Let's speculate. Is Jesus married?
Since Jesus is both Divine and Human, is His Humanity different from ours? If not, then He has a human body. Since conjugial love is one of the key features of Heaven, Jesus as Human is married - to a human woman. And this woman is not Divine as Jesus is, she is just human like the rest of us.
I can hear cries of protest that Jesus is married to the church (the New Jerusalem, Revelation 21:2). But that is a metaphor. Do not confuse metaphor with reality. One cannot have conjugial union with an abstraction, just as one can be married to one's work only in metaphor.
Is Jesus married? The Da Vinci Code gets an F- in history and another F- is theological speculation. There is nothing but a few Gnostic gospels (which are not part of the Word) to substantiate Mary Magdalene being Jesus' wife. And the Gnostic gospels are not even good myth ... except for a few modern liberals who think they are some a great spiritual breakthrough.
The only resolution is that the Humanity of Jesus is a completely different genre of humanity, and that Jesus no longer retains a human body (see my next blog post). In this case, the Humanity of Jesus is a synonym for His Personhood. Jehovah is God as ineffable Reality. Jesus is the same God manifest as a Person.
Interesting idea. It's putting me in mind of how awkward it sometimes is to be a minister's wife: everyone expects you to be virtuous and kind and a great hostess and a great mother and a great musician, etc.
ReplyDeleteSo much harder it would be for Jesus' wife. No one would want the job.
One cannot have conjugial union with an abstraction
ReplyDeleteQuite true. However, this does not prevent some people from trying. Worse yet, the fact does not prevent some people from believing the fantasy.
Speaking of fantasy, Mr. Swedenborg said that love and wisdom are fantasy--provided they exist solely in affection and the thought therefrom. "Love and wisdom exist only ideally, being solely in the affection and thought of the mind." (CL 16) In other words, they are fantastical when solely in the things mentioned. He goes on to identify when they are genuinely real: "But in use they exist really, being together in the act and deed of the body; and where they exist really, there they also subsist." (ibid)
Also according to Mr. Swedenborg, there are two kinds of people in the church--the talk talkers (TT), and the walk walkers (WW). The church itself tends not to be in the TTs, but only in the WWs. Doesn't matter how much the TTs are in the church--if they do not also walk the walk, but only, merely and simply talk the talk, then the church is not in them, and they, therefore are not of the church. To put it another way, walkers can talk, and talkers can walk, but walkers who fail to talk, are still of the church, whereas talkers who fail to walk are not of the church. (See, e.g, AC 2832 and 10310.)
There is no conjuction for TTs, only for WWs.