Genesis 2:18-24

The translation of this passage is difficult because English does not really afford the type of dynamics that the text gives, especially in relationship to the gender dynamics, nor the precise physicality of words for "partner." First, the word translated at the beginning as "man" actually takes its reference from its color and origin -- this being is taken from the "soil" (adamah) and thus is called "human" (adam). The being is not gendered male at this point. Also the "helper" is to be a "partner." Yet the Hebrew is much more physical, and very difficult to translate. Richard Eliot Friedman has a good translation of the phrase. He translates it "I will make for him [the human] a strength corresponding to him [the human]." It is thus no surprise that the one human becomes two from the very bone and flesh on the one human by God's creative power. It is only after the creation of the woman (ishsha) and the other side of the adam becomes man (ish). This allows us to understand the real impact of the final phrase "they become one flesh." Marriage and sexuality sign an ontological return to the one human nature that humanity really is, both male and female, each one individually, and even more fully, together in sexuality within marriage.

Read through the passage together. How does this change the gender dynamics from what you have traditionally heard and known? What is the difference between the human and other animals here? What does this passage suggest about marriage and sexuality?

Mark 10:2-9

We must read this passage very carefully as well. Notice the precision of the Pharisees question -- gender is front and foremost here. The question to which Jesus responds is about a male divorcing a female. The question seems to presuppose that they are trying to "trap" Jesus by forcing him into an unpopular position to show how he violates Moses's teachings. How does Jesus respond? How does he interpret the Torah's teaching to allow the male divorce of the female (but not the vice versa!). If you notice, Jesus combines a quote from Genesis 1:27c with the quote from the end from Genesis 2, linking the two passages together. He then speaks of a permanence of human marriage and sexual relationships.

You might discuss then how Jesus sees marriage related to human "nature" as given in creation before the fall. How is human nature gendered, and how is this related to marriage, divorce and sexuality? Does Jesus view marriage as a legal contract primarily? How would you describe it? Does Jesus view marriage and sexuality in terms of the "psycho-sexual emotional well-being of individuals"? How does his teachings compare with this?

Hebrews. 2:9-18

Our Hebrews passage quite literally focuses on Jesus: "we do see Jesus." How does Jesus relate to human nature? Does Jesus take on "male nature" or "human nature" in this passage, or is there a difference? How does this relate to Jesus being our salvation made "perfect through sufferings"? How do Christ sufferings help those who are being tested? How might this relate to the Genesis and Gospel teachings on marriage? Is marriage necessary to reflect the genuine human nature that we see, post-fall, in Jesus?

It seems to me that in the Scriptures and Christian tradition, we have to understand marriage in terms of what has taken place in God objectively -- in the exchange of marriage vows, we are married. It is not up to us from that point on, but rather to show God's intent and image in which we are created in the marriage by learning to live out what has actually happened as witnesses to God. Sexuality is part of this witness, from which, of course, procreation is signed as a possibility through sexual relations between male and female in a way impossible through same sex sexuality. Marriage thus witnesses to the creative love that the Triune God, the only God, is. This is why Christians cannot sanction same sex marriage or sexual intercourse, at the same time as being open to support and love gays and lesbians as created fully in the image of God as they point to the fulness of redemption that comes, not through marriage or sexuality, but through Jesus Christ, himself a celibate. There becomes a pointing that human "nature" is defined, not by hormones or brain patterns or unshaped desires (if such things exist), but by Jesus Christ -- who calls us into the same redemptive suffering for the sake of the world, whether married or celibate. This is why Christians may practice "separation", but not "divorce" -- opening up the possibility of remarriage. This is very different from our culture that struggles with separation (the breaking of the "marriage contract"), but celebrates remarriage ("the formation of a new contract for personal psycho-sexual and social enjoyment and security"). Unlike society, for Christians, marriage is sacramental -- a sign that reveals, images God through real participation in God as the Mysterious Reality that is Love through Christ by the power of the Spirit.

In this way marriage signs as well the nuptial relationship between Christ and the church. Reconciliation is not something that we bring about through our works. It has happened, really and fully in Christ, in which persons are initiated into by faith in their baptismal vows and in the water through the invocation of the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Our job is not to force what has already happened, but to learn to live out what has already happened, in the difficulty of life's concrete settings, often through suffering. We learn by the Spirit's sanctifying presence to live toward a future that has already happened in the past, and outside of time in eternity, in Christ.