Two Bodies, One Flesh

 

This might surprise you, but Jesus talked about sex.

Last night on the radio I heard a preacher say that there are two things that everybody loves and wants more of but hates it when it is talked about in church: sex and money.  This is certainly true.

As Christians, we tend to get nervous when that topic of sex comes up.  But more and more we need to get comfortable with it.  The culture at large is more than happy to promote their vision of sexuality, built off lies from Satan and their own lust-filled desires.  We need to grasp the glorious truth about sex that Jesus taught and spread that truth to those around us.

Jesus did not talk a great deal about sex, but He did not shy away from it either.

In Matthew 19 we find this scene:

"3. The Pharisees also came unto him, tempting him, and saying unto him, Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause?

4. And he answered and said unto them, Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female,

5. And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh?

6. Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh.  What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder."

The Pharisees were a hyper-religious sect that sought to upset Jesus's ministry at every turn, and here they are trying to tangle him up in a discussion about marriage.  Jesus decides to engage them, but on His own terms.  He bypasses all their theological and rational arguments and goes back to the source, "the beginning."  He goes back to Genesis.

Just as we have been looking at Genesis to build our understanding of human sexuality, so did Christ.  Jesus could have called on His own authority as the Son of God, the Messiah, but instead He referred to a more foundational authority, the book of Genesis.

Christ points to the creation of Adam.  When God created all living things, He stepped back and said, "This is good."  But when God finished creating Adam, He took a step back and said, "It is not good that a man should be alone."

In our discussion of the image of God we tapped into this story as well.  God brought all the animals to Adam, but in all the animals he could not find another being like his, he could not find another body and soul that were a match for his.  He was alone.  So, God created Eve and brought her to Adam, and they found satisfaction in each other as their bodies and souls were united.

We can see that from the beginning God designed our bodies for communion.  We were meant to come together as male and female and become one flesh.  Our bodies, and especially our sexuality was not meant to work alone.  Sexuality in isolation was never a part of the original design.

As we look at our bodies, and the bodies of nearly all animals and insects, and even the majority of plants, we see that all of our body parts and systems are complete and intact in themselves, and do not need anything else to make them complete and to function properly, they are all self-sustained and self-sufficient (so to speak).  Our digestive system does not have any missing parts, our skeleton and muscles all function admirably on their own, even our brain and nervous system, for the most part, function just fine.  But then we come to our reproductive system, and we see that it is incomplete.  The male sperm cells do not function on their own, and the female egg cells and adjoining ovaries and womb do not serve any purpose on their own.  These systems, organs and cells were designed to interact with one another.  The male body and its genitals and the female body and its genitals fit together and work together to form a complete whole.

When Jesus described the male and female union as "one flesh," this is what he was getting at.  Most of us understand this as an obvious, biological, physical reality, but God meant this just as much as a function of spiritual reality.

To be born male and to be masculine is a good thing, and to be born female and to be feminine is a good thing.  We can see in our bodies a natural, beautiful gift that God has intended for us to give to our husbands or wives.  Written in our flesh, bone and organs is a clearly defined purpose, to find a spouse and become one flesh and to bring new life into the world.  As we fulfill the roles he has bestowed on us, we flourish and shine the light of His grace into the world.

This is also a reflection of the goodness of the natural order.  Any study of nature shows the goodness of the male and female genders and their accompanying roles as they complete each other and bring offspring into the world.  The male body was designed to be united with the female body and in that union to produce progeny and in that process, we find mental, emotional, and spiritual flourishing.

It is a mark of the moral insanity of our generation that some have come to believe that a person can arbitrarily choose whichever gender identity he or she chooses.  This is evidence of the assault that Satan has been waging against humanity and his desire to see humans suffer and be destroyed.  He deceives us and blinds our hearts and minds, and we end up destroying ourselves.  Like the blind leading the blind and they all end up in the ditch.

We also see this goodness assaulted in homosexuality, in which men abandon the natural, good use of women to abuse themselves with other men, and likewise women leave the natural, good use of men and abuse themselves with other women.

The man was not meant to be alone, and the female was not meant to be alone.  We were meant to move out of ourselves, connect with another person and live in intimate union with that person.  Through this process we become less selfish and learn to compromise and deal with our character defects.  We learn, grow, and become better people.