Body & Faith | Finding a healthy identity
Series: EIFACH muetig – with Jesus as a role model | Bible text: Galatians 3:26–28; Matthew 19:10–12
A person who enters into a personal relationship with Jesus Christ is given a comprehensive identity that integrates all partial identities: He is a beloved child of God who belongs to the family of God. This main identity also includes our sexual identity and gives it the right significance. Jesus himself teaches in the New Testament what a good approach to sexual inclinations should look like.
Who am I? This question occupies us humans more or less all our lives. Possible answers are: Mother of children, manager, FC Aarau fan, Swiss, heterosexual or homosexual. We are always a mix of partial identities. If we start to prioritise one part over another, it can lead to conflict and break up our identity. One definition of healthy identity is: the state in which someone or something is at one with itself. When certain aspects of our identity are in conflict with each other, we feel broken inside.
A comprehensive identity
Jesus also had many partial identities: He was the son of Mary and Joseph, a single man, a rabbi, a Jew from Bethlehem, who grew up in Nazareth. Then came the day of his baptism. After he emerged from the water, the following happened: «And a voice from heaven said: «This is my beloved Son, in him I have great joy.» (Matthew 3:17 NLB). This promise from the Father defines the comprehensive identity of Jesus: He was above all others the beloved Son of God. All other partial identities were enveloped in this moment of baptism by the Father’s promise that He loves Jesus and has great joy in Him.
Baptism is the milestone on a person’s path to starting a life as a follower of Jesus. From this moment on, a new identity encompasses all previous partial identities. If we entrust our lives to Jesus Christ, we can be children of God. And it is also true for you that the heavenly Father loves you and takes great pleasure in you.
Paul describes this radical process of a comprehensive new identity: «And so you are all children of God through faith in Jesus Christ. For all of you who have been baptised into Christ now belong to Christ. Now there is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male or female. For you are all the same – you are one in Jesus Christ» (Galatians 3:26–28 NLB). This is exciting: Paul says that through the comprehensive new identity, the many partial identities lose their significance and fade away. Our national identity (Jew or Gentile), social identity (slave or free), and sexual identity (male or female) are irrelevant to our identity as beloved children of God.
We first have to «take this in»: The main identity of a follower of Jesus is to be a beloved child of God. Family connection. Belonging to God’s household. Access to the fridge with all the supplies. The front door opens with our fingerprint if the Father is not already standing in front of it with open arms.
The physical part identity
We are living in an exciting time as far as a person’s sexual identity is concerned. As already mentioned several times, the leitmotif in this respect is I am what I feel like. This basic feeling is applied to one’s own sexual partial identity and sexual orientation.
Since 2014, Facebook has offered around 60 ways to specify your gender. As the body is no longer a fixed orientation, many people have a fragile sexual identity. They feel homeless in their own body. A trans woman said the following to a pastor who had preached about the high value of the body: «I’ve never heard such a high view of my body as the one you told me. I wish my psychiatrist had told me the same thing back then.» According to the creation account, God created man as male and female (Genesis 1:27). And Paul emphasises in 1 Corinthians 6:12–20 that our sexuality is located in our bodies. Why does the body have to be subordinate to feelings? In the area of sexuality, the opposite path is in line with the Bible and therefore more promising and fulfilling.
Another controversial topic is the Marriage for all. If anyone, be it an interest group or a government, suddenly changes the meaning of key words, we should be alert, because then an ideology makes room for itself. I recently read that in connection with the assisted suicide Words like Suicide or Killing should no longer be used because it implies not doing so. The slogan of the Association for Humane Dying Exit is therefore Self-determined living. Active euthanasia thus takes on a new meaning and paves the way for itself.
We are living in a time in which the term Marriage is reinterpreted. For thousands of years, marriage implied a relationship between a man and a woman across cultures. Now, when we suddenly talk about marriages between two men or two women, the word Marriage radically changed. For the time being, this observation has nothing to do with a specifically Christian worldview. On the basis of a Judeo-Christian worldview, the narrative of the Bible plays an important role. At the very beginning of the Bible, in the creation account, we encounter a repeating polarity. God created the heavens and the earth, the sea and the land, day and night, etc. and, last but not least, man and woman. God forms complementary pairs that are meant to work together. In the last scene of the Bible, God creates the new heaven and the new earth. The symbol for this is the marriage of Christ and his church. The entire biblical narrative works with polarity and complementarity. The man-woman marriage is a signpost and sign of the goodness of the original creation and God’s intention for the coming new heaven and the new earth. With the opening up of marriage to same-sex couples, the term Marriage and robbed of its deepest meaning and mystery. Marriages are thus downgraded to social or sexual arrangements.
Recommendations from Jesus
Nevertheless, there are people who feel homosexual in their partial identity of sexuality. To find out how followers of Jesus can deal with this, let’s knock on the door of Jesus himself. Let’s be clear about one thing: Jesus does not endorse conversational therapy, so neither should we. If a person is also changed in their sexual identity through accepting a comprehensive primary identity and inner healing, this is a gift.
Despite the catastrophe of the fall of mankind, which befell the world and many things no longer correspond to God’s good idea of creation, Jesus confirms the original order of creation in Matthew 19. Man was created as man and woman and monogamous marriage between man and woman remains God’s idea. Jesus also talks about the path a person can take if their sexuality does not correspond to the ideal. Jesus was therefore well aware that not everything is as it was in paradise.
«Then the disciples said to Jesus: «Then it would be better not to marry at all! 11 «Not everyone can understand this,» said Jesus. «Only those whom God helps can do this. 12 Some are born incapable of marriage, others are made incapable by people, and still others have chosen not to marry for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. Whoever can understand this, let him act accordingly» » (Matthew 19:10–12 NLB). Translations that stay closer to the Greek text use the word «eunuchs» three times in v. 12. It then sounds like this: «For there are those who have been circumcised from birth, and there are those who have been circumcised by men, and there are those who have circumcised themselves for the sake of the kingdom of heaven» (Matthew 19:12 LUT).
The term «the reconciled» is already used in Isaiah 56:4 and refers to sexual minorities. In this prophecy, it is a promise that the day will come when «cut» people will also have access to the kingdom of God. In the SRF programme «Queer in der Freikirche», it was said that many free churches believe that homosexuality or trans is a lifestyle that leads to hell. This statement is contradicted here.
Jesus mentions three categories of «cut ones»: (1.) Blended from birth: This could also refer to intersex people. In other words, people whose sexual characteristics do not clearly indicate whether they are male or female. (2.) Men who were emasculatedThere were eunuchs working at the royal palace and the terrible practice of emasculating prisoners of war. At that time, representatives of such sexual minorities had no access to the temple. Jesus is revolutionary when He says here that such people are welcome in the kingdom of God. Jesus then adds a third category: People who decide not to marry out of their own free will. Here, Jesus radically rethinks what it means to have a new comprehensive identity. Until then, it was normal in Judaism to get married. Everything else was viewed critically. What Jesus is saying here is that people can live without sex, but not without a family. An article in the Aargauer Zeitung said that sex is not a human right. Marriage and biological family is not the most important thing, the kingdom of God and his family is. Unfortunately, churches like ours have a tendency to glorify marriage and having children. But it is wrong for us to convey that this is the highest of all goals.
In the view of theologians, this group also includes people who have homosexual feelings. It is clear that we do not ask people who are not in Christ and He is not in them not to live out their homosexuality. But if we follow Jesus, it is worth listening to God’s instructions for a fulfilled life. Lived homosexuality does not correspond to the idea, the design of God. That is why Jesus opens a door here and says: people who have homosexual feelings should live a celibate life, i.e. because of the kingdom of God renounce marriage – like Jesus and Paul. That is a high standard and it is difficult to uphold. You are very quickly branded as discriminatory.
How can we as a church provide a space of safety, grace and security for such people? (1.) People of all sexual orientations are very welcome. (2.) We are not moral guardians. Your sexual orientation is not the most important part of your identity. You are a child of God first. (3.) We follow the teachings of Jesus, even in the way we live out our sexuality.
The most important message is: Through faith in Jesus Christ, a person is granted a new, comprehensive identity: Beloved child of God. Anyone who can grasp this is given a new foundation and a new frame of reference for all their sub-identities. «And so you are all children of God through faith in Jesus Christ. For all of you who have been baptised into Christ now belong to Christ. Now there is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male or female. For you are all the same – you are one in Jesus Christ» (Galatians 3:26–28 NLB).
Possible questions for the small groups
Read the Bible text: Galatians 3:26–28; Matthew 19:10–12
- What is your first answer to the question of who you are? Which partial identities belong to you?
- Have you already been given the comprehensive main identity? What does it mean to you in your life?
- What role does the body play in our sexual identity? How could a higher view of the value of our bodies help?
- What do you think of Jesus» recommendation that people can live without sex but not without a family?
- How can we as seetal chile become a place of grace for people from sexual minorities? What is the balance between clear values and openness?
