Resurrection: The Wrong Side of History?
‘I could strengthen you with talk, or shake my head with silent lips.’ (Jb 16:5)
I spoke to him plainly of the dangers of ‘gay marriage,’ and the power of Jesus and His church to raise the ‘homosexual’ to wholeness. The earnest bishop implored me: ‘But we don’t want to be on the wrong side of history!’
I understand his dilemma. Last night while channel surfing for 15 minutes, I witnessed two same-gendered couples smooching to celebrate ‘gay marriage’ victories in PA and OR, a piece on skater Johnny Weir who alongside his male partner wore a full face of make-up and bouffant hair, followed by the ‘testimony’ of a former Navy SEAL who was in the process of undergoing a sex-change.
The wrong seems right. To some, we are finally coming to our senses concerning ‘gender diversity.’ In truth, we are witnessing a mix of moral blindness and personal brokenness that scrambles humanity’s most basic foundation: what it means to be male and female. I say ‘moral’ because the decisions we make concerning what we do with our tendencies (be they to merge with a same-gender friend, to look like the opposite-sex, or to cut off one’s genitals in an effort ‘to become’ the other gender) involves choices as to what is right and wrong.
We take these cues substantially from what our culture says it right and wrong. The new normal, gender-wise? Anything goes. In the name of justice, invoking racial equality, western culture has nearly deconstructed gender identity and rendered its formation null and void, with the added warning that if you disagree with another’s gender choices you are a ‘hater.’
My kids know better. You know why? They were raised among dozens of men and women whom Jesus raised from the dead of homosexual and transgender decisions, including their father. Of course they can discern like any honest person that a Navy SEAL in drag needs healing, not more hormones, and that the last thing Johnny Weir needs is more camera-time. Beyond that, my kids know that persons who are inclined toward their own gender or toward identifying with the other gender need the God who stoops down to meet us in our gender. The Resurrected God gives us what we need; He frees us to resume the journey toward realizing what it means to be made in His image, male and female.
His Resurrection changes the conversation from dead-end decisions to hope. When Jesus rose from the dead, He redefined hope and history itself. The Jewish religious leaders and Roman political leaders converged on the ‘right’ side of history; they seemed to create a formidable block to the future influence of this ‘Jesus.’ Yet death could not hold Him, any more than the gay or transgender ‘self’ needs to define persons who welcome Him into their gender conflicts. His legacy emerged from the tomb, as will ours.
What we need today are bold witnesses of persons raised from the dead of such conflicts. How else will we counter witnesses to the contrary? If there ever was a time for us who have received healing in our gender identities to say so, it is now. Our silence is deadly to a generation which no longer believes that Resurrection applies to gender distortions.
We of the Resurrection may have to endure more scorn than we might like for such a witness–for upholding life-giving choices for the gender broken. At least we will be in good company. True Christians usually seem to be on the ‘wrong’ side of history. And to suffer for it. How precious this opportunity to declare what is right and to endure the opposition of mere men. The living God is on our side!
‘Take care and be earnestly on your guard not to forget the things your own eyes have seen, nor let them slip from your memory as long as you live, but teach them to your children and to your children’s children.’ (Deut. 4:9)
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