The Gay Gospels: Good News for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgendered People by Keith Sharpe

Author:Keith Sharpe
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Religion, LGBT, Gay, Christianity
ISBN: 9781846945489
Publisher: Circle Books
Published: 2011-07-15T04:00:00+00:00

A homoerotic bond

What exactly was the nature of this relationship? Clearly it was a very close emotional bond. But taken together, all the pieces of evidence in John’s Gospel suggest it was also a mutual homoerotic attraction based on reciprocal desire and delight.

At the Last Supper we have a picture of real affection involving bodily intimacy, which is seen, recognised and approved by the other disciples. It is very telling that Peter assumes that if Jesus has told anyone who the traitor is, it will be the Beloved Disciple. Jesus’ concern on the cross for this man mirrors exactly the concern of any dying lover for the future welfare of the beloved. He wants him taken care of and instructs his mother accordingly. Neither here nor anywhere does Jesus express love for his mother. He simply wants her to look after the Beloved Disciple. Moreover, neither Mary nor the other women present appear at all surprised. Like Peter they seem to take this relationship for granted. At the empty tomb, the Beloved Disciple’s behaviour is what you would expect from a lover in such traumatic circumstances. He has recently witnessed the cruel torturing to death of his partner, and he can hardly bear now to contemplate seeing the body. And then only the Beloved Disciple senses that the stranger on the shore is the risen Christ, as if the love that he shared with Jesus has endured through to the new life. Later Jesus seems to endorse this intuition. His concern for the Beloved Disciple is presented as eternal, literally undying. This man is to be the one and only human soul to be put beyond Petrine care and to be tended directly by the Son of God. Could there be a more powerful expression of love?

To all intents and purposes what we have here in John’s Gospel looks like a real love story. It would be perfectly natural for such an intensely loving relationship to encompass physical erotic activity, although of course the Biblical text does not describe any such acts. But then neither does it in the case of relationships which we know were sexual, so this means nothing.

One other point is important. Recall that Jesus asks Peter three times if he loves him. It has been suggested that this has the effect of ‘undoing’ the three times Peter denied Jesus previously. But it also emphasises the importance of Peter’s loving Jesus. In the case of the Beloved Disciple, however, the emphasis is always on love in the other direction. It is always about Jesus loving the Beloved Disciple. One possible reading of this evidence is that Jesus’ fundamental erotic orientation is towards this same-sex lover. He is the ‘driver’, the dominant partner, in the relationship.

Jesus wants Peter to declare his love for him so that he can be sure he can rely on him to carry out his important mission. By contrast Jesus does not want or expect anything from the Beloved Disciple. We do not read that Jesus asked the Beloved disciple to declare his love.

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