Like Other Men

I doubt the Israelites had chamberpots, anyway.
Or that our savior was required to relieve himself like other men.

 - Locke & Key: Clockworks #1 

by Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez

This is a throw-away gag. A brief joke referring to a previous blip of dialogue that breaks up the dire seriousness of the actual discussion. The conversation moves right along. If this was a film or television show, the viewer would either immediately get the joke or wouldn't. Time would not be allowed for the viewer to think about the quick comment.

It's a good laugh. But like most things in Wednesday Theology, it's so much more.

I don't know about the chamberpots bit. Archaeologists and historians have probably written amazingly thorough books and articles about the waste disposal habits of ancient Israel. I have not read any such books. Yet. But, I'm sure they had some system at hand when nature called in the middle of the night.

But did Jesus have to relieve himself like other men? I sure hope so. The orthodox view of the incarnation assures that Jesus was both fully divine and fully human. Having to take a leak is definitely a trait of being fully human.

Of course, Christians usually don't focus too much on the human aspect of Christ. Sure, we celebrate that he was human and suffered real pain at the cross. But other than that pain and suffering, we don't really ponder too much about the fleshy attributes of Jesus.

Pop culture, however, enjoys contemplating the humanity of Christ, usually to organized Christianity's chagrin (look up the reaction to the movie version of The Last Temptation of Christ, for example. Crap, just say "Da Vinci Code" in a church and see what happens). Graphic literature, with its relatively small readership, usually falls under the radar, at least until a movie adaptation is released. Can you imagine the uproar if HBO ever gets a Preacher series off the ground? Or if Mark Millar ever makes a movie adaptation of Chosen happen? It'll be great!

Speaking of Chosen, I've talk about it and its examination of the humanity of Christ before. Some of the topics in that overlap with this excerpt from Locke & Key. If our savior did indeed relieve himself like other men, then his parents also had to toilet-train at some point. The human body can be a messy, disgusting meat-bag. According to the incarnation, so was Christ's worldly body.