Biblical Marriage

Marriage is in the news again. France is preparing to vote on whether to legalize homosexual marriage, and so the chief rabbi of France has an article in the March 2013 issue of First Things to defend traditional marriage. I was interested to find that his chief Biblical argument has much in common with the arguments made by Pope John Paul II in his book Man and Woman He Created Them: A Theology of the Body.  Both of them rest much of their case on the complementarity of the 2 sexes. The chief rabbi writes that 'the complementarity between man and woman is a fundamental principle in Judaism' as well as in many non-religious traditions and culture in general. The pope agrees, but goes on to ground that understanding in the creation story of Genesis 1 and the way that the Bible makes it clear that it takes both man and woman to fully demonstrate the image of God carried by mankind. The rabbi also goes on to ground his argument in Genesis 1 and to say that 'this suggests that the definition of a human being is perceptible only in the conjunction of the two sexes'. This sounds rather like the pope when he said 'the definitive creation of man consists in the creation of the unity of 2 beings'. Both make a strong case for the divine intention of marriage being a matter of completeness for carrying God's image and passing on that image in procreation. In that regard, 'homosexual marriage' is an oxymoron.

The pope goes on to make connections to marriage as an image of the relationship within the Trinity, which of course the rabbi does not do, but then both refer to the way in both the Old Testament (ie, the Jewish scripture) and the New Testament marriage is considered a reflection also of the relationship between God and mankind. The rabbi does a nice job in the article of showing how the opposite sex is always something of a mystery to us, as also is God, and yet the Bible urges us to find human completeness via union in marriage and spiritual completeness in union with God who is also something of  mystery to us. Both require faith and a commitment to seeking intimacy with that which is not fully known or knowable to us.

This is one of the articles posted online for free this month, so here is a link:
http://www.firstthings.com/

Our culture, in its insistence on individual happiness as the highest good, is losing its understanding of what it means to be fully human. To be fully human requires male and female, not just a collection of individuals. Our pursuit of individuality is rapidly coming to its illogical extreme. I think we who seek to follow Christ become part of the problem when we seek to make romantic love the heart of marriage as that is what the homosexual lobby is also promoting, albeit a dysfunctional version of romantic love. Nonetheless, the romance culture places our individual happiness above our created purpose; while our created purpose builds real love (the selfless kind) as well, it makes much more clear how marriage is for more than just personal happiness. I was encouraged to see such common ground on this issue between both the former pope and the chief rabbi of France.