BROKEN: Bodies (Gender Trouble)

[Read Matthew 18:10-12]

There’s nothing like a busy, crazy, packed week of preparation to impress upon you one very important truth…Men and Women are different. I mean, we have been going like crazy this week trying to get all of the various things done and ready for the end of the school year and—in particular—for the graduation party. We’d be out working in the garage, cleaning and organizing things—me and the five females in my life. They would be working together, chatting away, getting things done, and often found myself saying things like, “What? What do you mean? What thingamajig? Where is ‘over there’? I don’t understand what you’re talking about.” There are times when I feel like the females in my home are speaking a foreign language that I can’t understand. They understand each other perfectly, but I’m often at a loss. 

There were even a couple points where things started to get a little tense. We were trying to put something in a precarious place and were starting to disagree about how we were going to get it into that place. One of them would say, “We need to do it this way” and I would say, “It’s not going to work, we need to do it a different way.” After going back and forth for a little bit, we realized we were actually saying the same thing, just using different words—a foreign language. 

And, as much as this can drive us crazy, it is part of the beauty of God’s creational design. It’s a beautiful thing that we have men and we have women and we are different. I mean, let’s be honest, how beautiful would it be if the world was full of men? And, to be honest, it wouldn’t be any better if the world was filled with women. 

The beauty comes through the differences. If you’ve ever studied photography, you’ll know that one of the key components is something called contrast—especially when you’re doing Black and White photography. A guy named Ansel Adams is known to be one of the greatest Black and White photographers of all time. He’s pretty amazing and I studied his work quite a bit when I was doing a lot of nature photography. Take a look at one of my favorite pictures. What is it that makes this picture so amazing? The contrasts. There are dark blacks and bright whites. And they don’t slowly fade from one to another, but the brights and the darks collide in various places—especially with the glowing river running through the dark valley, or the way the light strikes the tops of the mountains. The contrast is what makes it beautiful—and even more, when the contrasts collide with one another there is beauty. The beauty of this photo comes from the collision of differences. 

That’s what we see in God’s creation as well. As we read through the creation story, we see God creating difference. Right away we read, “And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness.” (Genesis 1:3–4, ESV). That’s the beauty of this photo, the difference of light and darkness. Later we read, “And God said, “Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear.” And it was so.” (Genesis 1:9, ESV). God creates a difference between the water and the land. Again, isn’t that the beauty of that photo, the water running through the land? This is throughout the entire creation story. God creates differences. 

Then, in his final act of creation we read, “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.” (Genesis 1:27, ESV). Here God creates another difference. He creates humanity male and female. And the Bible makes this statement clearly so that we would understand it. When God creates the other animals, he never clearly says he created them male and female. It’s just assumed because he tells them to be fruitful and multiply. However, when God creates humanity, he doesn’t just assume. He makes a clear statement for us, “male and female he created them.” 

Then, he emphasizes this truth even more by connecting all of this with the image of God. We are created in the image and likeness of God—which means we are not God, but are like him and reflect him in certain ways. So, when we read that our maleness and our femaleness is connected to the image of God, it means our maleness and femaleness helps us to reflect the image of God and it’s part of who we are as humans. 

This comes from the fact that our God is a Triune God—this mystery that is hard for us to grasp at times—the fact that our God is three persons, but one essence. The fact that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are all fully God, but are not separate. They are one. Yes, that’s hard to understand, but it’s no harder to understand than what we talked about last week, that in marriage God makes husbands and wives one. And that’s the point. Our God is a God of unity in diversity. At the core of who He is, he is diverse—he is three persons—but he is also completely unified—one being. That’s why we He created a universe—unity in diversity. That’s why throughout creation God was creating differences and unity. That’s why when God created humanity, he created them male and female, then created marriage to unite these different humans together into one. He did all of this because it’s who He is. 

All of this means that the very character of God is written in creation. The fact that we have the contrast of light and dark is because it points us to the God who created the universe. The fact that we have rivers and mountains points us to the God who created the universe. AND, the fact that we have males and females, points us to the God who created the universe. It’s written on our bodies. And to bring all of this to a fine point, all of this points to the central truth that God is the one who created genders. Society hasn’t created gender. Individuals haven’t created genders. God created the  two genders, and wrote that on our bodies, in order to reflect his glory and draw us to himself. 

Now, of course, as we’ve been talking about for quite a while now, things are broken because of sin. When sin entered the world, it infected every aspect of creation. In Romans we read that all of creation is groaning because of sin. Part of the creation that is groaning is our bodies and our souls. They have also been infected by sin and are broken, and in need of healing. 

I don’t think I need to tell many of you this, but none of our bodies are working the way they should be. We hit a certain age and our bodies begin to look like an old pickup that has seen too many Midwest winter roads, slowly being eaten away by rust, parts falling off here and there. We bend over to pick up something and our back goes out and we’re in pain for a week. We’ve all been there—except the young ones in the room, but just wait, just wait…  And, just briefly, our souls have also been infected by sin. They are not functioning at their full capacity either. Remember, we’ve been created body and soul, and we cannot separate those realities or try to emphasize one of those over the other. Both are part of who we are. 

Of course, everything we’ve been saying has been laying a foundation for the rest of our conversation about gender struggles. And when we begin to talk about gender struggles, it’s important to think along the lines of two categories of struggle. It may be too simplistic to say it this way, but I’m going to do it anyway. One struggle is a bodily struggle and the other is a soul struggle. Of course, these are connected, but the struggle primarily resides in one area or the other. 

The bodily struggle has been called intersexuality. This is when someone is born with some type of chromosomal abnormality or with ambiguous genitalia. There’s a brokenness in their body. The soul struggle has been called gender dysphoria. This is when you hear someone say something like, “I feel like a man trapped in a woman’s body” or vice versa. There’s a disconnect between their body and their soul—between what they are feeling on the inside and what is happening on the outside. 

And, as we talk about these things, it’s so important to understand the struggle they are facing. I mean, if you’ve ever talked to someone who has struggled with either of these—and I’ve done both—you know that they are extremely conflicted. They feel torn apart—body and soul—because they are. They are wrestling and struggling and trying to figure things out and it hurts and they’re in pain. And many are trying to take drastic actions in order to remove the pain and feel better. 

So, we need to be able to come alongside those struggling in these areas. We need to bear their burdens. We need to carry their sorrows. We need to bandage their wounds. We need to show care and hospitality.

And, we need to do all of these things while actually helping them—loving them. That means pointing them to the truth of who God created them to be—not the brokenness in which they are currently struggling. Remember, God has created us Body and Soul and we cannot separate those from each other OR try to emphasize one over the other. That means we must never say, this is what my soul says, therefore this is who I am. That’s the wrong way to think and act. 

And when we understand this reality, we are forced to have some difficult conversations because we love them. One of those difficult conversations is that trying to transition to a different gender isn’t going to make things better. It’s actually going to make things worse and more permanent. This is the same thing I said about divorce last week. People are in pain and are hurting, so they look for a drastic solution to get out of the pain and hurt, and end up making a decision that makes things worse. That’s what is going to happen with all those who are trying to transition—taking drastic actions and medications to mess with their body. I’ve seen it over and over again, it doesn’t make anything better. It only makes things more confusing and throws their body out of whack and actually makes things spiral out of control further. It’s not a solution to the struggle, it’s actually making it worse because you’re trying to uncreate something that God has created. And, on the one hand, that’s an impossible task, and on the other hand, any attempts to do that will result in disaster. 

So, it’s actually not loving to embrace someone’s transition because it’s going to hurt them. The most loving thing we can do in these circumstances is walk alongside people, support them, carry their burdens, and help them understand and trust the way God has created them and help them to live into that reality more and more each day. 

That is really the calling for every single one of us in this room. Every one of us must recognize that we’re broken in our own way—each of our bodies is broken in a unique way and each of our souls is broken in a unique way. But thanks be to Jesus Christ who offers us the renewal and restoration of our bodies and our souls. As our souls are withered by sin and rebellion, Jesus comes to offer us forgiveness and renewal of our souls through his life, death, and resurrection. Anyone who grabs hold of him by faith, will receive that forgiveness and the renewal. Then, we continue to live by that faith, walking out of the brokenness of our sin and into who God has created us to be.

And that affects more than just our souls. It also affects our bodies. We’re told this explicitly in 1 Corinthians, “Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.” (1 Corinthians 6:19–20, ESV). Your body is not your own. It belongs to Christ. So, we’re called to glorify God with our bodies.

And one of the ways we do that is by living into the gender God has given us. We glorify God with our bodies when men live like men and women live like women and we both seek to do that more fully each day as we follow Christ. I realize this can be a loaded topic because there’s so many conversations about what it means to be a man or a woman these days. And I’m not up here trying to tell you that every man needs to be a Paul Bunyan or every woman needs to be straight out of the Brady Bunch. It’s a heart issue. Ask yourself, am I doing this because I’m trying to more fully be  the gender God has given me, or am I doing this because I’m trying to rebel against that gender? That’s a powerful question that every single one of us needs to ask. 

As I thought about that question this week, I was thinking about my girls. My two oldest girls have played boys hockey for the past four years. And guess what? They play boys hockey like girls—and I’m not saying that’s a bad thing. It’s different. They are not playing boys hockey because they are trying to be boys, and it’s obvious to everyone watching. They are girls who are playing hockey with boys and there is nothing to be ashamed about in that. And, as they play hockey with those boys, they are actually becoming more feminine because the differences are becoming clearer and clearer.

Now, I’m not saying that everyone has to go out and do something like this. My point is that it’s not always about the external actions. It’s about the heart. Are you doing this to more fully become the gender God has given you, or are you doing this to rebel against the gender God has given you? That’s the question. And when each of us begins to more fully live into the gender God has given us, the contrasts become a little clearer and brighter, and we begin to see this wisdom and beauty of God’s design in creation. 

The call in all of this is to keep our eyes on Jesus Christ—no matter the struggle we have or the brokenness we face. That’s what brings us to our final passages from scripture. This message is extremely different from my typical sermon because I haven’t even spoken about my “official passage” until the end. I’m typically spending the whole sermon explaining one text. This morning it was Genesis 1, but I didn’t want to assign that as my text because I wanted to make people curious. I wanted you to wonder, “Why is this is passage and why hasn’t he talked about it yet?” 

I chose this passage to end my sermon because it catches people off guard. Jesus talks about Eunuchs. Eunuchs were often assistants to the king and often took care of the king’s concubines. In order to make sure the Eunuch wouldn’t mess with the concubines, the king would have this official castrated. It’s even hard for us to grasp that as an official practice, but it was. So, the word “Eunuch” began to be used to describe anyone who was castrated or someone who was born that way. And often, Eunuchs were shunned from society because they were mutilated and unclean. So, I hope you can see how this term, and those with these struggles, are deeply connected with those who are struggling with gender identity issues. 

And in the midst of these struggles Jesus says something shocking to his disciples. He says, “For there are eunuchs who have been so from birth, and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by men, and there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. Let the one who is able to receive this receive it.” (Matthew 19:12, ESV). I don’t have time to get into the specifics of this passage, but here’s the main point: Jesus holds up some Eunuchs as model citizens in the kingdom of heaven. And that was shocking at the time—and may be shocking to some right now. 

But, here’s the principle Jesus is following when he says this. He’s actually looking back to a passage from Isaiah that says, “Let not the eunuch say, “Behold, I am a dry tree.” For thus says the LORD: “To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths, who choose the things that please me and hold fast my covenant, I will give in my house and within my walls a monument and a name better than sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name that shall not be cut off.” (Isaiah 56:3–5, ESV). To the eunuch who follows God, and embraces Jesus Christ by faith, and seeks to deny himself daily, and seeks to follow in Christ’s footsteps, he will be given an everlasting name and will be joined to God’s family, and will not be cut off. 

That’s a beautiful promise for everyone who struggles with gender identity issues—and a beautiful promise for everyone one of us as we struggle with our own issues. It’s not about our struggles—and there’s no struggle that can prevent us from entering into God’s family. The key is looking to Jesus Christ, grabbing hold of him by faith, receiving his forgiveness, and then living out that faith every single moment of every single day, seeking to live the life God has created us to live. When we do those things, every single one of us—no matter what we struggle with—will be given an everlasting name in the house of God and can hold onto the promise that we will never be cut off.