November 2012
Jesus’ Wife?
Archeologists found a scrap of papyrus, dating from about 400 AD, on which Jesus addresses a woman as ‘my wife’. Was he married? No. Jesus embodies the New Creation. He himself has said that in the New Creation there is no marriage. So that takes care of that, but what about the relationship between women and men? Will the New creation be populated with sex-less creatures? I think not.
As a reformed and reforming person I know my doctrine. The Heidelberg Catechism question 35 says that “He was like us in everything but sin”; the Belgic Confession also states (Article 26) “He made himself completely like his brothers (and sisters)”. Hebrew 4:15 confirms this. I have no trouble with that, but I think the church may, because of the sex thing.
So what about sex? I wouldn’t be here without it and neither would anybody alive or dead, including Jesus who was born from the Holy Spirit and Mary, yet sex is a taboo topic in the church.
There is no doubt in my mind that women fell in love with Jesus and Jesus with them, for the simple reason that he was like us in everything but sin. So, unless sex is sin (Genesis 2:24 actually promotes sex), his knowledge about this matter was more than mere academic. For far too long has the church regarded the human body as an enemy to be conquered. The Song of Songs is not a song of disembodied, spiritual, intellectual aspiration, but one of erotic, bodily love, something at the heart of God’s creation, a downright earthly song of love.
C.S. Lewis wrote The Four Loves. He identified them as Storge- affection, Philia – friendship, Eros- romance, and Agapè – unconditional love. I believe that Jesus experienced all these four loves, yes, including eros, romance.
Is there something wrong with Jesus falling in love? After all he was like us in everything but sin. Falling in love is no sin. Does that mean that he too went through a Sturm und Drang phase as a teenager? Of course.
Ever heard a sermon on this subject? I never did, and I have been going to church for 80 years, something a lot of people have ceased to do: perhaps failing to deal with life as such may be a reason.
I believe that preaching, a form of one-sided broadcasting is out-dated. So what sort of church service do I suggest? After a prominent period of praise and prayer, sermons, either previously posted on line or distributed the Sunday before should be deliberated upon in small groups to promote animated conversations. Lectures are the least effective way of learning. Of course Bible knowledge is prerequisite for such intelligent discourse. “Who do you say I am,” Jesus asked his followers, stimulating discussion. Descartes long ago coined Cogito ergo sum: I think therefore I am. Often sermons suffer from this sort of thinking, explaining bible passages with proof texts reducing them to unilateral academic exercises. Jesus, on the other hand, related to life, saying in essence Homo sum, ergo sum: I am a human being that’s why I am.
Both J. H. Bavinck and Dietrich Bonhoeffer tell us time and again that God, earth and we, humans, form an unbreakable covenant, attached to the earth with every element of our existence, because we originate from the earth, which carries us and feeds us. Jesus’ humanity was evident in everything, including upsetting the money men in the temple, something I compare to Greenpeace preventing the slaughter of the whales. Yet we often ridicule or worse, ignore those who fight to preserve our natural habitat. That’s why I support that organization. No wonder Bonhoeffer approvingly quotes Martin Luther’s: “The godless man’s curse can be more pleasing to God than the hallelujahs of the pious.” To me this means that these non-Christians, by trying to save one of God’s unique creatures, could be closer to doing God’s work than the ever decreasing numbers attending the church services. Christ’ favourite self-description is Son of Man, human through and through. We find that a bit frightening, because we rather keep Jesus somewhere up there. Sermons that fail to connect with the here and now, and with the world and those who dwell therein, are often a waste of holy time and may even do more harm than good.
No, Jesus was not married. Yes, he experienced all human emotions: nothing human was foreign to him, except sin. That’s why everybody, with whatever sexual orientation can come to him, because he himself has been subjected to all possible experiences.