Secret Wisdom — 25 Days + GoT Mashup
By: Mike Rusert
Tags: Gospel Of Thomas, Empowerment, Spirituality, Advent, Water

25 Days of Simplicity & journeying inward with the gospel of thomas MASHUP! Day 7 + Week 12: Logion 13

For those of you just tuning in with Intertwine, we’ve been exploring, since September, the 108 sayings of the Gospel of Thomas. It’s an ancient wisdom text from the early Christian movement. For centuries, the text was thought lost to humanity, but in 1945 near Nag Hammadi, Egypt, a farmer dug up a sealed jar full of ancient scrolls including a full text of the Gospel of Thomas. These are wisdom sayings attributed to Jesus, (i.e., Yeshua, in his native language). They reflect the indigenous wisdom traditions of his time and place. We are exploring one logion (i.e., wisdom saying) a week.



These GoT reflections will be incorporated into our 25 Days of Simplicity each Monday. If you’d like to explore previous sayings, check them out here on Medium.

breathe in + breathe out





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logion 13



Yeshua asked his students,



Tell me, then, who am I like?

To whom will you compare me?



Simon Peter said,

“You are like a just angel.”



Matthew said,

“You are a philosopher of wisdom.”



Thomas said,

“Master, I cannot find words

to express who you really are.”



Yeshua said,

“Thomas, it is no longer necessary

for me to be your Master

for you are drinking from the gushing spring

I have opened for you,

and you have become intoxicated.”



Then Yeshua took Thomas aside

and spoke three sayings to him in private.

When Thomas returned

to the company of his companions

they, of course, asked him,

“What did Yeshua say to you?”



“If I were to tell you

even one of the things he spoke to me,”

Thomas replied,

“you would pick up these rocks

and stone me, and then

fire would blaze out of them

and burn you.”







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Reflection: These holiday times are for many a time of parties and celebration. Likely, this year is different for most of us. Also likely, is that most of us still find ourselves under the influence. The question is under what influence.



In this saying, Yeshua engages students in dialogue. This is a mirror image of Logion 12. This time Yeshua asks the question.



Who would you compare me to?



Three of his students respond. Simon Peter says he’s like a righteous angel. This response points to a line of Hebrew wisdom influenced by the Persians and their beliefs regarding angels. Peter is saying Yeshua is like a heavenly messenger showing the way to make things right in the world.



Matthew says he’s like a sage or philosopher of wisdom. This response points to another influence on Jewish thought in their time — that of Greek philosophy.



And then there’s Thomas. He simply doesn’t have the words. Not because he can’t think critically or hasn’t been paying attention, but because he’s allowed his small self or ego self to become undone by Yeshua’s teaching.



He’s come under the influence of the deeper wisdom that his teacher is inviting us to. And, maybe most interesting (and empowering) is that once the spring is opened up, the Master is no longer needed.

(Side note: This is likely why only one known copy of this ancient text remains — it’s a threat to empire — to centralized, institutionalized power. Some scholars believe the Nag Hammadi scrolls were buried by monastics around the fourth century in order to save them from destruction at the hands of the Roman Empire, which had co-opted Christianity as a tool for domination rather than a compassion-filled spirituality.)



This isn’t some codependent thing full of power plays, domination and supplication. It’s love, care and wisdom being shared freely for the sake of individual and communal awakening. It’s interdependent creative becoming.



It’s the birthing of our truest selves, which is like a gushing spring to the world around us.



So, what influence are you under these days?



How clear and full of life is the spring from which you’re drinking?

Do you have good teachers in your life showing you the way to water, clear and alive?

Is what you’re drinking from just plain brackish?



How are we helping one another find that gushing spring of clear and life-giving wisdom within?



And, last thing, the way that helps you get there can’t be carbon copied or packaged and sold to others. Each of us has our own work. Our own path. We’ve each got to find it on our own, but we get to support one another along the way.



Cheers to community and to good teachers!

Now, let’s get lit on that clear deep wisdom!





Peace and breath and clean water with you this week

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Intertwine is going inward. As cooler weather moves in and quarantine persists, let the be a season for developing our inner life. To aid us on the journey, we’re engaging the wisdom contained in the Gospel of Thomas, an ancient mystical Christian text. Lynn Bauman’s translation and commentary are the primary source for these reflections. Those of you who want to dig in even deeper, consider purchasing his books: Find Lynn’s basic GoT translation (in The Luminous Gospels) and his exceptional commentary (In Trouble and In Wonder) here.



Also key to this work is to address trauma within our bodies and systems. We continue to engage in the body-work presented in Resmaa Menakem’s My Grandmother’s Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending our Hearts and Bodies. It’s not too late to get involved in this work. We have a few copies of the book available, and triads or small groups are still forming to work through the practices and material together. Find out more about this work here



Request a book and connect to a triad by emailing info@intertwinene.org