Eunuchs

The typical definition of a eunuch is a man who has been emasculated. He has no capability to reproduce. Moses barred eunuchs from the sanctuary. This isn't surprising. From Abraham the religion of Israel was a promise that through their seed the nations of the earth would be blessed and that his seed would be innumerable.

Circumcision was a token of this covenant. In fact it was the sign of the penalty for disobedience to the covenant. Obey or the cut goes all the way. In effect, a eunuch was a man who had been rendered incapable of participating in the Abrahamic covenant and was barred from its blessings.

But wait a minute! Isaiah restores faithful eunuchs to the temple. He promises them a name better than sons or daughters. But there is a condition. They must keep the sabbath.

How can we see this as so? Surely we are the product of many generations of sexual reproduction. All physical capacities from head to toe are an inheritance from our parents. But there is a part of us that comes through the word of God that enters in to us through our ears and eyes and forms our souls. A eunuch can participate fully in the planting of the word. Isn't teaching, worshipping, and studying on the sabbath a form of transmission of the word (seed) of God?

So let us broaden the definition of eunuch to include those who choose chastity and a single state for the kingdom of heaven's sake. In some cases circumstances choose it for them but those who keep it faithfully choose it back. Christ promised such great blessings.

I believe that these blessings accrue to married men and women with children who consecrate their marital embrace to self control. Their unspoken and unknown restraint builds in them a quality that blesses others with no need to ever speak of it directly. They are, in their special way, eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's sake.