A Healer of Nations

Preliminary Remarks

The following sayings and parables of Jesus are taken from the Gospel of Matthew. They are here brought under a general survey to demonstrate their unity of meaning and purpose. Was the outlook of Jesus gentle or harsh? Was it embracing or exclusionary? In other words, did he truly believe the God he called Father is inclined to destroy a proportion of that of which he alone is the author? It is the opinion of this writer that Jesus’ message was intended to be gentle and embracing.

The word gospel means glad tidings. Thus the emphasis is positive in tenor. In spite of certain eschatological statements in the text, the general spirit of these teachings is neither condemnatory nor judgmental. It is compassionate, empathetic, and joyful. It exhibits a God who embraces rather than divides.

The King James version of the Bible has been employed here to avoid copyright issues. The use of this older translation is considered acceptable because the discrepancies which exist in it are minor and do not affect the overall meaning of Jesus’ message. However, some alterations have been made by the present writer.

Where the text is quoted, a few word substitutions have been indulged in, such as replacing thee or thou with you and removing the th endings from verbs. Other word changes here and there, carefully considered so as not to alter the meaning of the text, have been made to render it closer to modern English prose.

Should the reader have doubts concerning any of these alterations, the text can be found in the Gospel of Matthew. It is presented here in the same order as it is there. This includes what in the common English prose of today would be considered some rather odd punctuation. But all specific references to chapter and verse have been omitted. This has been done to improve the flow of the reading. Nevertheless, any verse can be easily located in the original by noting its order of presentation in this work.

The individual scriptural citations are each followed by an interpretation. The interpretations are based on three principles: (1) God is universal spirit. (2) There is but one spirit. And (3) all material things are a direct and full, though limited, expression of spirit. By full is meant that there is but one spirit, one universal consciousness. And it is undividedly expressed in each earthly thing, living and inanimate.

Such a distributed presence without division is the possibility of spirit, which is not the case with the material things which emanate from spirit and condition the perception and conceptualizations of the human mind. Of particular interest is the fact that spirit is fully expressed in each human being. It is the consciousness of that person. But, though there is but one consciousness, as there is one spirit, what a human being is conscious of—that is, the content of his or her consciousness—is less than the complete awareness of universal spirit.

In other words, if spirit is universal consciousness, then each individual human consciousness is that universal consciousness in a self-limiting mode of expression. Accordingly, it can be seen that human existence, though generally unbeknownst to the individual person, is deeply embedded in universal spirit. Thus every human being (every man, woman, and child) is in spiritual fact and moral potential a son of God.

It is in this light that the words of Jesus are interpreted. For it is believed by this author, that this is what he meant to convey to his disciples and to all humankind. In consequence of this outlook on the part of the present author, only those utterances are included here which appear to reflect the consistent and complete system of thought which informed the mind of Jesus.

Other seemingly contradictory statements, such as Jesus’ response to Peter’s acclamation of him as the Son of the living God or the more astringent interpretation of his eschatological pronouncements, resulting from a superficial reading, are left to the disputations of scholars and clerics.

In fact, it is easily observed that many of the incidental teachings not central to the general tenor of his thought appear to be quite harsh in tone and do not integrate well into the uniform body of his gentler, more spiritual vision. However, it is not within the scholarly capacity of this writer to decide if some of this material may have been interpolated into Jesus’ message by the writer of the Gospel of Matthew or by the writers of the other gospels. In some cases it is simply a matter of interpretation, as in the instance of determining what Peter meant by his proclamation concerning Jesus or how Jesus himself may have understood that proclamation.

Perhaps Jesus was influenced at times by the more astringent teachings of John the Baptist or some others. Whatever is the case, it is evident that there is a nobler and, it should be noted, more otherworldly vision contained in the gentler teachings. For these comprise a thoroughly integrated body of thought making up the principal text of the spoken insights of the man who declared, My kingdom is not of this world. Thus it is these sayings and parables which are emphasized here.

No emphasis is placed here on the miracles of Jesus or on the healing ministry which he is reported to have carried out. This omission is not an attempt to deny them or some portion of them. It is simply an expedient followed in order to concentrate on the central message. Nor are the passion and the resurrection considered. Again, neither a denial nor an affirmation of these things will be found in this short work. For the spiritual message stands in its integrity with or without them.

It is the opinion of the present author that the system of thought presented here exhibits the most positive and perfect moral and spiritual program ever propounded. However, this does not mean that it is an ethical system in the philosophical sense. Nor is it in any way exclusionary and contradictory of the principal spirit of the teachings of someone like the Buddha. For there is no rational approach to any of these sayings or parables by which they may be fitted into an irrefutable logical structure.

They are much more imaginative and intuitive than such a rigid scheme would allow. In other words, they extend beyond the confines of human perception and reason. Because this is the case, Jesus’ teachings cannot be challenged in piecemeal fashion, as could the precepts of a rational ethical system. Nor can the whole tenor of his message be pitted against the insights of another deep spiritual seer.

Only when taken together in a holistic manner are these teachings transformed into a unified spiritual vision which is imaginatively and emotionally apprehended by the mind. Even so, in spite of a lack of rational support, this vision, if properly understood and embraced, could prove to be transformative to the human race. Perhaps this is so because it is not a rational system.

Once the spiritual character of human existence is understood in these terms, a new vision and a renewed moral character must fall effortlessly into place. Nevertheless, in perusing these sayings and parables, it should be kept in mind that, in accordance with the fashion of his time, Jesus often used hyperbole to clarify and emphasize his point.

Hence, it it not necessary to assume that by faith one can or should attempt to literally move mountains. Nor is it necessary to assume that a mustard seed will produce a large tree in which birds will make their nests. Rather, it is sufficient to simply imagine these situations in order to arrive at a understanding of the meaning of Jesus’ words. Thus, when he spoke of moving mountains, he was clearly not speaking in literal terms. Nor was he doing so in the case of the mustard seed.

Likewise, in a similar manner, when he said that one should pluck out one’s eye, give away one’s cloak, etc., such observations were expressive of an overall attitude of faith, spiritual determination, and forbearance. Like his fellow human beings, Jesus was a denizen of this material realm. But, unlike most of them, he was profoundly aware of his spiritual origin.

His kingdom was not of this world in the sense that it had no application to a materially minded human race. Such a race, left unaltered, was lost in his opinion. But it could not remain lost. Neither could there be any compromise between spiritual mindedness and material mindedness, such as is exhibited in a religious practice carried out without spiritual insight and personal transformation. Rather, his vision foresaw a return home of humankind as it rediscovers the spiritual origin (lost in early childhood) from which each individual life has become alienated by a sensory-entrapped state of mind.

The Text

Here are the sayings and parables accompanied by a spiritual interpretation. The spiritual interpretation attempts to view them holistically, rather than as individual moral precepts and isolated homilies. Again, chapter and verse are not given. But, for any who wish to seek verification, they are presented in the order in which they are found in the Gospel of Matthew.

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Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.

People are spirit and, to be free and fulfilled, must live in the spirit.

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You shall not tempt the Lord your God.

Do not act out of the ego. The ego is the material use of spirit, or consciousness, and leads to the wrong results.

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You shall