It’s really interesting for me to listen to the news as they talk about the possibility of Jesus having been married. It’s as if He married someone, somehow He’s no longer “Jesus.” Is this parchment discovery supposed to change the way we feel about Jesus? I guess it is easier for me to think about this because I’m not Catholic, and therefore whether Jesus married or not doesn’t change how I view the Priesthood or a woman’s role in church. This parchment discussion is not about sex or celibacy at all, for me.  Instead, it is about understanding one of the biggest areas of my life. For me, it means that when I pray about something in my marriage, Jesus really “gets it” because He lived it. If Jesus was married then there is no part of my life that He does not truly understand.

I don’t think I ever felt more alone or farther from the church and Jesus than when I went through my divorce. To this day the denomination I grew up in still has preachers who say you should pray through that marriage – without ever having stepped foot in it. The idea that God hates divorce, abortion, homosexuality, and, at least currently, public education, is a common thread I hear among some of those preachers. That, however, is topic for another post.

My thought on the Huffingtonpost article is if Jesus loved someone enough to marry her then He totally “got” what I was going through when my first marriage fell apart. He got the pain, the confusion, the anger, the loneliness, etc., and He was able to “get it” — better than any preacher who advised me.  How can you possibly understand divorce if you have never even been married?   It makes me look back at that time in my life differently. I really wasn’t alone, spiritually speaking. It also makes my husband of 15 years an even more precious gift to me. I’ve always wondered why God would bless marriage but withhold it from His son.

So, was the document a forgery or was Jesus really married? Who knows? What I do know is the controversy does nothing but benefit Christianity. First, if you believe the document to be true, there’s no doubt Jesus walked this earth and He truly, as the Bible says, lived as a man. If you believe it to be a forgery, you’ve lost nothing because your beliefs about His living a celibate life are still intact.

For me, I welcome the discussion even more now than back in 2012 (or so) when the document was first made public. Regardless of its authenticity, this document did not come as any “shock” to God. Perhaps there’s something we can learn from the discussion.