Jesus and Masculinity
10 Bible Verses for Reflection
A reader asks via email,
Can you identify the masculine traits that Jesus has handed down to us as individuals or as a society, and any you think we might have lost and to which we could return in a bid to fix or better ourselves as a people?
Since the protector role is the core of masculinity and the culmination of the protector role is self-sacrifice, Jesus is the masculine ideal. The Crucifixion is the apex of masculinity, embodying the fearless discharge of duty without regard to human respect.
To understand what this means, every man should know these ten Bible verses:
“Act like a man, and take courage, and do: fear not, and be not dismayed.” (1 Chronicles 28:20). Don’t be afraid to get married and start a family.
“For while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.” (1 Timothy 4:8) A strong body can’t make up for a weak spirit.
“For God hath scattered the bones of them that please men; they have been confounded, because God hath despised them.” (Ps. 53:5) You are here to fight, not fawn.
“Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. But I will show you whom you shall fear: fear ye Him who, after He hath killed, hath power to cast into hell. I say to you, fear Him.” (Luke 12:4-5) What, exactly, are you afraid of? Why? And what does this say about you?
“He that walketh in the right, and feareth God, is despised by him that goeth by an infamous way.” (Prov. 14:2) No compromise with evil is possible.
“And so train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled.” (Titus 2:4-5) Feminism is a symptom of male failure.
“The patient man is better than the valiant, and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh cities.” (Prov. 16:32). Your own heart is a battlefield.
“He that uses many words, shall hurt his own soul.” (Ecclus. 20:8) Talk is cheap. Being a man is about action.
“If it be possible, as much as you can, have peace with all men.” (Rom. 12:18). Sometimes no peace is possible.
“Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is all man.” (Ecclus. 12:13) Liberation from God’s commands is emasculation.
Every man should also understand how the Devil tempted Christ in the wilderness. Ambrose says on Luke 4:1 that, of his own free will, “Christ was led into the desert for the purpose of provoking the devil. For had he,” i.e. the devil, “not fought, He,” i.e. Christ, “would not have conquered.” No guts, no glory.
Thus Luke 4:5 says, ‘And the devil led him into a high mountain, and shewed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time.’ The three temptations — lust of the flesh, hope of glory, eagerness for power — are those that every man must face. And Aquinas notes that the Devil does not “say merely, ‘if Thou wilt adore me,’ but he adds, ‘if, falling down’”. (my emphasis)
Aquinas quotes Ambrose on this:
"Ambition harbors yet another danger within itself: for, while seeking to rule, it will serve; it will bow in submission that it may be crowned with honor; and the higher it aims, the lower it abases itself."
Abasement, then, is the craven fate of men who will do anything for money. Victims of vanity, they allow their backs to be broken. Such men are not leaders. Honour does not consist in cringing servitude, and once you’re on your knees you never get back up.
Pope Leo stressed (Serm. 1, De Quadrag. 3) that Jesus defeated the Devil in the wilderness not by enforcing His power as God but by quoting the authority of the Law,
"so as to give more honor to His human nature and a greater punishment to His adversary, since the foe of the human race was vanquished, not as by God, but as by man."
Like Jesus, men must refuse to bow.
God's Law, when put into action by men, is enough to defeat all assaults from the devil, as it is such a lowly weapon for the Lord our God to use when He is so great and powerful.
Yet He shows us through example that we mere created things from dust, are capable of defeating God's most terrifying creature by embodying His Law, or in other words; putting on the full armour of God.
"“And so train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled.” (Titus 2:4-5) Feminism is a symptom of male failure."
Feminism is a symptom of some men's failure, but not of men as a whole. It's a correct diagnosis but applied too broadly. This kind of assessment is discouraging to the individual man because it neglects his efforts by conflating him with the failures of those he has no control over.