Theology Questions Everyone Asks by Burge Gary M.;Lauber David;Ryken Philip;

Author:Burge, Gary M.;Lauber, David;Ryken, Philip;
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780830884483
Publisher: InterVarsity Press
Published: 2014-01-08T00:00:00+00:00

Did Jesus struggle with sexual temptation?

This answer follows on the foregoing. When we think about Jesus and sexuality we often become squeamish. If Jesus enjoyed a full humanity—as we claim he did—then I expect he was a man with all of those features that make a man what he is. He grew through puberty, his hormones were healthy, and he experienced a natural healthy appreciation for women. His candid reference to lust in Matthew 5:28 tells me he understood these things.

Our chief problem is that we have associated sexuality with sin. And just as Christians need to redeem our understanding of godly sexuality for ourselves, perhaps we need to recover some sense of Jesus’ own sexuality. Jesus possessed every sexual capacity and interest but without sin. This means (as I noted above) that Jesus also experienced sexual temptation without its inevitability. He was a man whose sexuality was not impulsive or indulgent, but fully controlled by his desire to please God and his sincere respect for women. Jesus was never promiscuous. He possessed a deeply virtuous sexuality.

What did it mean to have a “virtuous sexuality” in ancient culture? Jesus lived in a world of arranged marriages. Casual informal interaction between unrelated men and women was sharply limited. Therefore it is unlikely that Jesus ever had opportunities for contact with women the way we imagine it today. Therefore we do not want to project ideas of male-female intimacy on his world. However I imagine Jesus also understood that his life in this area was going to be different than the rest of his male friends. In Matthew 12:49-50 Jesus astounds his audience when he claims that even his own family relations are different (“Who is my mother? And who are my brothers?”). He even believes that the call of his disciples will affect the usual affairs of family and home (Matthew 19:29). But does he understand marriage and respect it? He does. His open discussions about divorce and adultery signal his respect for marriage and his desire to preserve its purity.

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