Jesus & Queerness: Entertaining Angels | Lent Devotional Day 22

Exploring the Meaning of Jesus’ Death
March 11, 2026
Written by Adam Baker

Jesus & Queerness: Entertaining Angels

Scripture:

Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it. (Hebrews 13:2)

Reflection:

As you’ve read through these reflections, how have you felt about “queer theology” and “queerness” in relation to Jesus? Has it made you unsettled or uncomfortable, or encouraging, freeing, and even joyful? Even in a church that openly celebrates LGBTQIA+ persons, being asked to consider the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus as “queer” may be challenging for some.

Humans often construct shared meaning around what we share with others, be that cultural or religious affiliation, racial or gender categories, or political identity. This ‘sameness’ offers a sense of predictability and belonging, even as it may keep us from encountering wonder. God created us and recognizes this tendency we have to battle insecurity through enforced sameness.

That’s why the invitation to consider Jesus as “queer” is important to sit with. Although Jesus may not have been “queer” in regard to sexual orientation or gender as they are currently understood, his queerness, otherness, difference, and insistence upon standing with other marginalized persons is beyond doubt. Jesus lives and teaches a holy love that entirely reconstructs our shared meaning, if we allow it. He crosses categories and overflows binary boundaries, inviting us to see diversity of thought and identity as a place where God loves to dance. The places of queerness may just be where we discover holiness.

There are many ways that queer theology attempts to understand atonement, but most share a belief that atonement theories are largely connected to a worldview of ‘traditional’ gender identity and sexual orientation norms. Queer folks understand that the majority of people in the world identify as cisgender (a gender corresponding to the sex one was assigned at birth), heterosexual (sexually attracted to members of the opposite sex), and binary (gender and sexuality defined strictly as male or female) in their understanding of what it means to be human. Because of this, queer or LGBTQIA+ persons live as a minority, forming community at the margins.

Christ as queer either challenges our norms or affirms what we’ve always hoped could be ‘normal’ and ‘good’. Whatever our experience, Christ’s queerness challenges our fear, inviting us to find shared meaning in ever-expanding love.

Prayer: 

Jesus, meet us in the places where we are uncertain and afraid. Overflow our insecurities and invite us outside of our defensive walls. Help us to ask why we defend what we defend, where we distance ourselves from difference, and how your life, death, and resurrection invite us to live in a love whose welcome queers our entire way of understanding the world. May we find shared meaning in your gospel of love.

Amen.

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