Friday 25th September 2020 Devotion
Scripture:- Matthew 19:3-12
Topic:- Did Jesus Have A Wife [6]
Text:- Revelation 21:9
K. What Are Some Possible Reasons For Jesus’s Remaining Unmarried:
- He may have intuited that once he started his ministry it would be short or even meet a disastrous end. As a Jew, knew the fate of other Prophets. Jesus may have foreseen the difficulty of caring for a family while being an itinerant preacher.
- Perhaps His celibacy was another manifestation of his single-hearted commitment to God. After sifting through the facts, Meier lands on the last reason: “The position that Jesus remained celibate on religious grounds [is] the more probable hypothesis.”
- Other theories, where Mary Magdalene is proposed as Jesus’s wife, are also rather far-fetched. Most women and women disciples in the New Testament are referred to, by the convention of their time, as “the wife of” or “the mother of.”
- In a patriarchal world, they were most often identified through their associations with either a husband or a son (or sons). So we read of women like “Mary, the wife of Clopas” and “Joanna, the wife of Chusa.” Consequently, it is more likely that if Mary Magdalene were married to Jesus she would be called not “Mary of Magdala,” but “Mary, the wife of Jesus.”
- Though there were numerous occasions in the Bible in which it would have been logical to mention His wife if He had one, she is never mentioned. Any possible allusions to Jesus’ marriage were from centuries after His death.
L. Compelling Reasons Why Jesus Would Have Chosen Not To Marry: - Jesus was a wandering teacher and healer who knew He was destined to die at a relatively early age. His duties as Messiah—teaching, traveling, healing, giving Himself over to death—would have prevented Him from rightly fulfilling the roles of husband and father. He would have had to place His wife’s needs first which would have taken Him away from His mission. See 1 Corinthians 7:32-35.
- If Jesus had married, His widow most likely would have been idolized and deified, detracting from the worship of the one true God.
- Jesus likely would not have wanted to produce an earthly successor, as His purpose was to establish a heavenly kingdom, not an earthly dynasty.
- As He was God in the flesh, no woman could possibly have been a suitable and equal partner for Jesus. Jesus, of course, could be a perfect husband, but no human could be a suitable mate. Instead, the church in its entirety is the Bride of Christ.
- As mentioned above, trouble would arise from the implications of Jesus’ perfection merging with human sinfulness as “one flesh.”
- Jesus didn’t marry because He didn’t come to earth to choose one person; He came to save and restore all who would receive Him.
- Jesus did not marry an earthly woman; however, the Church is called the Bride of Christ, and He is preparing a heavenly home for all of us where we can be with Him forever. For this Bride, He suffered, died, and was resurrected, so that we might be reconciled with Him. See John 14:2-3.
- An even earlier Gospel, Matthew, written around AD 85, says that there were “many women,” and then lists those the Gospel writer considers important: “Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James and Joseph, and the mother of the sons of Zebedee.”
- Were Jesus married, not mentioning “the wife of Jesus” in either the stories of the Crucifixion or the Resurrection would be odd indeed.
- Nearly every scholar believes that Jesus was unmarried. So do I. As I said, my faith does not rest on his being unmarried–but my reason tells me that he was.
Prayer Point:- Oh Lord God, help me to understand You better and be intimate with You henceforth by fire, in the name of Jesus Christ.
Happy Weekend!
