Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry and whoever trusts me will never be thirsty.”

—John 6:35

These key words of Jesus demonstrate that he wants to be heard poetically rather than literally. Jesus is not actual bread. Listening to these words, you don’t stock up your pantry with baked goods. Rather, his way of being, his vision and teachings, is the basic nutrient of your soul and spirit. If you do as he does, your soul and spirit will be fed. Today, we understand that the food we take into our bodies affects our health. What we don’t appreciate is that the soul and spirit also require proper nourishment. Taking in bad ideas and cultivating a dehumanizing vision leads to a sickness of soul and spirit, a sickness that invades our personal lives and society as a whole.

It’s odd, given the emphasis in the Gospels on healing, that followers of Jesus talk so much about being saved. They call Jesus the savior rather than the healer. It isn’t clear just what “saved” means. In an old-fashioned theology of hellfire, it might mean protected from eternal torment. In a more existential reading, it could mean saved from meaninglessness or from a wasted, unconscious life. Still, I would rather replace roadside signs that say “Jesus Saves” with “Jesus Heals.”

Soul sickness is related to but different from physical illness. A person of considerable financial or political power may be overcome by a need to control and to put others down—using people as a stepladder to success.

We may see this attitude as immoral or as a sign of a bad character but not as sickness. A person may embezzle, cheat, pollute, destroy, and lie his way to the top. Eventually we may put him in prison, but we won’t see the sickness in his soul. Worse, if we did see it, we wouldn’t know what to do with it.

A moralistic attitude, which is yet another byproduct of materialism and egotism, sees everything in terms of black and white, good and bad. It fills courtrooms and builds prisons instead of clinics and hospitals.

It is blind to the complexities of a life. Because it believes it perceives evil clearly, it can make laws for every complicated aspect of human life and then punish those who break the laws, irrespective of their motives and emotional stability. It can’t distinguish between bad behavior and sickness of soul.

A moral attitude is quite different. It considers the conditions under which people make bad decisions and dally with criminality and resort to violence. It sorts out the context of bad behavior and tries to heal conflicted emotions, twisted histories, and misguided views. Rather than punish individuals, it works toward a healed society.

Contemplate and meditate upon the healing power of Jesus today. Focus less on punishment and more on teaching and guiding to a different path.