But something's been nagging at me for awhile. The question is in regards to the awkward topic of Jesus' sexuality.
So, he was fully man, right? FULLY man?
What man doesn't have, well, urges (to put it gently) for either members of the opposite or same sex?? Eunuchs, I suppose... But aside from them!! Isn't this a part of our human experience!? Why should we expect Jesus to not have this?
And, unless you wanted to argue that all sexual desires for another are evil (you would also have to argue that Adam and Eve never had sex in the garden) and since Jesus is pure he never "sinned"... I think we have to deduce that Jesus DID in fact, desire others in a sexual way.
Is there any evidence in scripture that Jesus favored someone over another?? Well, the fiction writer Dan Brown likes to play off of the whole Mary Magdalene thing... But I don't think there's any evidence to support that- just wishful thinking. And then I was reading one of Julie's textbooks that pointed out this verse:
John 13:23-
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Did anyone else rest on Jesus' bosom?? (no) Did anyone else achieve the status, "The one whom Jesus loved"? (no) Later in this same scene, the disciples want to figure out who is going to betray Jesus, but Peter, who is in Christ's inner circle, doesn't have the guts to ask him who it is going to be, so he nudges the one who is resting on Jesus' bosom to ask the hardest question of all, which he does. I encourage you to reread the whole chapter.
Doesn't that say something? I don't want to read what's NOT in the text, but I don't want to miss WHAT IS GLARINGLY OBVIOUS, just because it's hard to wrap my mind around the idea...
Could Christ, in fact, have been sexually oriented towards other men?
BLASPHEMY!!!
Okay, okay.
But seriously!! I'm not saying he did or didn't do anything with it, but to me the signs are pointing to the fact that he had special feelings towards one of his disciples and all the other disciples knew it. Does this in any way destroy his Divinity? NO. How about his humanity? NO. If anything, it strengthens the notion that he did, in fact, suffer the temptations that all mankind suffers through. Just think about it... And don't write me off as a heretic just yet.
Love it. Both the courage to see an uncomfortable question and the possible answer. I might just take him back if he were gay. ;)
ReplyDeleteYeah, and "the disciple who Jesus loved" is one whom he presented to his mother as her "son" when he was dying on the cross. I've wondered the same thing as well. But I more want to applaud the distinction you made between the idea of Jesus as a sexual being as something that is sinful or not sinful. Even people who believe that healthy sex in the right context is not sinful often have trouble thinking of Jesus as having sexual desires. If he was fully human, then he must have experienced desire (if not acted out on them)...and if he was fully blameless, then desire is not inherently evil (although, of course, there is plenty of desire which is evil/hurtful in nature).
ReplyDeleteI love your thoughts. It only seems natural that if Jesus was fully human, he would have the same inclinations of the body that the rest of us do. Thanks for sharing.
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