Throughout history Jesus
has been used to justify everything from the crusades to the Inquisition to the
suppression of women. Today, many on the social and political left, including
President Obama, seek to use Jesus to justify their support
of same-sex marriage. This should not be surprising for Jesus is the greatest
single moral authority of human history and if He can be seen as being on the
side of same-sex marriage, then the proponents will likely win the day.
Proponents of same-sex
marriage cannot, of course, point to any specific statement of Jesus advocating
or even tolerating their position, so they focus on his emphases on love and
tolerance. For example, I listened to a guest commentator on Fox News trying very
hard to convince her audience that Jesus would not have opposed same-sex
marriage. She kept saying, “Jesus was all about love.” She then stated, “His
final words were all about love.” I thought to myself, “She has never read the
gospels, for her concept of love as a sugar-coated niceness that never
challenges anyone’s behavior is foreign to Jesus and the New Testament.”
Yes, Jesus emphasized
the necessity of love for God and one’s fellow human beings, but He also warned
that our choices and actions have consequences. To the woman caught in the act
of adultery he spoke words of kindness and forgiveness, but his final words to
her were, Go and sin no more (John
8:11). To the paralytic whom He healed at the Pool of Bethesda, He spoke words
of caring and compassion, but concluded by saying, Sin no more, lest a worse thing come upon you (John 5:14). And
let’s not forget that it was Jesus who made a whip and drove the moneychangers,
who were using religion to pad their pockets, out of the temple area (John
2:13-16).
On the matter of
same-sex marriage, Jesus did make His position very clear, but one has to get beyond
the superficial, political posturing to see it. Once we understand His
position, it is then up to us to decide if we are going to be on His side or
the side of popular, contemporary culture. We are free to choose, but our
choice will have consequences.
Jesus Affirms
the Original Genesis Model of Marriage
Jesus clearly affirmed
that marriage is between one man and one woman in a discussion with the
Pharisees about divorce (Matt. 19:3-8). The Pharisees wanted to know if it was
okay for a man to divorce his wife for any reason. Jesus answered by pointing
them back to how it was at the beginning when
God created humanity. According to Jesus, the Genesis account of the creation
of the man and woman is to be the ongoing model for marriage since it reflects
God’s original intent.
In the Genesis account
of creation, God creates a man and a woman and brings them together in a
wonderful partnership of mutuality. They are blessed by the Creator and told to
bear children and fill the earth. Both are given the same blessing, authority,
and mandate as is indicated by the use of the plural pronoun “them” throughout
the creation account (Gen. 1:26-31). The man is created first and then the
Creator takes a “side” from the man and fashions it into a woman. He then
brings the two together and when the man sees the woman he breaks forth into
what Hebrew scholars say is song or poetic verse.
This
is now bone of my bones
And flesh of my flesh;
She shall be called woman
For she was taken out of man
The Genesis writer then
sums up the creation narrative in Gen. 2:24 with the words, Therefore a man shall leave his father and
mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.
In this discussion with
the Pharisees, Jesus keeps pointing them back to how it was in the beginning, showing that He saw
the Genesis account of creation as the Divine model for all marriages. The
Greek scholar, Marvin A Vincent, points out that the perfect tense of the verb used
in this passage indicates that “the original ordinance has never been abrogated
or superseded but continues in force” (Vincent, vol. 1, Word Studies in the New Testament, 108).
Jesus sums up His
argument by quoting Gen. 2:24 (see above) and saying, Therefore, what God has joined together, let not man separate or,
as the KJV reads, "put asunder” (Matthew
19:6). The modern supporters of same-sex marriage are seeking to “put asunder”
the form of marriage that was instituted and blessed by the Creator at the very
beginning of the human race, and affirmed by Jesus Christ.
We Must Follow the
Creator’s Plan
This “putting asunder”
of the Creator’s plan for marriage will only lead to much pain for individuals
and for society. For example, most manufacturers provide instructions with
their product so that the purchaser can maintain the item and get the best use
from it. An expensive garment may say on the label, “Wash by hand in cold
water.” If the purchaser of that garment ignores the instructions and throws
the garment into a washer and washes it in hot water, he should not be
surprised if the garment is ruined. In the same way, we should not be surprised
to see lives ruined and society negatively affected when we ignore the clear
instructions of the Creator concerning how marriage should work. God gave instructions
and principles, not to “rain on our parade” and make us miserable, but so that
we could derive the maximum joy and fulfillment from the life he has given us.
Even if one rejects the
Bible and Jesus as authoritative guides, it is obvious from nature itself that
same-sex marriage is unnatural and out of harmony with the natural order. Even
if you believe in evolution and the “survival of the fittest,” you must admit
that it is heterosexual marriage that has survived and sustained the human
race. In other words, what we see in the Genesis account of creation is in
harmony with what can be observed in nature. This is what Cardinal Francis
George and six bishops of the Chicago diocese were referring to when they spoke
of the dire consequences of legally redefining marriage to include same-sex marriages,
and warned, “When the ways of nature
and nature’s God conflict with civil law, society is in danger. It is to that
danger that we direct your attention.”
Because same-sex
marriage is so out of sync with nature and common sense, all major religions
have condemned the practice as have societies in general throughout history.
Only in our modern Western society where all transcendent authority has been
rejected and morality is relativized to whatever “I” want it to be, has there
been such a push to make the abnormal the normal.
Speak the Truth
in Love
In Ephesians 4:15, Paul
said that we, as believers, should be about the business of speaking the truth in love. The arrogant
and angry verbal attacks on homosexuals by some who call themselves Christians
is not the Spirit of Christ and should be rejected. On the other hand, a
superficial niceness that flinches from telling the truth must also be
rejected. If the surgeon pulls back the knife and does not plunge it in and remove
the cancer because the patient flinches and cries out, he has not acted in
love. Leaders, both religious and civic, who are unwilling to tell the truth
for fear of criticism and loss of popularity are like the leaders of Israel in
Jeremiah’s day of whom God said, They
have also healed the hurt of my people slightly (superficially), saying,
“Peace, peace,” when there is no peace (Jeremiah 6:14).
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