Jesus said, “The kingdom of God is like a man who wanted to kill a powerful man. He drew the sword in his house and drove it into the wall, that he might know his hand would be strong (enough). Then he slew the powerful man.”
At first, this saying may shock us with the sudden shift to violent imagery, but we need to step back and realize that Jesus is always seeking to surprise us with unexpected ideas that stimulate us to reconsider our assumptions.
The violence here in this saying invites us to look beyond the literal and to imagine the metaphorical applications of the concepts. The Kingdom is like a man who wanted to kill someone more powerful than himself.
That sounds like an analogy of the True Self and the Ego, doesn’t it? The Ego feels more powerful as it usually has control and subverts our True Self at every turn.
So, if our True Self wanted to kill the Ego, how would it do that? Wouldn’t it make sense to practice the murder of the Ego “in his house”?
The house metaphor shows up often in The Gospel of Thomas as an allusion to a framework or system of thought. In some cases, the “house” is the world system that perpetuates the illusion of separation.
In other cases, the “house” is a metaphor for our own inner being which must be rebuilt from the inside out. In this case, the “house” is the internal sense of self-identity.
So, the sword must be driven “into the wall” of the house because this is where the illusion of separation has taken hold. To kill the “powerful man” or Ego, we must first have the strength to drive the sword into the very foundation of our own identity where these divisions take hold. The house itself must be the place where we drive the deadly sword before we attempt to slay the Ego persona.
This saying pairs well with the Lion and the Man of Saying 7 where the Lion must be consumed by the Man so that the Ego becomes subordinate to the True Self.
Here, the sword is driven first into the house itself to test our willingness and resolve to accomplish the great assassination of our Ego.
Are we willing for the entire house to be demolished if that’s what it takes to slay the powerful Egoic self?
If not, we are not truly prepared to finish the task at hand.
If so, then we know we have what it takes to plunge the sword into the heart of the Ego which thrives on the illusion of separation.
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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.” He hosts the Second Cup with Keith podcast, and co-hosts the Apostates Anonymous podcast, and the Heretic Happy Hour Podcast.
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