Within the Bible itself we likewise see God reveal “the most excellent way” in regards to what it means to be holy. The laws in Leviticus suggest that God maintained God’s holiness by remaining separate from anything that might “contaminate” God’s purity. Consequently, in order to be like the God they served, the Israelites also had to set themselves apart from anything impure, anything different, anything that might contaminate them. Examples from the Leviticus 21 passage of contaminants included:
•Attending a funeral (being in the presence of a dead person)
•Shaving one’s head
•Marrying a divorced woman
•Any sort of physical defect
However, when Jesus came, he taught and modeled a deeper, more profound way of understanding holiness. Jesus taught that it is not the things that people come in contact with on the outside that defile them and make them unclean or unholy, but the thoughts and actions that arise from inside them.
1Then some Pharisees and teachers of the law came to Jesus from Jerusalem and asked, 2“Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? They don’t wash their hands before they eat!”
10…Jesus called the crowd to him and said, “Listen and understand. 11What goes into someone’s mouth does not defile them, but what comes out of their mouth, that is what defiles them.”…17“Don’t you see that whatever enters the mouth goes into the stomach and then out of the body? 18But the things that come out of a person’s mouth come from the heart, and these defile them. 19For out of the heart come evil thoughts—murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. 20These are what defile a person; but eating with unwashed hands does not defile them.” (Matt. 15:1–20)
Likewise Jesus taught and demonstrated that, in spite of what it says in Leviticus 21, people with physical defects should not be considered impure, unholy, or sinful just because of their physical realities. This difference between what Jesus believed regarding holiness and the prevailing beliefs of his day are clearly portrayed in the ninth chapter of John’s Gospel.
1As ( Jesus) went along, he saw a man blind from birth. 2His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”
3“Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him. 4As long as it is day, we must do the works of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work. 5While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”
6After saying this, he spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, and put it on the man’s eyes. 7“Go,” he told him, “wash in the Pool of Siloam” (this word means “Sent”). So the man went and washed, and came home seeing.
Christ demonstrated this new teaching, this deeper understanding of holiness in every aspect of his life. Much to the disapproval of the religious leaders of his day, Jesus even ate with “sinners and outcasts”— those considered to be impure according to the holiness teachings found in Leviticus!
Thus, within Jesus’ life and teachings we see the unfolding of a deeper understanding of what it means to be holy, just as we saw, in the previous chapter, a development in the Israelites’ understanding of God’s inclusive nature. Consequently, we see that these verses that were once used to exclude eunuchs from God’s assembly and people with crushed testicles from God’s service can no longer be used in that way today. Indeed, the ongoing revelation of what it means to be holy is good news for the arthritic, the visually challenged, the vertically challenged—and for medically transitioned trans women seeking ordination or wanting to keep their ordination, as well.
5
DEUTERONOMY 22:5
Cross-Dressing to Express One’s Truth or to Do Harm?
When I was a student at Asbury Theological Seminary, my professors taught us that a responsible interpretation of scripture required several things. First, it was important to know the actual meanings of the words we were reading, to understand what they meant in their original Greek (New Testament) or Hebrew (Old Testament). We were also taught that the best way to know the meaning of a specific word was to compare it to other places in scripture where that word was found. Once we had an understanding of the individual words in a verse, then we were to look at the story or passage in which that verse was found to be sure we were interpreting it in its proper context. (Remember the perils of the person in the joke from chapter 2 who went looking for guidance for their life and landed randomly on the verses “He went out and hung himself,” “Go and do likewise,” and “What you are about to do, do quickly”!) Finally, after looking at a verse in its immediate context we were to consider it in the context of the message of the whole Bible. You will recall from our discussion of eunuchs in chapter 3 and our consideration of a priest’s physical defects in chapter 4 that considering a verse in the context of the message of the entire Bible can help us understand whether a prohibition was meant for God’s people only in that particular time or for all time.
INTERPRETATIONS BASED ON THE MEANING OF WORDS AND IMMEDIATE CONTEXT
When attempting to come to a responsible understanding of Deuteronomy 22:5, another one of the biblical passages that appears to explicitly relate to gender variance, it is important to use all of the preceding guidelines. The passage forming the immediate context of this verse is Deuteronomy 22:1–22.
1If you see your fellow Israelite’s ox or sheep straying, do not ignore it but be sure to take it back to its owner. 2If they do not live near you or if you do not know who owns it, take it home with you and keep it until they come looking for it. Then give it back. 3Do the same if you find their donkey or cloak or anything else they have lost. Do not ignore it.
4If you see your fellow Israelite’s donkey or ox fallen on the road, do not ignore it. Help the owner get it to its feet.
5A woman must not wear men’s clothing, nor a man wear women’s clothing, for the Lord your God detests anyone who does this.
6If you come across a bird’s nest beside the road, either in a tree or on the ground, and the mother is sitting on the young or on the eggs, do not take the mother with the young. 7You may take the young, but be sure to let the mother go, so that it may go well with you and you may have a long life.
8When you build a new house, make a parapet around your roof so that you may not bring the guilt of bloodshed on your house if someone falls from the roof.
9Do not plant two kinds of seed in your vineyard; if you do, not only the crops you plant but also the fruit of the vineyard will be defiled.
10Do not plow with an ox and a donkey yoked together.
11Do not wear clothes of wool and linen woven together.
12Make tassels on the four corners of the cloak you wear.
13If a man takes a wife and, after sleeping with her, dislikes her 14and slanders her and gives her a bad name, saying, “I married this woman, but when I approached her, I did not find proof of her virginity,” 15then the young woman’s father and mother shall bring to the town elders at the gate proof that she was a virgin. 16Her father will say to the elders, “I gave my daughter in marriage to this man, but he dislikes her. 17Now he has slandered