Ben Witherington: Eros Defended or Eros Defiled – What Do Wesley and the Bible Say?

An excellent Valentine’s Day gift from the gifted Dr. Witherington.

It’s  St. Valentine’s day,  a day which once was a holy day, and now has become a holiday. While I could spend some time as I have before on this blog on the subject of who St. Valentine really was, in the wake of the recent provocations by Jennifer Wright Knust and Michael Coogan trying to reinvent the wheel in regard the Bible’s supposedly mixed message on sexual ethics, in particular on the ethics of same sex  sexual intercourse,  it’s time to say— enough, is enough.

Neither the Bible, nor for that matter, my own Wesleyan heritage can be used to further the sort of agendas  Knust and Coogan want to promote.  The Bible is not an ink blot which one can read whatever way one pleases on controversial issues such as sexual ethics, and when the pontification involves absurd remarks like, Paul has no sexual ethic (has the author actually read 1 Corinthians 7?), or there can be little doubt that the love that David and Jonathan shared involved  eros not just philos,then it is indeed time to say, enough is enough. These are not only not plausible interpretations of key Biblical texts,  in light of the highly conservative sexual ethic of honor and shame cultures in the ANE [Ancient Near East] and in particular Jewish culture when it came to such matters, they are not even very possible interpretations of such material. What follows here is an expanded version of a piece I have offered before, with some tune ups in light of the recent salvos by Kunst and Coogan, and in preparation for the next batch of salvos on this subject that the 2012 General Conference of the United Methodist Church.

Read it all (and Happy VD!).

Why Read the Bible: To Learn About God’s Rescue Plan for Us

As they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage and Bethany at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two of his disciples, saying to them, “Go to the village ahead of you, and just as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there, which no one has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here. If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you doing this?’ say, ‘The Lord needs it and will send it back here shortly.’” They went and found a colt outside in the street, tied at a doorway. As they untied it, some people standing there asked, “What are you doing, untying that colt?” They answered as Jesus had told them to, and the people let them go. When they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks over it, he sat on it. Many people spread their cloaks on the road, while others spread branches they had cut in the fields. Those who went ahead and those who followed shouted, “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David! Hosanna in the highest heaven!” Jesus entered Jerusalem and went into the temple courts. He looked around at everything, but since it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the Twelve.

–Mark 11.1-11 (NIV)

On Friday, taking my cue from Bishop N.T. Wright, I asked the question, “What would it look like if God were running the show [here on earth]?” In other words, what would we expect to see if we saw God putting to right the wrongs of this world and overcoming the evil that plagues it? As is often the case, what we expect to see is very different from what actually is. Today’s Scripture passage is a case in point.

Many of the Jews in Jesus’ day expected the Messiah–God’s holy and anointed one–to deliver them from the yoke of political oppression. They expected to see God’s Messiah come to them in the form of a mighty warrior and conquering hero. But Jesus, God’s true Messiah, had other plans in mind. He had a different view of who and what Messiah (the Christ) should be. God in the man Jesus came to them as a lowly servant, just as the prophet Zechariah had predicted.

Rejoice greatly, Daughter Zion!
Shout, Daughter Jerusalem!
See, your king comes to you,
righteous and victorious,
lowly and riding on a donkey,
on a colt, the foal of a donkey. (9.9)

As we watch God in Jesus act out the so-called Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem we are shocked, much like I suspect Jesus’ contemporaries were. He does not enter Jerusalem as a mighty warrior, but as one who is lowly. Clearly God in Jesus wanted to show us he had a different idea in mind for us when we think about how he will act to overcome the sin and evil of this world.

God in Jesus does not intend to overcome evil with force but with love, the kind he demonstrated for us on the cross.

Jesus’ Triumphal Entry on that Palm Sunday put into place a series of events that would eventually lead to his arrest, trial, and crucifixion. As we think about the notion of a crucified God, a crucified Messiah, at once our minds go back to the prophet Isaiah’s Suffering Servant found in chapters 52.13-53.12. I quote the passage in full below because it is important that we reflect on it.

See, my servant will act wisely;
he will be raised and lifted up and highly exalted.
Just as there were many who were appalled at him—
his appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any human being
and his form marred beyond human likeness—
so he will sprinkle many nations,
and kings will shut their mouths because of him.
For what they were not told, they will see,
and what they have not heard, they will understand.

Who has believed our message
and to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?
He grew up before him like a tender shoot,
and like a root out of dry ground.
He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him,
nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
He was despised and rejected by mankind,
a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.
Like one from whom people hide their faces
he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.

Surely he took up our pain
and bore our suffering,
yet we considered him punished by God,
stricken by him, and afflicted.
But he was pierced for our transgressions,
he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
and by his wounds we are healed.
We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
each of us has turned to our own way;
and the LORD has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.

He was oppressed and afflicted,
yet he did not open his mouth;
he was led like a lamb to the slaughter,
and as a sheep before its shearers is silent,
so he did not open his mouth.
By oppression and judgment he was taken away.
Yet who of his generation protested?
For he was cut off from the land of the living;
for the transgression of my people he was punished.
He was assigned a grave with the wicked,
and with the rich in his death,
though he had done no violence,
nor was any deceit in his mouth.

Yet it was the LORD’s will to crush him and cause him to suffer,
and though the LORD makes his life an offering for sin,
he will see his offspring and prolong his days,
and the will of the LORD will prosper in his hand.
After he has suffered,
he will see the light of life and be satisfied;
by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many,
and he will bear their iniquities.
Therefore I will give him a portion among the great,
and he will divide the spoils with the strong,
because he poured out his life unto death,
and was numbered with the transgressors.
For he bore the sin of many,
and made intercession for the transgressors.

This is the kind of Messiah Jesus intended to be. This is how God is putting to right all the wrongs of the world (and us). And if we are to follow Jesus, this is how we must act as well. God is not overcoming sin and evil by the brute force of his omnipotent power. We don’t see him waving his hand to zap or magically transform all that bedevils his fallen creation. Instead, we see him take on our humanity and go to the cross to accomplish his good will for us and to end our alienation from him.

It is completely unexpected and it is completely wonderful. Thanks be to God!

Has God completely overcome evil and all that is wrong with his world and us? Of course not. Just take a look around you. But in Jesus we know that God’s plan for the redemption of the world has started, if not yet fully consummated, and if we love our Lord and seek to follow him, we too must take up our cross everyday, deny ourselves, and follow him. What will that look like? I don’t know what it will look like for you because I do not know what God has in mind for you. You will need to ask God about that yourself. But there are some things every follower of Jesus can do to help him in bringing about his Kingdom here on earth as it is in heaven.

For example, we can choose to forgive those who wrong us instead of seeking to exact revenge on them. We can choose to right injustices where we see them, or at least speak out against them–not injustices of our own making but the real injustices that Scripture clearly identifies. We can choose to love mercy over justice in our dealings with others and we can seek to end (or at least alleviate) suffering where we see it and where we are able. While we might not be able to heal the sick or give hearing to the deaf or sight to the blind, we can pray for those who can, and ask God to equip them with knowledge, wisdom, skill, and compassion for those they treat. This barely scratches the surface but you get the point. (And if you don’t get the point, then I encourage you to go back and read Scripture starting with the 10 commandments to get an understanding of what it means to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with your God (Micah 6.8). As you do, be careful not to let the historical context in which the commandments were given trip you up.)

This is how Scripture tells us God is working to put right all that has gone wrong in his world. Notice Scripture spends precious little time talking about why things have gone wrong in his world. Our Lord himself said almost nothing about that and we should take our cue from him in this as well. Instead of spending a lot of time and emotional energy ruminating about the “whys” of this life, questions to which we will almost never get an answer, we would be better served (and better able to serve our Lord) if we rolled up our sleeves and got busy to help him in his Kingdom work, at least in those areas we hear him calling us to help and which we have the ability to make a difference. That is the wonderful thing about how God has chosen to bring forth his Kingdom here on earth. He has become human with all of our human limitations and gotten busy in doing his work. He calls us to do likewise and we know we are able to answer his call because we see him doing things that we are able to do as well.

Imagine that. The Creator and Lord of this universe, King Jesus, calls us to follow him and help him in his redemptive work! What a terrific opportunity and privilege! Take some time to learn more about how God is bringing about his Kingdom here on earth in Jesus and then ask him to show you the plans he has for you to help him continue his life-saving and redemptive work. If you have the trust and faith to take the plunge, you will be embarking on the ride of your lifetime.

And if you do take the plunge, remember this. You will not be in it by yourself. You will be doing Kingdom work confident that you have the help and blessing of Jesus himself, who has ascended to God to assume his rightful role as Lord and King of the universe, and who has promised to send us his very Spirit to live in us and guide us in our work for him. It won’t be easy–Kingdom work never is because there is so much opposition to it–but you will find it to be some of the most satisfying and meaningful work you have ever engaged in. Pretty cool if you ask me.