Jesus Christ and sexuality
According to mainstream Christian theology, it is through Jesus that God understands what it is to be a human. God understands us because (through Jesus) He took on flesh and lived as one of us. Although He (of course) must understand us from the outside, it is through Jesus that He understands us from our point of view. Truly, the view from inside is different.
My question is this: Did Jesus have a sex drive?
Was he sexually attracted to anyone, female or male? Did he ever masturbate? The list goes on.
If the answer to any of these questions is "no", then God does not truly understand human sexuality. If this is the case, then it is more or less guaranteed that at least some of His edicts regarding human sexuality are flawed.
If the answer to any of these questions is "yes", then there is an even bigger problem for modern mainstream Christianity. The entire Christian view on sex presupposes that the perfect human (Jesus) was essentially sexless. If Jesus was a sexual being, then huge areas of theology and doctrine need to be scrapped or rewritten, and vast untouched areas need to be dealt with. Note that this does not require Jesus to have had sex - I am not willing to state absolutely that sexual intercourse is a prerequisite for understanding human sexuality. However, any male who reaches the age of 33 without ever masturbating does not understand human sexuality; this I am willing to state unequivocally. The history of masturbation and its futile prohibition is a topic for another essay, which I may or may not write.
Incidentally, I shall refrain (for now) from holding forth on the interpretation of "fully human" in relation to sexuality.
As always, intelligent responses are very welcome. If you disagree with me and can support your position, so much the better.
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6 comments:
Looks familiar :P
*grin* Familiar indeed. Another time, when I'm more awake and less stressed, I'll open up my thoughts on this subject more fully. *nod*
...but what about God as creator of all things? If God created sexuality - or at least permitted its creation - then He would surely understand it. I've always understood Jesus as a kind of unattainable ideal towards which all human beings are supposed to strive, and fail, to achieve. You know - as if we're supposed to suffer the comparison, in order to be properly mortified.
Also, does one have to have experienced violence or violent impulses in order to "understand violence"? Must one have been addicted to something in order to "understand addiction"? I don't think this is so - there are many kinds of understanding, and not all of them are experiential. Actually, now that I say that, I do find that people who have never been addicted to something as I have [smokes in my case] don't quite fully understand addiction. But this is not the sort of understanding I would wish on anyone.
Very thought provoking!
And I made it all the way to end without making a single crack about Jesus having a masturbating younger brother named Jizzus. Oh! *sigh* oh well.
Rene: Nah, you're imagining things.
Prosey: I look forward to that.
Martin:
I spent much of my pre-Christian and Christian lives being told how God understands us because he took on flesh and dwelt among us - if we throw away that particular theological point and believe that Jesus really was asexual, then my argument falls apart. Well done for spotting the weakest point, by the way.
However, there are problems anyway. First, I personally have created many things which I do not fully understand; the act of creation does not require total knowledge and understanding of the creation (just ask Rene and Prosey). Second, are we really willing to state outright that Jesus was asexual? That he never experienced sexual arousal or desire?
I do think that true understanding of some things must be experiential, though I'll concede vicarious experience as an option in some cases. I was going to list examples ad nauseam, but I'll forbear. Suffice to say, I find that experience is key for me in any question of humanity. That which I understand fully, I do so because I have experienced it. That which I have not experienced in some way, I do not fully understand.
I will offer one caveat, though; experiential understanding is generally far broader than the specific experience.
I'm glad to make you think. It seems only fair for me to return the favour, y'know ;-)
I shant beat my drum on this one. sufficed to say that for the most part I agree!
the simple truth how ever is that if Jesus was a sexual person, it really wouldn't effect the True Theology very much at all! It would simply mean that certain organisation would have to get off their high horse about how they interpret and teach said theology.
there is nothing in the primary texts or teachings that suggest Jesus wasn't sexual (although certain contextual understandings suggest Jesus wasn't sexually active - but not Sexually active doesn't mean "asexual", trust me)
In truth the Teachings of the scriptures suggest Christ was an extremely Passionate, emotive and compassionate person, making it rather hard to believe he was sexual. and in fact Sex is one of the few topics that Christ never directly talks about! combine that with the fact that in the old testament God's very first commandment is "Go forth and Multiply" I think the problem is with organised religion, not Scripture
*hard to believe he wasn't sexual.
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