Centuries ago, in what has since been regarded as the most widely quoted speech ever given, Jesus of Nazareth encouraged his listeners to take no thought for the body. See Matt. 6:25. Today, our body-conscious culture defines physical makeup as the very locus of identity, requiring us to care for, display, observe, and obey it. As a thriving, worldwide industry, body care—whether medical or image enhancing—trains humanity's focus on the body's form and function. Given that our culture seems to worship the body, could Jesus' words seem unrealistic, or even dangerous, to contemporary thought?
It helps to consider the context in which Jesus spoke. In what we now call the Sermon on the Mount, he was actually asking members of his audience to consider their priorities. As keynote to his ministry's message and life example, Jesus' sermon encouraged listeners, "Seek ye first the kingdom of God" Matt. 6:33. and, as a consequence, their human needs would be met. The natural result of seeking God's kingdom in this way is based on the coincidence, or spiritual agreement, between the divine and the human. It's actually an awakening process, one that spiritually adjusts human thought and then experience, bringing both into alignment with divine facts. As Jesus demonstrated in his healing ministry, holding what is spiritually true in thought acts as a law to human experience, and that law, in agreement with divine reality, is evidenced in healing. In fact, this concept of the coincidence of the divine with the human underlies all spiritual healing.
Can this approach be used today in caring for the body? Jesus' method, successfully practiced for several centuries, continues to appeal to contemporary thought, healing thousands of people around the globe who find material approaches less effective than spiritual methods. Too, spiritualizing the concept of body is attractive to people who simply wish to live a life that demonstrates more dominion over the inevitable limitations of matter-based strategies. Now, as in Jesus' time, the success of this approach rests in spiritually regarding the body as the coincidence of the divine with the human.
