ALTERNATIVE?
Matthew 19:11-12
But He said to them, “All cannot accept this saying, but only those to whom it has been given: For there are eunuchs who were born thus from their mother’s womb, and there are eunuchs who were made eunuchs by men, and there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven’s sake. He who is able to accept it, let him accept it.“
I’m afraid we don’t actually hear what Jesus says sometimes because we just don’t understand or don’t feel comfortable with the subject matter.
EUNUCH, in any dictionary means: a person with no reproductive capacity and/or activity. Another use of the word in the Old Testament meant: a court official. That court official was especially focused on his job and therefore especially trustworthy because he had no sexual distractions. That doesn’t change the source definition. It only points to a particular usefulness for a eunuch. Now. We’ve established that fact. We can go on to what Jesus is saying.
Read again the verses we focused on last time. Jesus has bluntly disclosed Heaven’s view of marriage in contrast to the irrational concept of divorce. Then, because the guys go, “Well then, what’s the use?” He discloses another of Heaven’s insights. In essence, there is an alternative. The official “alternative lifestyle.” The alternative to marriage, one man/one woman/for life, is NONE, NADA, ZIP, ZERO sexual activity! Can we get this straight? (No pun intended) Any sex outside God’s model of marriage is called a whole lot of things in Heaven but not one of them is “alternative lifestyle!”
Unless we can believe that the human appetites are not equal with or higher than God, we will not be able to believe much that is in the Bible without perverting it. That is why it is so hard to draw moral lines in a humanistic psychology-driven social environment. Human nature is so emphasized that it becomes the standard, therefore there can be no actual rules or absolutes. But the moment we are ready to accept that God has spoken to the human condition by offering His nature as the antidote for the destruction human nature brings, the veil is lifted from our eyes. There may be many sociological reasons for curbing our insatiable appetites but the only one we need at that point is that God said to.
Let me just expand on one of the psychologists’ present observations in respect to pedophilia. It is predatory. That makes it “bad.” Whatever that means. By 2012 pedophiles might be on the list of deviants looking to get government recognition and tax relief for their little clubs.
The expansion is this: All sex outside Jesus’ model for marriage, is predatory. That includes marriages that are strictly appetite driven. In other words, there is a predator and there is a prey. There is a perpetrator and a victim. A CRIME. A crime, with all the aftermath of a crime, including personal trauma and damage or death to the soul. It is insane to spend our generation’s resources to promote the “lifestyles of the rich and famous.” In Heaven, the deception is obvious. In the heart of a born-again human, the deception is obvious. Calling wrong, right and right, wrong. Surely you have noticed that it is only those who have been the victims that become the predators and promoters of its social acceptance. Of course, they want it to be normal and pretty and accepted. They are the ones who are bruised and bleeding, psychologically damaged, unable to think rationally or objectively because of the predator’s claws still embedded and sinking deeper and deeper into their soul.
God would be weeping if it weren’t for the fact that He has offered the cure. Not just a rule to follow. He has given Himself. He offers Himself to anyone who even glimpses the desperate results of their own way. Even our goodness falls far short of what is demanded when we see God, the Father, and hear His voice saying our name. We hear the affection and steady, unflappable love of a Father longing for His child just to acknowledge Him and begin to enjoy being His offspring. That’s the Doorway to reality.
Having given Himself, God is full of rejoicing, not weeping. All Heaven has joined in with the Father’s celebration at the return of His once-lost sons and daughters. As CS Lewis says, “He’s pretending we are just like His Son, Jesus,” until we pass this veil of time and space and it becomes a reality.
It is profoundly futile, in the view of eternity, to even spend one breath of my life giving importance to my ways. Nothing will satisfy but to see my Father face to face. Oh, what a day!