Will the real Jesus please stand up…
Do you believe in Jesus? If you are a Christian, you believe Jesus exists still and will return some day. When Jesus returns, He will reveal to us what before was only known “through a mirror dimly.” We will know once and for all the real Jesus. But…is this the only way to know the real Jesus? Can we glean an understanding of the real Jesus from what is recorded in Sacred Scripture and the Tradition handed down to us by the apostles? Can we know what He thinks about human sexuality? I think we can.
Modern Christianity’s Reframing of Sexuality
One area that seems to draw much confusion regarding Jesus’ thoughts concerning human nature is sexuality. Many progressive Christians believe Jesus has no issue at all with modern gender theory and homosexuality. Some see the silence of Jesus on homosexuality as offering some leeway to accept modern homosexuality (and other forms of sexual expression) within the church. Others interpret away the traditional view of human sexuality out of the Scriptures. They claim the original authors did not have modern committed adult homosexual relationships in mind. References to its prohibition were either mistaken for inhospitality, as with Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 18-19), or homosexual sex for idol worship (Leviticus 20:13). Moreover, even St. Paul falls into this latter category in Romans 1:26-27. All this to show, according to Rev. Brandan J. Robertson:
Whether we’re speaking of heterosexual love or LGBTQ+ love, we would do well to embrace it as the divine gift that it is.
But can we embrace it as a “divine gift” if Jesus does not do so?
Jesus: the 1st Century Jew
What of Jesus? Did Jesus express views on human sexuality? Yes, He did. Jesus’ views on human sexuality were in line with those of all 1st century Jews. Matthew 19:4-5 states:
He answered, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’?
The two (male and female) shall become one flesh (sexual union). The two as one flesh can also mean the two becoming one literally, as two parents (male and female) progenerate a child that is half of each of them. Therefore, the only time Jesus mentions sexual relationships reflects a binary understand of sex. This view lines up with the traditional views of sex as taught in both the Old and New Testaments.
Jesus the Teacher
Furthermore, Jesus as God the Son, second person of the Divine Trinity, did not amend any verse progressives reinterpret to affirm LGBTQ+ love as a “divine gift.” Jesus is also a teacher. Jesus passed on knowledge to His disciples, who then passed on their knowledge, and so on. None of his disciples (future apostles) taught contrary to what Jesus taught. This is also true for the disciples of the apostles, the bishops. No one in the whole of Church history, not even the Protestant Reformers, understood human sexuality contrary to that taught by Jesus, none.
Will the Real Jesus Please Stand Up…
To conclude, clearly progressives believe in an anachronist Jesus. Their Jesus does not exist. They take His silence on the specific topic of homosexuality as acceptance. Furthermore, they reinterpret obvious biblical passages that clearly contradict their worldview through the lens of progressive understanding of human sexuality. Therefore, the result is the declaration of a behavior Jesus does not approve us as a “divine gift.” Now the real Jesus also offers grace and forgiveness. We all sin and fall short. Let us turn to this Jesus and ask for forgiveness for when we fall short. His grace is sufficient. “His power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:9).
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