Mark 10.2-16
Some Pharisees came, and to test him they asked, ‘Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?’ He answered them, ‘What did Moses command you?’ They said, ‘Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of dismissal and to divorce her.’ But Jesus said to them, ‘Because of your hardness of heart he wrote this commandment for you. But from the beginning of creation, “God made them male and female.” “For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, 8and the two shall become one flesh.” So they are no longer two, but one flesh.9Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.’
Then in the house the disciples asked him again about this matter. He said to them, ‘Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her; and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.’
People were bringing little children to him in order that he might touch them; and the disciples spoke sternly to them. But when Jesus saw this, he was indignant and said to them, ‘Let the little children come to me; do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs. Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it.’ And he took them up in his arms, laid his hands on them, and blessed them
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So, what a passage to speak about this morning. I’m going to speak about the first few verses, Jesus’ teaching on marriage as it too important to miss. I have written some words about the second part of the passage, the teaching about children and I will post that on my blog. I’m going to be careful as well, as I know that this topic is difficult, sometimes heart wrenching. Remember last week I said that things are not so simple as ‘black and white’ but there is a middle ground where Jesus stands. That seems to contradict what Jesus is saying here. But when we look deeper into this passage, we will see the purpose behind what it says.
The Pharisees have come to Jesus to try to trap him into saying something untoward about marriage. And they do this because they know that Herod Antipas, the ruler of Judea because he married his brother’s wife, something that John the Baptist takes him to task for earlier in the gospel and is rewarded by his head being served up on a platter. So the Pharisees are trying to trap Jesus into saying something potentially treasonous.
He’s asked, verse 2 and following
‘Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?’
He answered them, ‘What did Moses command you?’ They said, ‘Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of dismissal and to divorce her.’ But Jesus said to them, ‘Because of your hardness of heart he wrote this commandment for you. But from the beginning of creation, “God made them male and female.” “For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, 8and the two shall become one flesh.”
So, the Pharisees quote their own law from Moses, who never celebrated divorce but permitted it under quite restricted circumstances. Divorce was common at the time of Jesus, despite the fact that elsewhere in scripture, specifically the prophet Malachi, we are told that God hates divorce. And in those times a man could divorce a woman, but a woman could not divorce a man. But there were legal procedures in place to protect the women from destitution in a society in which the idea of a woman living alone was unthinkable.
Jesus sees through the reasoning of the Pharisees and says that in Old Testament times Moses permitted you divorce because you are hard hearted. In the Greek the word is ‘sklerokardia, sclerosis of the heart.’ in other words, the people at the time couldn’t fulfil the intentions that God has for marriage because of their attitudes, their hardness of heart. If your heart is hard, if you’re stubborn, if you’re selfish, if you are not in tune with God who is love itself, how can you truly love?
Jesus goes all the way back to the original intentions for marriage, back to Genesis:
“6But from the beginning of creation, “God made them male and female.” 7“For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, 8and the two shall become one flesh.””
That is the model, the two shall become one flesh, they should be bound together. In a real sense there are not two people anymore but one couple, consisting of two persons, a new entity. When I conduct a marriage ceremony after I declare a couple married I put their hands together, raise them up and say ‘what God has brought together, let no one put asunder.’ This is the passage that those words come from.
Something else is happening here as well. In those days, a man could present the woman with a bill of divorce and that would be the end of it. Jesus’ teaching is radical here, he says that marriage should not be dissolvable. And he also affirms Jesus also affirms the total equality of both parties in the marriage. In Jewish law, adultery is always term that is referred to something that is done against a man. Jesus recognises that in marriage, there is no hierarchy, rather the couple ‘mutually belong to each other’
All that aside though, Jesus is seemingly being very strict here We may look at this these days and say that that is harsh or it’s unrealistic or what not. But is it really? When vows are made in a church the vow is to be together, ‘till death us do part.’
This is easy for me to say, I am not divorced, and I hope that I never will be. And the church recognises that we live in a fallen world and that marriages do break down. I know of very conservative clergy who have been counselling one or two of the parties in the marriages and concluded that divorce is the best option. Abuses also occur in marriages, and it is right and proper that they should no longer continue in order to prevent further harm to spouse or children. We recognise that.
And yet, Jesus is pointing to something here that is so important we can miss it if we are not careful (remember also that it says elsewhere in the New Testament divorce is permittable under certain circumstances). But what is the thing that Jesus is pointing to? He is referring to the original intentions he had for us. The bonds that we ought to share. He is referring to how things should be I n a world that isn’t broken by sin and death and sorrow and loss, this is how it would be. Nobody who enters a marriage in good conscience goes into it with the intention that it will fall apart. Jesus is giving us a model here, a goal to aim for. But he is doing more than that. For now, thanks to the cross and the resurrection, he is saying that this is now a reality. The restoration of the world has come in Jesus. Our sins paid for by his blood, and we are reconciled to God.
If you are in the situation today where you have been affected by what I have spoken about. Know that God is kind, and that you are loved, cherished, and forgiven by God, do come to him and know that in your hearts. Enter into a whole new world in which God is our king and where we are bound together in love, where original intentions are restored and we know what it means to truly know others, and truly be known by them. And then we will know what it is like to be restored. Amen.
