2022/03/07

29. The Apostles

Let us continue our previous discussion. When the Pharisees asked Jesus why Moses had commanded people to give a certificate of divorce and to put their wife away, he replied, "For your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so" (Matthew 19:8). The fact that divorce was of Moses' discretion tells us that marriage was a human-made social institution in which the difficulties of the relationship between a man and a woman were already embedded.¹ Jesus was sent to the earth carrying the new role for the new men and women, who would directly receive the work of God's creation. So, he advised his disciples, "There are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. He who is able to receive this, let him receive it."² As appears in the Acts of the Apostles,³ at that time, there were men called eunuchs who willingly risked their lives to castrate themselves to obtain an advantageous position and serve the king, the harem and so on. However, since Jesus was the only one who knew what was the "kingdom of heaven" at this time, "eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven" was referring to Jesus himself. Jesus requested his disciples to follow in the footsteps of their master and become eunuchs without castration. For the Apostles, who were men among the disciples, the parable of those who were willing to be castrated to enter government office must have been sobering. We know that they accepted to follow their master for the sake of the Kingdom of Heaven because, at the last supper, Jesus reported to the Father, "They have kept thy word" (John 17:6). He asked the Father to unite them with the Holy Spirit, just as he and the Father were one, for them who would remain in the world.⁴ The Apostles, to whom Jesus gave the authority to forgive sins after his resurrection, were to bear the role of producing the Body and Blood of Christ by the Holy Spirit who had descended. Jesus, the Word, was born into the world as a male with divine maternity. It is because the Father is God the father, whereas the Word is God the mother, as it is written, "all things were made through him" (John 1:3).⁵ The Holy Spirit descends with divine maternity as Jesus' representative. Jesus chose male disciples like himself and named them Apostles so that the Holy Spirit, who does not have his own body, could bear witness to Jesus,⁶ who is a man of divine maternity. For they, who have been with Jesus from the beginning, also bear witness as helpers of the Holy Spirit.⁷ Jesus gave the new men a new role of the helper of the Holy Spirit who has divine maternity.

Reference 1. this blog #27, 2. Matthew 19:12 (the Japanese translation of the Bible does not adopt the translation 'eunuch' here.), 3. Acts 8:26-39, 4. John 17:11, 5. John 1:1-4, this blog #26, 6. John 15:26, 7. John 15:27

Maria K. M.