Daily Devo - Thursday, February 21, 2008

The disciples said to him, “If this is the situation between a husband and wife, it is better not to marry.” Jesus replied, “Not everyone can accept this word, but only those to whom it has been given. For some are eunuchs because they were born that way; others were made that way by men; and others have renounced marriage because of the kingdom of heaven. The one who can accept this should accept it.” – Matthew 19:10-12 (NIV)

Married people have a really bad habit. They seem to have this irrepressible desire to marry off all of their single friends. This is of course motivated by compassion. They have found love and comfort in the marital embrace and want to see their dear friends have a similar experience. But alas, so many singles put up with unexpected blind dates and high-pressure pushes onto some other single because of their married friends’ “good wishes”.

In light of Jesus earlier teaching on marriage, the disciples became alarmed. Jesus greatly restricted the Christians options for dissolving a marriage, and provided even greater restrictions regarding remarriage. Apparently the disciples took an opportunity when alone with Jesus (see Mark 10:10) to express their bewilderment. They basically declared, “If it’s so hard to get out of a bad marriage, perhaps it’s better not to get married at all!” Jesus doesn’t challenge their assessment of his teaching, and they correctly understood its radical implications. But Jesus does take the opportunity to change the subject from marriage to celibacy.

In our contemporary culture we generally equate the word ‘celibate’ with abstaining from sexual intercourse. Of course, it is true that a Christian celibate person so abstains, but that really isn’t the point [a]. Celibacy is essentially singleness. Jesus’ statement “not everyone can accept this word” refers to the disciples mention of singleness, and not back to his earlier teaching on divorce [b]. In essence, Jesus is saying, “Your right! Celibacy is good, but I recognize it is not for everyone”. Jesus is not referring to the singleness of the divorced person, but simply singleness in general. According to Roman Catholic dogma, celibacy is esteemed and valued. It is a ‘higher’ spiritual expression of devotion to Christ, and something that everyone is capable of (and something that is demanded of every priest, monk, and nun). Yet Jesus’ own words reject this interpretation. There is no hint in the text that celibates are more spiritual or morally superior to other believers. In fact, Jesus clearly indicates that only those who are specially gifted by God are capable of living such a lifestyle.

Jesus, who is decidedly “pro-family”, is even more so “pro-Kingdom”. When he discusses marriage, he highlights its importance by appealing to Creation itself. Certainly the family is central to God’s plan for humanity. But Jesus is signaling to us that there is something even more important than the nuclear family; namely, the kingdom of God. Singleness is the furthest possible thing from a curse. Jesus regards it as a precious and noble calling—something for which he has equipped only a select few. Singles have the opportunity to serve God in a manner and to a degree that no married person can (or should). A danger for singles is that they will be tempted to succumb to societal (or their married friends) pressure to get married, or else desire marriage to meet some relational or emotional need. Oh that God would raise up a generation of single Christians who devout themselves to the service of the King. Pray that some may accept this noble call [c].

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[a] Though see the Apostle Paul’s discussion on this issue. He recommends celibacy, but recognizes that its implications of non-sexuality will be too difficult for many.
[b] Though see Gundry, one of the few commentators who understand this statement as referring to Jesus’ earlier teaching on divorce (Matthew: A Commentary on His Handbook for a mixed Church under Persecution, p 381)
[c] As a rather disgusting side story, one eminent scholar in the early church, Origen of Alexandria (a.d. 185–254), took Jesus’ words regarding being “made a eunuch” with literal seriousness and performed the appropriate operation on himself. In later life he knew better; in his commentary on Matthew’s Gospel he rejects the literal interpretation of the words, while acknowledging that he once accepted it, and says that they should be understood spiritually. This is absolutely pointless to the devotional, but it was just too cool not to mention.