Jesus and sex

I wrote my last blog on the Da Vinci code, and I’m still thinking about some of the implications. In the book, a couple big ideas come through as important to the rituals of a (positively portrayed) secret society.

1. The feminine constitutes half of the divine being—God is both masculine and feminine in other words.

2. Heterosexual sex is used to symbolize the joining of the two natures. Woman is honored because she becomes a path to God for man through sex.

My two bits on this: First, I don’t think that male and female are opposites, or that there is something essentially masculine or feminine that needs to be added together to form a picture of perfection. To my mind, God has a lot more facets than what we might call masculine and feminine traits, and so while I do think those pieces may be incorporated into God’s being, those aren’t the only or most important parts. Plus, if women are honored as being a path to God, that’s still an objectification. And it leaves out gay sex as a potentially holy act.

Okay, so those are my beefs. Here’s what I think is valuable about the way the story sets this all up: The book argues that having sex can be a spiritual experience, and I agree. The misuse and abuse of sex is very common, but ultimately it is a gift from God. Our bodies are created by God, sexuality included, and not just for making more babies. Sex gives us a deeper way to communicate with the people we love, and it is a way for our bodies to pray. Plus it’s a reminder that God just has to have a sense of humor.

So the next question that might naturally come up if you’ve grown up in a culturally Christian country like the good ol’ US of A is this: Did Jesus ever have sex? For me, just asking the question is a little like asking whether my parents have ever had sex—not entirely comfortable. Downright queasy, even. But that’s my gut reaction, not an accurate gauge for whether or not my parents have sex. (ech.) Of course they do! (There—I said it. Happy?) In a similar way, I think about Jesus as a kind of authority figure—an older brother, or a favorite teacher. It makes sense that Jesus got married at some point in his life. He did live into his early thirties after all. His disciples weren’t ascetics, so I doubt he gave up sex either (use the link to look up these verses if you’re curious: Luke 5:33-35). The thing is, though, there’s no way to know for sure, from reading the Bible, what Jesus’ love life was like—gay or straight, single or married. You can make your speculations many ways, but really, kind of like the sex lives of our parents, (ech) that stuff is private. Not to say it’s good or bad. Just something I don’t need to know about.

One other thought. Right now, here in the U.S. of A., we are kind of obsessed with what I might call personal or sexual morality. Is abortion right or wrong? Is homosexuality right or wrong? Should the state grant marriage rights to gays? But what’s funny is that these issues don’t really come up in Jesus’ teachings. What does come up a lot are things like the reign of God, how we spend our money, and how we treat the poor. Is it time for a new emphasis?