In the collection of teachings known as the Sermon on the Mount (chapters 5-7 in the Gospel of Matthew), Jesus is calling us to a new level of spiritual consciousness—which can be very confusing when we first start to embrace it.

I don’t think this passage—or the healing story that precedes it—implies an ‘evil force’ opposite to God. If a defining quality of the Power we call God is omnipotence—and it is—then there cannot be another power—at least not in spiritual Truth.

In establishing the ritual of communion with his disciples just before his arrest, Jesus was adding a new dimension of spiritual understanding to the already-existing ritual of Passover in the Hebrew faith.

It’s quite remarkable, I think, how these three disparate passages link together to define the healing process Jesus taught and demonstrated.