Why I'm Not Stressed About The DaVinci Code

I’ve been dabbling a little bit in some discussions about The DaVinci Code online, and last night at Dan & Ji Hua’s reception, we got to talking a little bit about both the book and film and Jesus Himself. I realized that what you believe about Jesus makes such a difference in how you respond to things like The DaVinci Code storyline. If you believe that Jesus was a good man, a spiritual wise man who taught good things like love and peace then why wouldn’t he get married? Why wouldn’t he have children? Dan suggested that perhaps Jesus took some time (maybe during those 30 years before his public ministry) to visit other regions of the world and learn the spiritual wisdom that these cultures had to offer. If you believe that Jesus was a worthy prophet among many worthy prophets, why not? But if you believe that Jesus was something more, that He was Divine, that He came as more than a bearer of a message of “love”, but instead to solve the fundamental problem of human existence, to reconnect all of us to our Creator, then His having married and having a human family does not seem possible. How could the God of the universe tie himself to one human being, to one human family above all others. Isn’t that what we do when we marry? “forsake all others?” How could Jesus forsake all the rest of us in favor of Mary Magdalene?

And is it really so shocking that Jesus might not have chosen to get married? Don’t many of us choose to remain unmarried and childless for various reasons. Why couldn’t Jesus have made the same choice? But of course there is the question of sex. In our oversexualized culture, people tend to think, how could Jesus possibly have lived without sex? How can ANY person live without sex? Well, unlike food, air, and water, nobody ever died of abstinence. I know it may feel impossible to live without sex, but it isn’t. Jesus was pretty focused on the task at hand. While I know he was tempted by sex, while I’m sure He would have liked to get married, to share the love of a woman, I believe He chose to resist those temptations, not because they were “sinful”, but because they were incompatible with His mission. (It’s interesting that the last film to cause a big ruckus in the Christian community was The Last Temptation of Christ, wherein Jesus is depicted daydreaming about marrying and having children. Again I feel that the Christian church may have overreacted. Christians didn’t want it suggested that Jesus was even TEMPTED by such things. Now here’s a book/movie that comes right and out and said He did it—He got married, He had kids and we’re up in arms again. The Last Temptation seems tame by comparison, huh.) But if you don’t really buy into a world beyond this one, if you don’t believe that there are things that are bigger than the passing “needs” of the flesh, then I suppose it would be hard to comprehend a grown man choosing to eschew a sexual relationship. In a strictly physical world, a world without God, sexuality is about as close to the sublime as it’s possible to get.

If Jesus is merely a teacher of love and peace then, we can rightly say that He is on par with all religious leaders—that He is just one option among many that describe how we should live and how we should treat each other. Many have suggested that Jesus never claimed to be more than this, a spiritual man espousing the golden rule. They say that His followers are the ones that applied the larger agenda, the label of “Savior of the world” and “Lamb of God” but Jesus never claimed this for Himself. This however, is mere speculation. Because Jesus never wrote His own story, we have only the accounts of His followers, so we must look at what they say Jesus said of Himself.

And what does Jesus think of Himself? He definitely claimed to have a special connection to God—in fact, to be God Himself. Even in the book of Mark, which I understand is considered the most “accurate” of the gospels among skeptical scholars who make such distinctions (John is considered the “least accurate”), in the first few chapters Jesus takes upon Himself Godly prerogatives—the power to forgive sins, the Lordship of the Sabbath day. He definitely had a fatalistic view of His life on this earth. He seemed certain that He had come to die, that this was His purpose. His crucifixion was not the result of some chance change in the winds of popularity. He chose it, allowed it to happen. He clearly believed that He needed to die. He also clearly believed that He would rise again, that death would not conquer him permanently. This is what Jesus claimed about Himself. This is not the apostles or Paul or later church father’s applying these beliefs to Him. He claimed them for Himself. And if you choose to accept His claims, then you know that The DaVinci Code is a yarn, a story, a fiction, a thriller written like all thrillers with factual sounding fictions to make it seem more realistic. Perhaps the Christian church has overreacted to this book and the ensuing film (as the Christian church does when ever something is a bestseller. There are all kinds of heresies in print and film that go unchallenged simply because they’re not that successful). I can understand the Catholic church’s feeling threatened. After all, if part of your theology is based on the authority and infallibility of the Church and a book comes out says that the Church is lying or “covering up” the truth, then you definitely have a problem. But if your theology is based on the authority and infallibility of the Scriptures alone, then someone suggesting that there is a “cover-up” won’t hold as much of a threat. Obviously, if you aren’t certain you believe that the Bible is the word of God, then other ancient documents—Gnostic texts, other gospels, and DaVinci codes—may have their appeal. But if you believe in the Bible then you have only to look there. Based on Who Jesus claimed to be, based on what Scripture says He did, based on the fact that the Bible does not say that He got married, and that based on Who He claimed to be and what He came to do, marriage would have been impractical, we can say for certain that Jesus did not marry anyone nor have any children.

It follows then that someone suggesting that Jesus was married should arouse in believers no more than a yawn and a shrug. There’s nothing particularly compelling or faith shattering here. It’s just a story.

One final note here. I don't see why Christians insist that the film should have a disclaimer stating that the film is fictious. The makers of this film are not Christians as far as I know, and if they are certainly not orthodox ones. One of the actors said they felt that the Bible should have a disclaimer stating that it is fiction. Clearly they don't believe orthodox Christianity is true any more than I believe that orthodox Hinudism is true. Given that, why on earth would they feel compelled to state that The DaVinci Code is fictional. Heck, its ALL fictional to them. And viewers should already know that what they are viewing is not what mainstream Christianity teaches. After all that is the POINT of the movie. Christians are basically asking these filmmakers, in placing a disclaimer at the beginning of their film, to endorse Christianity as nonfiction, as the "real" Truth, which they should not have to do unless they actually believe that to be the case.