The Rock of Offense: Sexuality and Divine Nature

 

The Rock of Offense: sexuality and divine nature

 

 

The Rock

From an early age we learn the song about a wise man who built his house upon a rock. Unlike his foolish counterpart he was smart enough to have a strong foundation (3 Nephi 14:23-24). Building our foundation on the rock of our Redeemer is our purpose and goal. Yet accomplishing the task is not as easy or straightforward as perhaps we had thought.

 

 

Throughout the history of God’s dealings with mankind when the knowledge of Jehovah was revealed to man for the most part, we as humans have struggled to embrace it. For this reason, the Rock, a sure foundation is also described as ‘a rock of offense’, a stumbling block.  (Rom. 9:33; 1 Pet. 2:8; 2 Ne. 18:14).

 

He is the cornerstone we tend to reject, sometimes unknowingly. Christ’s Jewish contemporaries were perhaps some of the most pious and religious. They had the priesthood, devoutly obeyed the Law and attended the temple. The prophet Jacob masterfully describes how they despised “the words of plainness”. That which was in plain sight was too simple, not sophisticated enough or insufficient in their opinion in some other way. Looking beyond the mark, they became blinded to the truth and ultimately stumbled (Jacob 4:14).

 

The Greek translation of the word “offense,” skandalon sheds significant light on the issue. In addition to “stumbling block” it also means a snare, a trap and a scandal. It appears that the Jews anticipating the arrival of the Messiah, had a different idea of what He was supposed to be like and how He would go about liberating them. In a way, they were caught in a self-created trap of preconceived notions.  And when the great Jehovah stood in their midst all they could see was a son of a carpenter, not the Son of God.

 

And if they rejected Him, then why not us? How do we know we’re not rejecting Him? How can we ensure that we are not falling into the same trap as so many? Unfortunately, the body of scriptural evidence suggesting that latter-day Gentiles will or perhaps, already have rejected Him and the fullness of His Gospel, is ample for us to be concerned (3 Nephi 20:28, 3 Nephi 16:10). And even more vital is a realization that while having had “much” of His Gospel and knowledge of Him, perhaps we never did have all of it (1 Nephi 13:34).

 

 

It appears that the first step in overcoming this snare of the stumbling block is admitting the possibility of a difference between what Christ is and what we think He is. After all, our experience of looking at Him as a historical figure is and can only be “through a glass, darkly” (1 Corinth 13: 12).

 

          Who is He, that man we call ‘Jesus’? Yeshua Hamashiach ...The lens of religiosity, like an old cataract has drastically distorted to our view His true nature.  Yet, becoming familiar with the character of Christ has never been more urgent and significant. Seeing His strength, rather than perceiving Him weak and easily forced into submission, appreciating His courage, humanity, playfulness, humor, generosity among other traits, is vital if we want to correct the religious distortion and bring His image into focus. [1]

 

Moreover, understanding Christ’s character is the only possibility to grasp our own nature and relationship to Christ and the Father. “If men do not comprehend the character of God, they do not comprehend themselves,” said Joseph. This knowledge and understanding open the door to receiving answers:

 

When we understand the character of God, and know how to come to Him, He begins to unfold the heavens to us, and to tell us all about it. When we are ready to come to Him, He is ready to come to us.[2]

 

 

A married Man

One aspect of Christ’s divine nature that appears to have been completely obliterated by religion is His sexuality. Throughout the books we call “scripture” there are countless clues suggesting that Jesus was married.[3]  Yet in spite of that our modern-day perception of Christ as a single man living a celibate lifestyle dominates our thinking and perception of Him. And even His “restored church” makes no mention of the Savior’s spouse in its doctrine or dogma.

 

We know for a fact that Adam stands next to Eve. We can fathom a concept of a prophet standing next to a “prophetess”. We can even wrap our minds around a Heavenly Mother next to Our Father in Heaven. But Christ stands in our mind spouseless…

 

We have conceived a possibility of a yin without the yang, a Bridegroom without a Bride, and the King of Kings without a Queen. And is He, whose very name Jehovah androgynously unites the male and the female forces, not sophisticated enough for us (In Hebrew Yod is male or phalus and Heva stands for female, mother, uterus)?

 

 

We have assumed that He who IS Love was never in love, and could only experience the impersonal, passionless charity fit for a proper Sunday school discussion. He, who is the Creator of worlds without number has been denied by us and our perception the power of pro-Creation?!?! And anything that contradicts our knee-length propriety is offensive and, well … SCANDALOUS!!!

 

But seeing Christ as a husband, a father or an uncle adds a whole new facet to our perception of Him and our understanding of who He was and is. All of a sudden there is a three-dimensional humanity to Him as a person that makes Him even more lovable and relatable. He knows what it’s like to stay up with a sick child, to care, to ache, to love and be vulnerable, not only because He is a god and can do that, but because He was human and HAS done that. He has rough housed with his kids and nephews. He has rocked babies on His knee. He has braided hair and put on the 1st century AD equivalent of band-aids. All of a sudden, Jesus transforms before our very eyes from a stiff unapproachable self-righteousness into laughing, loveable Christ from the episode of The Chosen. And it is priceless and beautiful!

 

Sexuality and divine nature

 

Our perception of Christ as an asexual being has propagated an attitude towards sexual intimacy that is distorted and skewed beyond all possible recognition! The Hebrew definition of the word אָשָׁם “offense” asham seems to be the best fit, since it’s meaning is an amalgamation of guilt, trespassing and fault.  Culturally we have been conditioned to feel ashamed of most sexual feelings, rather than to honor, own and hone them. All too often we become caught in the scandalous trap of guilt and unworthiness.

 

 

Yet, Christ’s life and humanity reveal that masculinity (and by default, femininity) and sexuality are essential elements of the divine nature. Having inherited the Pauline version of Christianity with its focus on Christ’s death and asceticism rather than his life, which Paul was not a personal witness of, we reject the teachings and writings of Gnostics. The Gospel of Philip, Christ’s personal disciple, in particular is of interest as it provides insight into the nature of Christ’s relationship with his wife Mary the Magdalene:

 

 

Mary Magdalene (was)a companion of the Son. The Lord loved her more than you love all of the disciples and often kissed her on the mouth. The other disciples, seeing him loving Mary, said, “Why do you love her more than us?” [4]

 

The image of Christ passionately kissing all be it his wife, is NOT one we are comfortable with. This is not the Jesus we were led to believe in, shamelessly defying ALL rules of public display of affection. Yet this is THE CHRIST who has been concealed from us for centuries, a married man, passionately in love with His spouse.

Our tendency is to lump together love and lust, the beautiful and the carnal, the forbidden and the sacred. And then in a fit of unbearable guilt throw the baby out with the bath water…It is no wonder then, that sexuality as vital component of the divine nature, like an ancient scroll buried in the dust of the catacombs, has escaped our attention and understanding until now, when it is finally unearthed.

The concept of sexuality as being anything other than base, salacious, seductive and pornographic is for the most part foreign to us. This statement resonates as truth:

Sex … has to be something sacred. Sex has to be something not obscene, not pornographic, not condemned, not repressed but immensely respected, because we are born out of it. It is our very life source. And to condemn the life source is to condemn everything.[5]

Indeed, fulfilling Isaiah’s prophecy we have grown to call “evil good, and good evil!” (Isaiah 5:20) We seem all too quick to condemn, to moralize and pass judgment. While God doesn’t come to condemn, but to save (John 3:17).

Transcendence

Transcendence is a concept central to Christ’s theology and teaching. We learn to transcend or overcome the world, our egos, unbridled passions or appetites.  Like Christ Himself we strive to transcend our mortal selves and become one with Him, like He is One with the Father (D&C 93:3).

Transcending gender differences appears to be part of entering into His Kingdom.  We are admitted in, as we “make male and female into a single One, so that the male is not male and the female is not female.”[6] This is achieving perfect gender equilibrium, where neither dominates or supersedes the other and both are unified in perfect harmony, like two beautifully intertwined DNA strands of divinity.  

Seeing Christ passionately loving his female companion communicates that the path to transcend in sexuality is not celibacy, but a life that is filled with selfless sexual expression. It isn’t about putting out the fire in ourselves or others, but about learning to direct it to warm our other half.

 

 

 

 Getting caught in perceptions of Christ provided by religion, culture or tradition is effortless. But then, so is looking beyond the mark and rejecting the corner stone.… May we set aside the scandalous traps of preconceived notions, as we seek to understand Christ’s true nature and identity. His simple humanity and masculinity make us love Him even more!!! They draw us ever s closer to Him, as a warm embrace of a dear friend from long ago. Our hearts sing for joy, as we watch Jesus joining His beautiful Mary, finally unshackled from the dogmas of celibacy and singlehood. The sacred nature of our sexuality is our link to divinity, not a defect to eradicate or be ashamed of. It isn’t an offensive pebble stuck in our shoe, but a life force creating, uniting and transcending, powerful and unapologetic, as the great I AM.

 

 

 

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[1] See Beautiful Outlaw by John Eldredge

[2] History of the Church, 6:303–5, 308; capitalization modernized; paragraph divisions altered; from a discourse given by Joseph Smith on Apr. 7, 1844, in Nauvoo, Illinois; reported by Wilford Woodruff, Willard Richards, Thomas Bullock, and William Clayton; see also the appendix in this book, page 562, item 3.

[3] For more details on Christ’s marriage to Mary the Magdalene see The Lost Gospel: Decoding the Ancient Text That Reveals Jesus' Marriage to Mary the Magdalene by Jacobovici, Simcha and Wilson, Barrie, 2015.

[4] The Gospel of Phillip, Vladimir Antonov, 2008, 32. 

[5] A quote by Osho Rajneesh, an Indian godman and mystic.

[6] The Gospel of Thomas by by Jean-Yves Leloup and Jacob Needleman. 2005.