January 11, 2015: What We Really Want – Landon Lynch

What do we do with verses like, Your stature is like that of the palm, and your breasts like clusters of fruit. I said, “I will climb the palm tree; I will take hold of its fruit.” [7.7,8] Umm, good question isn’t it?

Some, actually many, tried to make this about something else. Because talking about this in the confines of Scripture is one thing, but talking about this out loud in a room full of people, or writing a book about it is another thing entirely. Perhaps this is why Early Church Fathers like Origen argued the breasts the young man so desperately wanted to grab and hang on to were clearly the Old and New Testament. The only problem is when this was written there was no New Testament. 

Chances are the young man is graphically expressing what he actually wants to do. So where does this leave us? It leaves us in the place where we all are … a recognition that sexual desire and sexuality are not bad or wrong or dirty or shameful. Rather they are God given and a beautiful part of being human.

Not only that, but our sexual desire and our sexuality is something that actually points us to God and has much to teach us about our deepest desires and longings. As G.K. Chesterton said, “A man knocking on the door of a brothel is knocking for God.” What he is getting at is what we will talk about … our sexual desire tells us much about our spiritual longings.