An Imaginary Gospel Story
And as they were passing by a certain city, they heard the sound of revelry. Peter said, “Look, Master! They are celebrating that which the Scriptures forbid – those who ‘lie with a man as one lies with a woman’” (Leviticus 18:22). And Jesus replied, “The sound in the city is joyous but there is weeping in the heavens for the hearts of the people are far from God. For it is written,
God created man in his own image,
Genesis 1:27-28a
in the image of God he created him;
male and female he created them.
And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it….”
Yet they have rejected this blessing and this commandment from the One who created them. Instead, they follow the ways of the Canaanites whom God despised and expelled from the land.”
Now people from the city had come out to see Jesus for they had heard that he was compassionate and worked many miracles. Then Jesus sat down upon a hill and began to speak to them saying, “What is this that is being celebrated? For after the Lord God took a rib from the man he fashioned it into a woman and the man was joyful and celebrated saying,
This at last is bone of my bones
Genesis 2:23
and flesh of my flesh;
she shall be called Woman,
because she was taken out of Man.
Therefore, it is right to celebrate and be joyous over that which God has made and in which man first rejoiced.” But some in the crowd grumbled against him and would not listen. After this, many who followed him said, “This is a hard saying. We have friends and family whom we love at the celebration.” And so they departed back to their homes and no longer followed him.
His disciples came to him privately and said, “Master, the people say that your saying is too harsh.” Jesus replied, “You have heard it said, ‘be tolerant.’ But I say to you, be not tolerant! For that which God has condemned already stands condemned. His judgment is true and just. Those who leave have not rejected me but they have rejected God, their Creator. They take comfort now among the rebellious and prideful, but when the Father sends his angels to gather his elect, the wicked and rebellious will be tossed into Gehenna. They will find no comfort on that day. Woe to those who exalt the mind of man over the mind of God!”
The Story Explained
It is anachronistic to even pose the idea that Jesus would have encountered a Gay Pride parade much less to have attended one. The fictional story above is generic and nonspecific by necessity. There is no city described there are no details about who the revelers are. This is because no such event in the life of Jesus could have occurred.
Jesus spent most of his time in Israel and carried out his mission work with and for his fellow Jews. He was born and raised in a Jewish culture that stressed adherence to Hebrew Scripture. Normalcy for most Jews was to marry and to have children. Their Scripture taught that God created men and women for the purpose of marriage and procreation in order to subdue the earth and rule over nature (Genesis 1:26-30). Jesus was a faithful Jew who knew his Scriptures and referred to them often. Homosexuality was forbidden in Scripture (Leviticus 18:22). It was an executable offense.
Homosexuality Among Jews
There are no known reports of homosexuality among Jews until the third century A.D., long after the time of Jesus. People often scoff at the idea that Jews did not engage in homosexuality but the pressure for cultural conformity would be great. Their religion taught them it was a sin. This was reinforced by parents at home. The patriarchal system required the continuation of the family and other members of the family or tribe were around to further reinforce the idea of conformity. Perhaps as great an influence as anything was the distinctiveness of Jewish identity. To the Jews it was a religious calling and a matter of pride not to contaminate themselves with the unclean and immoral practices of Gentiles, such as the Romans. So this would be a strong cultural motivator not to practice homosexuality or to condone it since the Romans did those very things. The Romans were the occupying power which oppressed the Jews so they were tolerated at best and hated and reviled at worst. There was no mass desire to conform to Roman ways.
It is an oft heard objection in our time to claim that Jesus didn’t say anything about homosexuality. That is not actually correct as Jesus condemned all manners of unlawful sexual behavior, although he did not address the topic of homosexuality individually for good reason. The idea of homosexuality was a non-starter for him or any other Jew who knew the Scriptures. This would be true even for Jesus’ opponents among the Scribes, Pharisees, and Sadducees. There is no reason to think that any of these groups would have approved of homosexuality. This would be one matter around which all of them could unite.
Homosexuality in Jesus’ World
While there is no evidence that Jews engaged in homosexual practice, as mentioned above, homosexuality was practiced by some of the Romans. The form of homosexuality that was acceptable was male-on-male. Yet even this was a controversial topic and matter of public debate among them. While various forms of male homosexuality were permitted female homosexuality was deemed an abomination and not tolerated. The Romans did not recognize anything like homosexual “marriage” or deem homosexuality to be an equivalent to heterosexual marriage. Marriage for the Romans was still heterosexual even if there was a segment of the population that esteemed male homosexual practice as superior to the male-female sexual experience. Most of the men who engaged in homosexual relations were married and had families. So they were not strictly homosexual by today’s standards.
Would Jesus Have Met a Homosexual?
If Jesus were ever to have had an encounter with a homosexual practitioner it would have had to have been limited to one of the following possible scenarios or some derivation thereof. (1) Jesus could have met a Roman citizen who practiced some form of homosexuality. That is the most likely scenario that can be imagined. (2) It is unlikely for the reasons outlined above, but perhaps we could contemporize the situation and imagine the woman caught in adultery ( see John 7) as being caught in adultery with another woman. Both crimes carried the death penalty as punishment. But can we imagine that story ending any other way than Jesus saying to her accusers, “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone” and then saying to the woman, “Go and sin no more?” (3) We might imagine that someone asked Jesus a question about the Gentile practice of homosexuality. However, this is highly unlikely because all Jews knew what their Scripture said about homosexuality so it would really be a moot point to ask Jesus what he thought. After all, no one in Judaism thought that imitating Gentile practices was pleasing to God. (4) We might imagine a “liberal” synagogue (like our liberal churches) that affirmed homosexual practice. This, however, is not even a reasonable option since other religious Jews would have cracked down on any such renegade group. (5) More reasonably we could imagine Jesus being near a Gentile town when a Gay Pride type event might have taken place. Of course, such a thought would be anachronistic. Even if the Gentiles were reveling in such a thing or in some religious event that included homosexuality it would still be condemned by Jews because it was a Gentile event. Suppose it was a Gentile philosophical debate. It would still be considered invalid because it was a Gentile debate and they were not Jews nor subject to the Jewish Scripture on homosexual behavior. Nor would any faithful Jew consider attending any such Gentile event because of its uncleanliness and immorality according to Scripture. That is not even to bring into play factors mentioned above such as Jewish tribalism, ethnicity, or matters of honor and shame in first century society. The pressure for cultural adherence within the Jewish community would be great.
Jesus did not spend time debating with Gentiles about matters of religion. His mission was to the Jews and it was centered around Judaism. So it is difficult to imagine how or why a Gentile event or philosophy would have been of any interest to him or his ministry, other than to condemn it. It would be difficult to even imagine Jesus’ opponents raising such an issue in order to drive a wedge between him and Rome or between him and the Jewish people. Jesus was once asked if it was appropriate to pay the Temple Tax. That was an issue which could have divided him from popular support among the people or caused Rome to see him as a dissenter. It is difficult to imagine how the same could have been done with the issue of homosexuality. The Romans permitted the Jews to practice their own religion and they tried not to interfere except out of necessity. Since the issue of homosexuality was a divisive one among the Romans as well, it is difficult to see Jewish opposition to it as any kind of a threat to Rome or Roman power.
Fantasies and Misunderstandings
People want to imagine that Jesus would attend a Gay Pride event or a Gay Wedding for one of two main reasons. One is a misunderstanding about Jesus’ interactions with “sinners and tax collectors.” The so-called “sinners” were generally the less-educated, poorer classes of people (in contrast to the Scribes, Pharisees, and Sadducees). They were less knowledgeable of and consequently less adherent to the Law than the elite classes. So they were often looked down upon by such people. Jesus never went to “sinners” while they were engaged in their sins. He never condoned their sins. He simply traveled about and attended normal social events, such as dinners, and the people came out to hear this visiting Rabbi. When he addressed their sins he called for repentance. The second reason that people want to imagine Jesus visiting Gay Pride events is to fantasize about a Jesus that would affirm those practicing homosexuality (see this recent example). The fantasy is that Jesus would accept them just as they are. Such people imagine that Jesus is so loving and kind that he would not rebuke them or ask them to change. Many factors feed into this delusion, such as modern attempts to reframe homosexuality as natural or God-created or that Scripture has been misunderstood on this matter for the last 2,000 years. The reality is that no faithful Jew would attend such an event that affirmed homosexual behavior. If Jesus happened upon such an event we can be confident that his call would have been one of repentance and not one of affirmation. The message that Jesus preached was the same as that of John the Baptist, “Repent for the Kingdom of heaven is near.” Repentance meant to ally oneself with God in faithful adherence to the Jewish Scriptures.
As the New Testament writers demonstrated repeatedly, they continued to adhere to the Hebrew Bible’s standards of sexual morality. Fornication, adultery, prostitution, and homosexuality were all forbidden. These fall into the broad category that modern translations like to call “sexual immorality”. To explain it simply, the Bible does not permit any sexual intercourse except that between a biologically male husband and biologically female wife. Every other form of sexual intercourse is “sexual immorality”, most of which is punishable by death (read Leviticus 18 and 20). In fact, when Jesus was questioned about the subject of marriage he affirmed that marriage was between a man and a woman, it should be monogamous, and it should last for a lifetime (see Robert A. J. Gagnon’s work on this topic, The Bible and Homosexual Practice: Texts and Hermeneutics).
Should I Attend?
With the background information written above, it becomes very clear that no Christian should attend an event celebrating, affirming, or endorsing homosexuality (or fornication or adultery or bestiality or polygamy or incest). Bishop Thomas Tobin is correct in his assessment of this matter from a Roman Catholic perspective. The only appropriate celebrations to endorse or affirm would be that of a traditional marriage or for traditional standards of abstinence for the unmarried (e.g. a Purity Ring ceremony). As Christians we must affirm those things which God affirms and condemn those things which God condemns. Homosexual practice strikes right at the heart of God’s order and intent for humanity. It rejects the authority of God as Creator and revels in its rebellion. In Romans 1:24-32 homosexuality is considered “the lust of their own hearts”, “impurity”, a “dishonoring of their bodies” because of their “debased mind” which leads them “to do what ought not to be done” . . . “they not only do [homosexual acts and a whole list of other sins] but give approval to those who practice [those sins].” This is a hard lesson for people of our age because many are confused by ignorance of the Scriptures and of history or by conflicted emotions due to having homosexual friends or family. The singular message of the Church to the homosexual is a warning about the consequences of sin and an impassioned call to repentance and restoration to a right relationship with God.