Beards, Lust and Joseph

Sex.

Pornography.

There it has been said. Maybe we can all breathe a little easier as we acknowledge the anxiety we have when seeing a topic like lust is on tap. But is sex and pornography all there is when talking about and dealing with lust? Within society and even within the walls of the church, an industry has been made to engage this topic – both in ways to ‘free’ individuals. Might lust actually be tapping into some thing more within us? With lust, could ‘this’ really be more about ‘that’?

BEARDS

Somewhere between rise of Mumford and Son, urban lumberjacks and the discovery by males of their ability to grow facial hair, the beard has received its stamp of approval by the masses. Over the past few years in my circle of friends I have seen and partaken myself in the rise of this fad. Yet recently I have experienced an interesting dynamic come to the forefront. My female friends have begun to speak openly about their appreciation for those blessed with abundant facial hair follicles. Some going as far as say if a potential male to date does not have one it is deal breaker to others speaking of how the combination of a beard with other traits makes them swoon to no end.

As my realization of my female friends fascination with beards became more apparent, I was confronted with interesting thoughts as I engaged them in conversation about this. There was a loose familiarity of conversations that I had in my youth about certain female body parts with friends, no doubt tamer. Yet being bearded myself, I began to feel this strange reverse objectification and at a loss as to how to even confront and handle the things my friends were saying – often dismissed because this was different from our common understanding of objectification.

There are things about another that intrigue us, fascinate us and draw us to them. The danger lies when a man’s beard simply becomes a beard.Take a moment and jump over to Genesis 39 and read this passage.

IT DOESN'T JUST HAPPEN

‘Now Joseph was well built and handsome and after a while his master’s wife took notice’

Although we can look back through Joseph’s life and see that by no means any of us would want to have to live the same story of hardship and blessing, in the end there was some thing dynamic about his man. As such Potiphar was drawn to him when he purchased him to be his slave and continued to see some thing in him as he overtime became and treated as equals with his master.

It was just that Joseph looked the part, Joseph was a looker – and if it helps, he had a beard too. He did things well – so well that many of the things he touched prospered. No doubt Potiphar appreciated this, his family appreciated this and we might even venture that those he worked with did too. And somewhere along the line, Potiphar’s wife took notice.

What probably started as just a passing glance developed into longer gazes. Maybe the appreciation she had for him took seat and opened the door for other thoughts. Either way, some thing more had begun to happen inside of her mind.By no means was this simply some thing that clicked for her - in the few short words of this passage one might assume that it might have because her pursuit and intentions become clear. Some time had passed between Joseph’s arrival in their household and her pursuit of him. Though it was in a single that moment, her appreciation was no longer for Joseph and what he did for the household but to have this individual for herself – she had to have him.

THE BEARD SEPARATE FROM THE MAN

Then it happened one day, Joseph was going about his daily duties and caught alone in the house, unlike previous times with the Potiphar’s wife, Joseph was cornered. She was not going to take no for an answer, this day would be the day that her fantasy would become a reality no matter what Joseph might do. Appreciation and intrigue had gone out the window and in it’s stead lust and desire to get what she wanted took their place.The thoughts and dreams she had about Joseph were no longer enough for her – this man, this body, they had to be hers for her pleasure. Yet Joseph, being grabbed and cornered by his cloak somehow managed to break free, running naked out of the household. Her lust had taken some thing from him, no longer a loyal servant he was simply a body.There comes a point where intrigue and attraction turn dark, where lust enters and detaches us from one another, from a person and focus’ solely on ourselves – our needs, our desires. It robs from not only ourselves but those around us – our personhood, our being, our worth.

When we have been robbed, we do everything we can to reclaim ourselves. Joseph, naked and outside of the household, had been unwillingly robbed of his loyalty to his master – had only his conviction that he did right to hold onto. Even after Joseph was able to leave, Potiphar’s wife felt cheated and robbed of what she deserved. So much so that she would not allow Joseph off hook, she would take what she could from him – even if that meant lying to have him punished.In lust, we become disconnected from ourselves and one another. We dehumanize another and objectify – seeing only the things that fulfill our need.

TOGETHER WITH THE EUCHARIST

The early followers of Christ saw the dangers of many things – one of them being lust. Some sought isolation to deal with this struggle, focusing on a life devoted to communion with oneself and God. Others pursued other forms of isolation by cutting themselves off from certain types of food, communication, and interaction with the opposite gender. Each of these has their place, these forms of fasting help rest set us and focus us on our need for Christ and Him alone. To confront lust certainly seasons of removing ourselves from the things that tempt us are beneficial. Yet, fasting is seasonal.Jesus continually invites us into the wholeness of who He created us to be, everyday. Time and again, He extends individuals grace who have been wronged and who have lived lifestyle seeking out their own pleasures. Often coming over a shared meal. Because there is some thing about when we sit at a table with those we have wronged and objectified. One simple act we are invited into is the practice of the Eucharist. In a shared meal, we are challenge to see them, not just a feature or a trait but who they really are. And they, us. Christ’s invitation at this table is not one we take but one that we receive.

In these simple elements of bread and wine we are nourished with the goodness of what it meant for Him to be broken and bleed for us - we are reminded of all that is good and intended. We remember and reclaim sex and our sexuality has the things not to hide in a corner but to celebrate when it is partaken in a manner that honors not only ourselves but another. We remember and reclaim the ‘beards’ we have taken from another. The practice of the Eucharist is more that a monthly exercise within the walls of the church but a practice that is shared amongst and with the communities live on a daily basis, simply over the act of sharing a meal.

So may we remember that we are not alone. May we remember that there is more to another than what we might get from them for ourselves. And may we be people who join with Christ in lifting up the full humanity of everyone in our world.