A modern-day warrior
Mean, mean stride
Today's Tom Sawyer
Mean, mean pride
Though his mind is not for rent
Don't put him down as arrogant
His reserve, a quiet defense
Riding out the day's events
The river
What you say about his company
Is what you say about society
Catch the mist
Catch the myth
Catch the mystery
Catch the drift
The world is, the world is
Love and life are deep
Maybe as his skies are wide
Today's Tom Sawyer, he gets high on you
And the space he invades, he gets by on you
No, his mind is not for rent
To any god or government
Always hopeful, yet discontent
He knows changes aren't permanent
But change is
And what you say about his company
Is what you say about society
Catch the witness
Catch the wit
Catch the spirit
Catch the spit
The world is, the world is
Love and life are deep
Maybe as his eyes are wide
Exit the warrior
Today's Tom Sawyer
He gets high on you
And the energy you trade
He gets right on to
The friction of the day
Here me out: I think if Tom Sawyer wasn't specifically written about Christ, the boot certainly fits.
He was a modern-day warrior, who cleansed the temple (John 2:13-16, Mark 11:15-18, Mark 12:40) and challenged the religious elite at every turn even when faced with death (Matthew 5:20, 9:1-8, 9:9-13, 9:32-34, 12:1-8, 12:9-14, 12:22-24, 12:38-42, 16:1-4, 16:5-12, 19:3-9, 21:23-27, 21:33-45, 22:15-22, 22:23-33, 22:34-40, 23:1-36). And when he was finished destroying their ideological armies, "No one could say a word in reply, and from that day on no one dared to ask him any more questions" (Matthew 22:46). Those 18 references are from just one Gospel. Granted, there's a lot of overlap between the four, but still... point is, I could go on.
The religious elite kept trying to trap Jesus with gotcha questions. They wanted Jesus to fail because they didn't like his message of love and peace. They wanted him to fail because they didn't like his rejection of strict adherence to an outdated, rigid law that only benefited intolerant hypocrites who were in control.
He was a modern day warrior with a mean, mean stride, a mean, mean pride, who defended the powerless: the prostitutes, the tax collectors (outcasts that people hated), the poor, and the sick against those power hungry snakes, those hypocrites.
His mind was not for rent. No one could tell Jesus what to do, not the Pharisees, not even the devil (Matthew 4:1-11).
Now devil, like most spiritual things, which, yes, includes the topics in the Bible, is symbolic. The 40 days represents both a period of testing and humility. The wilderness represents being lost. The devil represents spiritual beings that tempt with going off-course.
There's not much more to it than that, but people tend to read things literally. Do we do that when we read Aesop's Fables or Shell Silverstein or other children's books? Does that make the lessons in those stories any less valuable?
The Bible and other religious scriptures are inspired, spiritual texts. But we need to also understand they were given to humanity during our collective childhood, and we are now in our adolescence. Context is key to understanding.
Don't put him down as arrogant. Even though Jesus was a fighter and bombastic and a counter-cultural rebel, if you think he was arrogant you really are going straight to hell, do not pass Go, do not collect $200. Ok, of course you're not going to hell because it doesn't exist. But seriously, he was not arrogant, just... sure of himself. He had assurance from a Higher Power.
His reserve, a quiet defense
Riding out the day's events
Despite spending so much time with the peeps, I suspect Jesus was actually introverted, because he kept withdrawing to be by himself to recharge (Matthew 14:23, Mark 1:35, 6:46, Luke 5:16, 6:12, 9:18, 9:28, John 6:15).
The river
This one is deep. Get it? Get it?! The river is deep? Eh, nevermind.
But really, this concept is deep and we're gonna spend a minute on it.
I've written about the symbolism of the sun, the sky, and the waters below in my posts on spiritual economy here and here. But after more reflection and revelation, I can write even more about the river.
Remember that spiritual symbolisms are multi-dimensional, meaning that a symbol will have one true meaning in one context and a different true meaning in another context. And sometimes those true meanings could appear to conflict, but in fact do not. It takes some nuance in understanding the perspective from which you're looking at something.
So the river is a few different things depending on context and your vantage point. The river is like living water that flows from the heart (John 7:38-39). It's brighter than stadium lights, but easy on the eyes, and flows directly from the Sun above, which is the Source of all life, also referred to as God or the Great Spirit, or the Higher Power or any number of other terms. Here, the light shines in all and through all, everywhere (Revelation 22:1-21). In other words, the river sustains us.
Gonna take a quick time-out here.
I do take exception to Revelation 22:14-15, which denies the tree of life to dogs, practitioners of magic, the sexually immoral, murderers, idolaters, and liars.
Revelation is much like a horoscope; you can find what you are looking for in it. But this is not my vision of heaven. Why? It comes back yet again to the Law growing too large to serve the needs of the people, being written by and for the powerful, and then used as a tool to oppress the people (Black Lives Matter). See my post On the Law.
It's like that overly strict Home Owners Association that complains when you repaint your house the wrong shade of egg shell white, and, even though you have the design board approval letter, they threaten to sue you if you don't pony up and repaint. They send letter after letter and you're just like: move already. Who would want to live next to someone like that? I'll tell you who: the religious fundamentalists Pharisees.
Now, I'm not saying create a Wild Wild West of anarchy, either. But there's gotta be a healthy, happy middle ground where dogs and cats can, at worst, tolerate each other, and those who can't go live with someone else. Where the most disobedient and the most intolerant can both find another home, leaving everyone else in the middle to live in peace. The graph below visualizes a scale of most disobedient on the left to most intolerant on the right, and the y-axis represents "goodness" or "common sense" or something along those lines.
Unfortunately, the intolerant on the far right (not necessarily politically, just for this graph) are able to grow more powerful and seize control. This is the conundrum for Zion in the middle.
Back to Revelation 22:14-15. I imagine a heaven where the "sexually immoral" (says who?) can be intimate however they choose behind closed doors. Who decided which love and pleasure is allowed anyway? I get that too much pleasure can become an addictive amber pit, a black hole from which you could, but choose not to escape. But denial of pleasure is equally unhealthy. There is a healthy, happy medium. This is the concept of the Buddhist Middle Way. And for anyone freaking out that I brought up Buddhism, Christ is only the keystone of the holistic spiritual picture (1 Peter 2:6), the last piece of the puzzle.
So I also imagine a heaven where people can worship (or not) as they please.
Now, murder and lying kind of sucks. But zero tolerance? That doesn't sound very Christ-like to me. I dunno who wrote Revelation down or translated it, but that does not sound much like the Great Commandment of "love God and love your neighbor as yourself" (Matthew 12:35-40). Plus, for murder, you can always re-spawn, so...
We're all at a certain place in spiritual life and on a personal path and speed that works for us individually. None of us are perfect, we all make mistakes, and some of those mistakes are pretty damn awful. But we are also, to some degree, products of our environment. So to deny someone eternal life for being... a human being... this was one of the things that turned me away from religion many years ago, and why it took me so long to find my spiritual path again.
Ok, back to the river again.
Imagine a complete desert with no life whatsoever. Now imagine a single river flowing in that desert. What do you picture? A refuge, a sanctuary, for all the living creatures to swarm and live (Ezekiel 47:1-12, Psalm 46:4, John 4:13-14, Revelation 7:17). The spiritual cosmos is dark and cold and empty, but the Sun provides life sustaining warmth.
They didn't know what electricity was back then, but that's sort of what the river of life is like. A river of pure, raw, holy energy.
We need this river, to bathe and swim within its holy waters, because we are spiritual beings made of it!
It is a return home. Imagine a being made entirely of electricity.
Now imagine that being made entirely of electricity being cloaked with a simulated body in a simulated world so that it could go to school and learn.
Most of us are asleep to the true spiritual reality beneath the surface. Our religions have only scratched the surface, merely pointed in the general direction. There is so much more, but most people, being insecure and wanting final answers to life, cling to the teachings they are fed and are satisfied with those. I'm not criticizing that, but pointing out that it holds one back. It's like taking the blue pill.
So you're this being made of pure, raw, spiritual energy, and you're living in this simulated reality to learn and grow. When you return home, to heaven, you return to the river of life, which is the flowing river of pure, raw, spiritual energy. You're swimming in the stuff you're made of. You're communing with God, if you will. Words can't describe it, they're so limiting and clunky. So we use river and God and stuff like that.
So the river is heaven, but it's probably not what most people imagine.
Heaven is much more like a shared lucid dream where you can do and be whatever you want, which is why the gates are so narrow. Don't want people mucking it up for everyone else, now, do we? But you can also sort of choose your community...
The river is also something else, a completely different symbol altogether.
The river represents the separation between the lawless below and obedient above. The deeper you go below, the more lawless but powerful you become in dark energy.
The higher you go towards the sun, the more obedient but powerful you become in so-called holy energy.
Being on the surface of the river represents being juuust inside the atmosphere, barely on the side of the light, or so-called holy energy. It is like having a foot in both worlds, but leaning ever-so slightly to the right. Don't laugh--ok, laugh--but it reminds me of the Gray Jedi.
Also, from the surface of the river you can fish for the souls of people (Matthew 4:19), which is to say help them escape the Matrix and wake up to the true reality, the shared lucid dream we call heaven. There, in the river, the currents carry your spirit forward without resistance that we have in the material world, resistance caused by our cognitive, abstract mind.
So that's two meanings of the river: the spiritual life force of heaven that we return home to (we're actually there now, this world is our illusion for learning and growing) and that surrounds us and binds. And the river is also the separation between two different types of energy, a positive force and a negative force that need each other, yet endlessly (senselessly) war with each other.
I have one more river symbolism, but this one doesn't really matter, I just find it interesting. In Texas Hold 'Em poker the first series of three (a perfect number) of cards is called the flop (the fall from heaven while you are asleep); the fourth card (creation) is called the turn, when you awaken to your calling; and the fifth card (grace) is the river.
Whew!
Now where were we?
What you say about his company
Is what you say about society
What did people say about Jesus's company? They were spreading the news that he could heal people (Matthew 4:23-25). But they also called him prince of demons (Matthew 9:27-34) and Beelzebul, or demon (Matthew 12:22-37). Ouch! And everyone at home was like, "Hey, we know this guy. He's no prophet or Messiah". So he didn't do any miracles there and left (Matthew 13:53-58). In many sections throughout the Gospels (see beginning of this blog), the religious elite said they knew Jesus was referring to them when talking about those who will not enter the kingdom of heaven. He even said the prostitutes and tax collectors (outcasts that people hated) would enter before the religious elite (Matthew 12:28-32).
Jesus was a reflection of society, and more specifically, what society was lacking spiritually, which was the kingdom of heaven, even if the religious leaders vehemently disagreed. That's why what you say about his company is what you say about society. He was a mirror.
So what did Jesus say about the kingdom of heaven? He said it belongs to the poor in spirit and those persecuted for righteousness (Matthew 5:3-11); to seek it first and everything else will follow (Matthew 6:33); that you store up an indestructible treasure there, where your heart is (Matthew 6:19-24); it is something you can grow (Matthew 13:33); and that not everyone who claims to follow him will enter (Matthew 7:21); something you need to prepare for and be ready to occur any moment (Matthew 3:2, 10:7, 25:1-13); and you gotta be better than the religious elite to enter (Matthew 5:20).
Catch the mist
Catch the myth
Catch the mystery
Catch the drift
The mist is the fog between this world and the spiritual. The myth is who exactly this Jesus fella is, anyway. So is the mystery, as well as the mysteries of life, the universe, and everything he speaks of. The drift is the change in perception, in worldview, the paradigm shift he creates. CATch it.
We're almost halfway done. Do you need a break?
The world is, the world is
Love and life are deep
Maybe as his skies are wide
The world is wide because he is like a child who is awoken for the first time, awestruck with amazement, bewilderment, and wanderlust (Revelation 12:1-6). The child will lead the faithful followers, the quiet leaders, the heathens, the un-awoken, the bold leaders, and awoken youth. He will bring together all of the different types and clans who previously struggled against each other: the mothers and the fathers will finally see eye to eye again and also not need to predate anymore. The child, who is pure and innocent will do the unthinkable and play around near the most vicious of creatures without a care in the world (Isaiah 11:1-9), but no harm will come to him because he has the Lord's rod and staff (Psalm 23:14).
There is nothing holding him back. He speaks only of love and life. The sky is the limit for him.
Today's Tom Sawyer, he gets high on you
And the space he invades, he gets by on you
I said before that I think Jesus was an introvert, in that's how he recharges, but I also think he was energized by the crowds, at least to a point. He certainly attracted them (Matthew 4:25, 8:1, 8:18, 19:2, 20:29).
No, his mind is not for rent
To any god or government
I already covered that his mind was not for rent. But to any god or government?
Jesus was constantly at odds with the Pharisees, who taught about God. Ok. But there's a little more to that. He also had innate or mystical knowledge without having studied (John 7:14-24) that amazed everyone (Matthew 7:24-29, 13:53-58, 22:23-33, Mark 1:21-28, 6:1-6, 11:12-26, Luke 2:41-48, 4:31-37).
Keep in mind what I said earlier, too. A teacher only speaks to what the student is prepared to hear. Humanity at that time was in elementary school, so the course material, the lessons about God and spirituality, were to that level of understanding. The college professors will tell you that much of what you learned in primary school was, not exactly wrong, just... basic. A deeper understanding requires revision. You also have to consider the cultural context and knowledge limitations of the time period, too.
But we're growing up now. We are more mature (sort of) and capable of digesting more complex spiritual food (sort of).
Was his mind for rent to any government? The religious elite yet again tried to trick Jesus. He said "You hypocrites, why are you trying to trap me" when they asked if it's right to pay Roman taxes, since Judea was a Roman puppet state. His famous answer was, "[G]ive back to Caesar what is Caesar's, and to God what is God's" (Matthew 22:15-22).
The Jewish high Priests were finally ready to kill Jesus, but they weren't allowed to, so they sent him to Pontius Pilate, the governor of Judea to do it for them. When Pilate questioned Jesus about the charges, he remained silent and refused to answer (Matthew 27:11-26). So Jesus was not beholden to any government, not Rome nor Judea (the people thought he was going to be a king in the material world).
Always hopeful, yet discontent
Jesus rode a donkey into Jerusalem on that last Passover knowing he was about to die (Matthew 21:1-11, 21:33-46, 26:1-5). If that doesn't speak about his hope for his future even after the shit storm he's about to face, I dunno what does.
And as for discontent, yet again the dude was constantly ripping on the religious elite. Not content with the status quo there.
He knows changes aren't permanent
But change is
"Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away" (Matthew 24:35). The Law will not disappear until everything is accomplished (Matthew 5:18). Then it will disappear. And remember, the fulfillment of the Law is love God and love your neighbor as yourself (Matthew 22:34-39).
And what you say about his company
Is what you say about society
We covered this before.
Catch the witness
Catch the wit
Catch the spirit
Catch the spit
He's the witness to the spiritual world, is mentally sharp and intelligent, has a desired spirit, and is spittin' mad lyrical parables and rhymes. Catch it.
The world is, the world is
Love and life are deep
Maybe as his eyes are wide
We covered this before, too.
Exit the warrior
Jesus the dragon religious elite slayer, once he establishes his kingdom in heaven and finds peace for the birds in the air to roost under his tree (Mark 4:32), will cease being a warrior.
Today's Tom Sawyer
What would Christ look like today? Put aside your pre-conceived notions.
He gets high on you
And the energy you trade
We have an aura, a vibe, chakras, or whatever woo-woo term because we are only beginning to understand this more (even though Masters have known since the beginning of time). We exchange this energy when we communicate with each other, whether that's the high energy of a concert or sports game or the frequency drop in the room from a buzz-kill or high frequency rushes of sexual intimacy, and so forth. Today's Tom Sawyer gets high simply on trading his energy with you, sharing himself with you.
He gets right on to
The friction of the day
And in sharing that energy, sometimes there is friction. In fact, it is the friction of two spirits that are not alike that create the heat, that create the energy, when they mesh together. If they were exactly the same (none are), then there would be no friction and no energy exchange. Too much and you get a grinding of gears, too little and there isn't much energy generation and exchange. Grok?
And that, my friends, is how I read the lyrics to Tom Sawyer by Rush, lol. Come join me.
By the way, I laughed so hard on my insides when I read this.
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