A [person said] to him, "Tell my brothers to divide my father's possessions with me." He said to the person, "Mister, who made me a divider?" He turned to his disciples and said to them, "I'm not a divider, am I?" (72 Thomas)

The twelfth chapter of Luke provides more context. In the physician's gospel we read, "Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a mans life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth." (Luke 12:13-21)

Thomas has flattened - or perhaps opened - the narrative. The surely purposeful implication is that Jesus brings wholeness not division.

Yet we also read in Luke, "Suppose ye that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell you, Nay; but rather division." (Luke 12:49-53) And from 16 Thomas, "Perhaps people think that I have come to cast peace upon the world. They do not know that I have come to cast conflicts upon the earth: fire, sword, war. For there will be five in a house: there will be three against two and two against three, father against son and son against father, and they will stand alone."

Jesus seeks to make us whole and coherent with our origins. He does offer the shalom of knowing and abiding with God.

But this wholeness cannot be achieved by the double-minded or the doubly committed or by those who choose possessions over relationships. We must be divided from what distracts us from God's intention.