Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost 10/7/12

Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost 10/7/12 Text: Mark 10:1-12 Title: Marriage; a Reflection of God’s Love? Today’s gospel reading concerning the asking of Jesus by the Pharisees on the legality of divorcing a wife can be easily misinterpreted and applied. Thus it is critical that you know the, as Paul Harvey used to say, “The rest of story.” Jesus was under attack by the Pharisees who want to trap him into stating a blasphemy thus enabling them to have him killed. To understand why they asked the question of the legality of divorce you need to understand what was behind the question, “"Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?" By Jesus day there were two different rabbinical teachings concerning divorce; one very conservative and the other very liberal. On the conservative side the belief was that a man could not divorce his wife unless she had done something indecent. In other words something morally wrong. On the liberal side it was believed that a man could divorce his wife for any reason; say burning his supper or just finding another woman he wanted to have as a wife. It is important to also know that wives had, for the most part no legal standing. They were objects to be owned. They were owned by her father, or her brother, if her father had died, then by her husband. The closest modern day example would be someone owning a slave which was considered property and which by law you could legally do anything you wanted with. This was the rule for thousands of years. Moses in making divorce part of the religious code actually improved a woman’s lot in life, for the husband had to give her proof that he no longer owned her and was not going to use her again. Life was still terrible for a divorced woman, but at least she had that proof, so that she could legally remarry. That is the setting that Jesus finds himself in. It is a trap, for no matter what Jesus answered they had him and then they could get rid of him. If he agrees with divorcing a wife for any cause they could charge him with moral laxity. If he agreed with the other argument which stated that a man could not divorce his wife unless she had done something indecent then they would find fault with his eating with those they called sinners. They just knew they had him. Jesus surprised them by not answering their question, but asking a question of them. "What did Moses command you?" he asked. They were quick with an answer and in doing so stepped right into the trap. "Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of divorce and to send her away." they responded; sure they had him. But they didn’t, for Jesus told them that Moses only wrote that law which is found in Deuteronomy, "Because of your hardness of heart he wrote you this commandment.” He had them. They who were so righteous in the eyes of themselves and usually the community were struck with the law of God and they could not escape from it. Their mistake was that they thought that God from the time he had created Adam and Eve had already taken into account that there would be divorce in his creation. Hardheartedness kept them from understanding that God, as Jesus says in the text, “But from the beginning of creation, 'God made them male and female.' 7 'Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, 8 and the two shall become one flesh.' So they are no longer two but one flesh. 9 What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate." It cannot be overlooked by them, and certainly not us that, although Eve was created after Adam, he had already been created male. Thus by Adam’s very creation, even before Eve was created, God had instituted marriage. It was as I said earlier pure simple hardheartedness, for them to argue about what Moses had given them and the intent God had for marriage even before he created Eve. Now that causes us a real problem, for I would bet, if I were a betting man, that many of you, if not all of you might think that because there are so many different marriage laws, depending on the country or for that matter the state you find yourself in that it really is just something that we humans came up with over time. Interesting, but wrong, for Genesis 2:24 tells us, Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. God instituted marriage, not human beings and because God created marriage and not human beings in God’s eyes we have no right to dissolve it, for as he says, “What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate." Since there is probably not a single family that has not been touched by divorce these word of Jesus concerning divorce can strike our heart. We, or at least someone we know, stand guilty before God. Divorce is a sin and while it has devastating results. Just ask any divorced person, even those who have come out of abusive relationships it is something they live with in some manner or other, for the rest of their lives. And in case any of you are getting rather smug about not ever being divorced remember that we are all sinners, who still deserve God’s wrath and will continue to until we take our last breath. We are lost. We need help and the only person that can help us is Jesus. Sin of any kind; whether it is what we call the big ones; divorce, homosexuality, and murder or some little thing like what we call a white lie are all alike. We in our sinfulness have divorced ourselves from God. We are lost even though we think we are found. We are alone, even though we surround ourselves with people. We are destitute even while we amass goodies. All because we have broken our vows to God that we made in our confirmation. You know the ones where we said, “We would be faithful to the Word of God.” We are in a world of hurt and in that world of hurt steps Jesus, the God man who met the demands of God, who felt the pain of separation, as he cried out "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" In that cry Jesus himself felt the pain, the wrath of God for all people. In that cry separated from God; divorced from existence, we hear the good news of peace, “It is finished.” We are no longer divorced from God, but joined together for all eternity. What God has joined together, we cannot separate! Joined now to Christ, new things happen. Our separation from God is healed. We are one flesh with Christ. Living as forgiven sinners, we no longer need to harden our hearts to survive, nor do we need to get out of our relationship with God. Our hearts are healed into his flesh, and we are joined together with all of God’s creation in his salvation. We no longer have to harden our hearts against the pain and the problems of life. We don’t have to live in fear of what the divorce or the previous or for that matter present relationship has done to us. We have been made new in Christ. Think about that for a moment. You have been made new. You are a new person given the power of Jesus. This newness, this power of Jesus frees you to live, not as you lived before, as bad or not as bad, as that might have been, connected to Jesus in holiness; saint and sinner at the same time trusting in God. You know this forgiveness and because you know it you are free to share the love of God with those who are trapped in similar situations of life. Amen