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The Esoteric Gospel of Matthew 10:16-23
Jan. 13th, 2022 11:09 amLet's return to the Gospel of Matthew for a bit today, shall we?
The Gospel of Matthew, Chapter 10, Verses 16-23 reads:
Sheep and Wolves
In his allegory of the cave, Plato memorably described the experience of those who had made the journey upward into the sunlight, upon returning into the darkness of the cave. Although their actual knowledge of the real world is far advanced than their fellows, who have remained in the cave and spend their days staring at shadows, they seem like idiots as they grope about in the darkness, and they can't even manage to count the shadows on the wall!
This is very much the experience that Jesus is describing here. And notice where we are in the narrative: Jesus has just finished delivering his Great Teaching in chapters 7-9. From his disciples' perspective, they have just been through an initiation into the Mysteries of Jesus. That initiation took place on the top of a mountain, representing the ascent into the spiritual world. Now, Jesus is sending his disciples back into the every day world, which is the world of Plato's cave.
The Spirit Speaking In You
That the disciples are Initiates is shown by this, that Jesus tells them that the Spirit will speak through them. In Plato, this is called keeping one eye always on the True Sun, even while sojourning in the cave of shadows. It's also a very effective practice, if you should find yourself in a positions such as Jesus's disciples are in-- or in any difficulty in life. The simple act of putting aside your conscious mind and asking God to speak through you, or work through you, can be a very powerful one. I sometimes say a simple prayer like "God, I trust that you have put me in [X Difficult Circumstance] for a reason. I trust you and offer up this [obnoxious, difficult, painful or unpleasant situation] to you. Act through me, Oh Lord." It's simpler and often far more effective than a more elaborate prayer or ritual.
The Children Shall Rise
In our time, when family drama is more the norm than otherwise, but also not especially harmful, it's easy to miss what Jesus is saying when he talks about setting brother against brother and children against their parents.
In Jesus's time, families were more like microcosms of cities, and cities were families writ large, and both were essentially religious organizations. Cities were gathered around their central temple, families around their altar or sacred fire. This wasn't that different for Jews than for Gentiles; the Jews had different sorts of spirits they were allowed to interact with at home, and different rules governing their relationship with their deity. But when Jesus tells us, in one passage, that he is going to tear apart families and destroy cities, it's necessary to read it politically--
But absolutely not in the modern sense!
One of the ways that modern people go wrong when reading Plato is that they take his discussions about how to organize a city and they imagine trying to govern an American suburb according to his prescriptions. That makes very little sense, and the image it produces is rather horrific. American cities are not ancient Greek cities; the latter are more akin to what we call families and churches than to towns.
From an occult perspective, then, what Jesus is saying is that he is going to reorganize the spiritual landscape. Every city has its guardian spirits, and its collective soul-- some of those will accept Jesus, but others will not. The same is true for families and individuals. In the end, the spiritual landscape of our world will be re-organized along new lines. That reorganization-- in which, let us remember, some of the spirits of the world will be gathered in to Christ, while others will not-- did not end with Jesus's resurrection; as he tells us in this chapter, at that point it had barely begun. It is still going on today.
The Gospel of Matthew, Chapter 10, Verses 16-23 reads:
16 Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.
17 But beware of men: for they will deliver you up to the councils, and they will scourge you in their synagogues;
18 And ye shall be brought before governors and kings for my sake, for a testimony against them and the Gentiles.
19 But when they deliver you up, take no thought how or what ye shall speak: for it shall be given you in that same hour what ye shall speak.
20 For it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you.
21 And the brother shall deliver up the brother to death, and the father the child: and the children shall rise up against their parents, and cause them to be put to death.
22 And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake: but he that endureth to the end shall be saved.
23 But when they persecute you in this city, flee ye into another: for verily I say unto you, Ye shall not have gone over the cities of Israel, till the Son of man be come.
17 But beware of men: for they will deliver you up to the councils, and they will scourge you in their synagogues;
18 And ye shall be brought before governors and kings for my sake, for a testimony against them and the Gentiles.
19 But when they deliver you up, take no thought how or what ye shall speak: for it shall be given you in that same hour what ye shall speak.
20 For it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you.
21 And the brother shall deliver up the brother to death, and the father the child: and the children shall rise up against their parents, and cause them to be put to death.
22 And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake: but he that endureth to the end shall be saved.
23 But when they persecute you in this city, flee ye into another: for verily I say unto you, Ye shall not have gone over the cities of Israel, till the Son of man be come.
Sheep and Wolves
In his allegory of the cave, Plato memorably described the experience of those who had made the journey upward into the sunlight, upon returning into the darkness of the cave. Although their actual knowledge of the real world is far advanced than their fellows, who have remained in the cave and spend their days staring at shadows, they seem like idiots as they grope about in the darkness, and they can't even manage to count the shadows on the wall!
This is very much the experience that Jesus is describing here. And notice where we are in the narrative: Jesus has just finished delivering his Great Teaching in chapters 7-9. From his disciples' perspective, they have just been through an initiation into the Mysteries of Jesus. That initiation took place on the top of a mountain, representing the ascent into the spiritual world. Now, Jesus is sending his disciples back into the every day world, which is the world of Plato's cave.
The Spirit Speaking In You
That the disciples are Initiates is shown by this, that Jesus tells them that the Spirit will speak through them. In Plato, this is called keeping one eye always on the True Sun, even while sojourning in the cave of shadows. It's also a very effective practice, if you should find yourself in a positions such as Jesus's disciples are in-- or in any difficulty in life. The simple act of putting aside your conscious mind and asking God to speak through you, or work through you, can be a very powerful one. I sometimes say a simple prayer like "God, I trust that you have put me in [X Difficult Circumstance] for a reason. I trust you and offer up this [obnoxious, difficult, painful or unpleasant situation] to you. Act through me, Oh Lord." It's simpler and often far more effective than a more elaborate prayer or ritual.
The Children Shall Rise
In our time, when family drama is more the norm than otherwise, but also not especially harmful, it's easy to miss what Jesus is saying when he talks about setting brother against brother and children against their parents.
In Jesus's time, families were more like microcosms of cities, and cities were families writ large, and both were essentially religious organizations. Cities were gathered around their central temple, families around their altar or sacred fire. This wasn't that different for Jews than for Gentiles; the Jews had different sorts of spirits they were allowed to interact with at home, and different rules governing their relationship with their deity. But when Jesus tells us, in one passage, that he is going to tear apart families and destroy cities, it's necessary to read it politically--
But absolutely not in the modern sense!
One of the ways that modern people go wrong when reading Plato is that they take his discussions about how to organize a city and they imagine trying to govern an American suburb according to his prescriptions. That makes very little sense, and the image it produces is rather horrific. American cities are not ancient Greek cities; the latter are more akin to what we call families and churches than to towns.
From an occult perspective, then, what Jesus is saying is that he is going to reorganize the spiritual landscape. Every city has its guardian spirits, and its collective soul-- some of those will accept Jesus, but others will not. The same is true for families and individuals. In the end, the spiritual landscape of our world will be re-organized along new lines. That reorganization-- in which, let us remember, some of the spirits of the world will be gathered in to Christ, while others will not-- did not end with Jesus's resurrection; as he tells us in this chapter, at that point it had barely begun. It is still going on today.
