is not a physical location, but a state of being and a frame of mind that we can only see when our eyes are opened and we awaken to the truth of our Divine connection.
There’s an old song by Jim Reeves which reminds us that this world is not our home, and that we’re only passing through. For those of us who see this, it makes perfect sense. We cannot become too comfortable in this temporary reality because our true place of rest awaits us beyond this realm of illusion and separation; a realm any of us can find and enter and dwell in whenever we want. All that is required to enter into this rest is that subtle paradigm shift from the illusion of division to the reality of connection with the Divine.
Once we know that nothing can ever separate us from God or from one another, we begin to enter into and enjoy that rest and that peace that passes all understanding.
**
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.” He hosts the Second Cup with Keith podcast, and co-hosts the Apostates Anonymous podcast, and the Heretic Happy Hour Podcast.
His latest book, Second Cup with Keith is available now on Amazon HERE>
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In