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Monday, June 05, 2006

Hysteria

I will be better about keeping up the blog from now on. After what has been a wretched two years or so has been steadily improving. I believe I will have a good, long term job next week. It's not my first choice of work but I don't mind it either. Money has been very tight so I welcome anything with hope it will last more than two months.

In addition to ruthlessly emptying my two bedroom apartment of assorted accumulated crap, I have been on a book-reading binge, reading more than my usual number. I finally read The DaVinci Code in addition to three books by and about the actor Alec Guiness. I've never been a big fan of his but, as readers might recall, I enjoy reading biographies to also get insight into other people and times around the life of the subject.

I still do not understand the hysteria surrounding DaVinci Code. It is a novel. There is no question that the work is a piece of fiction, and clever fiction it is. As was the case with the novel The Historian there were a few too slick contrivances for my taste but in both cases I could not put the book down. The belief that Jesus married the Mary Magedelan (sp) dates back to the Middle Ages so there's nothing new about it.

Even if it were proven 100% that Jesus married and fathered children, what difference would it make?

None. If you are a Christian, you believe that Jesus is the Saviour and came to earth and lived as a man. He had a purpose. Personally, I don't think he married (even though that was the norm then) because he knew what would be in store for his wife and children. It would not be typical family relationship being the Son of God and all.

However, even if Jesus was married, that changes nothing about who he was and his purpose. Not one iota.

It's the same sort of hysteria that was around the book and the movie The Last Temptation of Christ. The whole deal with Jesus coming to earth to live as a man was to demonstrate how "man" should live. If he was never tempted in any way, then there was no challenge. He could not have shown us how to live because he wasnt tempted in the way we all are. Many Christians opined that Jesus was holy therefore never had "unpure" thoughts meaning he didn't wonder what sex would be like with a woman let alone be attracted to Mary M. or any other woman he encountered. This is nonsense. What makes Jesus Jesus is resisting temptation and doing the right thing in spite of himself or, I should say, in spite of the drive to sin or do things not good for us. Otherwise, there is no point to the whole Saviour business at all.

1 comment:

Bruce said...

So how did it go?