In Search of Prophets and Physicians (The Gospel of Thomas)

Today we look at the 31st saying of Jesus in the Gospel of Thomas. Jesus said, “No prophet is accepted in his own village. No physician heals those who know him.” There are slightly different translations. "No prophet is welcome on his home turf; doctors don't cure those who know them." “A prophet is not accepted in the hometown. A doctor does not heal those who know the doctor.” “No prophet is accepted in his own village. No physician heals the people who know him well.”

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Transcript

Today we look at the 31st saying of Jesus in the Gospel of Thomas. Jesus said, “No prophet is accepted in his own village. No physician heals those who know him.” There are slightly different translations. "No prophet is welcome on his home turf; doctors don't cure those who know them." “A prophet is not accepted in the hometown. A doctor does not heal those who know the doctor.” “No prophet is accepted in his own village. No physician heals the people who know him well.”

They are all pretty much the same. This saying is composed of two parts. One is about prophets and the other about doctors. Both are pointing to the same truth. When we compare this two-part saying in Thomas to the canonical gospels, we find that the first part about prophets has parallels in all four gospels in the NT. That is rare. Usually, a saying is found only the first three gospels, and not John. But this one is in all four, which vouches for its authenticity.

John’s gospel records it this way: “Now he himself had testified that a prophet has no honor in this own hometown.” The Gospel of Luke has this saying in almost the same words as Thomas. In addition to that, Luke also places this saying in the context of another saying about a physician. 

Jesus said to them, “Surely you will quote this proverb to me: ‘Physician, heal yourself!’ Do here in your hometown what we have heard you did in Capernaum.” That saying is different from the saying about a physician in Thomas, but it is interesting that both gospels link the saying about prophets to one about physicians.

Anyway, the second saying about physicians is unique to Thomas, not found in the NT gospels. Jesus says, “No physician heals those who know him.” It is interesting that Matthew’s gospel adds the sentence, “And he did not do many miracles there because of their lack of faith.” That seems to be saying the same sort of thing as Thomas’s saying, so this is evidence of the authenticity of the second saying.

In any case, both sayings about prophets and physicians are communicating the same truth.  That people do not recognize what is right in front of their face.  “Familiarity breeds contempt” as the proverb says. Jesus’ hometown could not accept him as the Messiah because they knew him growing up. The thought they knew him, and therefore they could not recognize who he really was.

We have a hard time seeing the spiritual teachers from our own tradition in a new light. Christians cannot see Jesus as he really is. Christians are too familiar with the traditional image of Christ whitewashed by Christian tradition. They think of Jesus as a white Jesus with wavy light brown hair and blue eyes. Their Jesus taught a Pauline gospel that the pastor teaches. Therefore, they cannot hear the radical message that Jesus is really proclaiming.

Christians are so indoctrinated by Christian tradition that they cannot hear what Jesus is really saying. The words of Jesus have been so distorted through the lens of western Christianity that Christians cannot hear Jesus with fresh ears. They cannot hear Jesus’ gospel of nonduality because all they have heard is a gospel of duality. They cannot accept the real Jesus because they think they know Jesus.  Just like the people from Jesus’ hometown of Nazareth could not accept Jesus because they thought they knew Jesus. 

The East calls this maya. Maya is misinterpreting what is right before your eyes. Maya means that people do not see the world as it is because they think they know what the world is. They have it all labeled into pieces and categories. 

The people of Nazareth had Jesus labeled and categorized. Therefore, they could not see or hear him. As the old parable says, people mistake a rope foe a snake. They see a snake, so they do not see the rope. Jesus’ hometown saw Jesus as a snake and tried to throw the snake off a cliff. They could not see Jesus as the great spiritual teacher that he was because they thought they knew Jesus.

This illusion is true not just of Christians who misinterpret Jesus. It is also true of those who have left the church.  They also have bought into the illusion of what the church says Jesus was. So, they leave Christianity behind and adopt a new religious culture with new teachers and new doctrines. They leave Jesus behind and follow a Hindu guru or Buddhist monk. Thereby they miss out on the great treasure of nondual teaching that is present in their own religious tradition. 

That is why so many in my generation were attracted to Eastern religions, including me. I found out that Jesus was teaching the same Eternal Truth. Huxley called it the Perennial Philosophy. It is better termed the Perennial Wisdom, because it is not a philosophy but a way of wisdom.

There is an even deeper truth here. It is that we are attracted to spiritual teachers and religious leaders – whether they be a Christian evangelist, a megachurch pastor, the Dalai Lama or Ramana Maharshi - because they are perceived having something we do not have, knowing something we do not know, being something that we are not.

The truth is that there is only one Teacher, and that is the teacher within. The Self. The Christ within. The Holy Spirit within. Jesus said that after he died, he was going to send another Counselor who was with them and would be in them. That movement from thinking the teacher is “with” them to the teacher being “in them” is the movement from duality to nonduality.  Jesus said he was in them and they in him, just like he was in the Father and the Father in him.  

The True Teacher is in us. All external teachers are projections of the internal Teacher. External human teachers are imperfect. If you deify them, you are going to be let down. Only the Teacher within is perfect. We will always be disappointed with human spiritual teachers. None are perfect in their human forms. But in their eternal Form all teachers are the One Teacher. This is the one Jesus called the Helper or Advocate or Counselor or the Spirit. 

All prophets that come from our hometown fall short. No physician that we know well is as good as that famous one we have heard about in some great medical center somewhere. That is why seekers go from teacher to teacher and why the dying go from doctor to doctor. Always looking for the second, third, fourth opinion on how to be made whole. 

The Great Physician is within you. The great Prophet is within you. The greatest guru or lama or buddha or teacher is within you. The Kingdom of God is within you. It is you! The search is over. You are what you have been searching for. Listen to the Teacher within. In other words, “Physician, heal thyself!”