Divorce
1Jesus then left that place and went into the region of Judea and across the Jordan. Again crowds of people came to him, and as was his custom, he taught them.
2Some Pharisees came and tested him by asking, "Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?"
3"What did Moses command you?" he replied.
4They said, "Moses permitted a man to write a certificate of divorce and send her away."
5"It was because your hearts were hard that Moses wrote you this law," Jesus replied. 6"But at the beginning of creation God 'made them male and female.' 7'For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, 8and the two will become one flesh.' So they are no longer two, but one. 9Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate."
10When they were in the house again, the disciples asked Jesus about this. 11He answered, "Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery against her. 12And if she divorces her husband and marries another man, she commits adultery."
The Little Children and Jesus
13People were bringing little children to Jesus to have him touch them, but the disciples rebuked them. 14When Jesus saw this, he was indignant. He said to them, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. 15I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it." 16And he took the children in his arms, put his hands on them and blessed them.
BACKGROUND READING:
Genesis 2:18-15
Deuteronomy 24:1-4
Matthew 19:1-12
Dig Deeper
Recently, I was watching a television show in which a major evangelical TV evangelist was being interviewed. He was asked a question concerning whether he thought that George W. Bush had been chosen by God to be the President of the United States. He quickly answered in the affirmative, he did believe that to be the case. This was not the real point of the question from the talk show host, however. He was carefully laying a trap. He followed up this question with another. "Was Bill Clinton also God's choice to be president or is God not powerful enough to choose every president?" Sufficiently caught in the trap, in the mind of the commentator, the evangelist nervously joked that God wanted to drive the nation to their knees, but the trap had been sprung, and the commentator proceeded to hammer the pastor's shaky logic.
This is something of the sort of question asked here by the Pharisees. They are asking Jesus about divorce, but that is really not their primary agenda. This question seems innocent enough, though. So why does Mark say that this was a test (the word can also be translated as 'trap')? Why does Jesus not give the same stinging answer in public that he gives to his disciples in private?
The key to understanding all of this is in the location of this incident. This account takes place near the Jordan river in the Judean wilderness. This is where John the Baptist used to teach and baptize. Why was John imprisoned and beheaded? Because he had the nerve to criticize Herod Antipas for marrying his brother's wife. Now the shadows of the trap begin to come into focus.
This doesn't mean that Jesus' words about divorce aren't still insightful and true, it's just that understanding the situation brings everything into better focus. It was obvious, however, to John the Baptist, and many other faithful Jews that Herod's behavior had made it obvious that he was not the true king of the Jews. Plus, any kingdom announcement like the one that Jesus was making was already an affront to Antipas. There was no point in falling into the trap of the Pharisees here and making some sort of treasonous statement.
Jesus can see the trap from a mile away and loses no integrity in his answer. He answers their question in public, but in private gives a stinging rebuke against divorce. He also, seemingly, specifically addresses Antipas' wife Herodias, who divorced Antipas' brother. It is important to understand that ordinary Jewish women would not have been able to get a divorce. This likely means that Jesus' only point in saying anything about a woman divorcing her husband was as a specific commentary on Herodias.
Jesus' public discussion on divorce is quite interesting. The question from the Pharisees is whether divorce is lawful. Jesus asks them a question which they don't really answer: What did Moses command you? They respond by citing the exceptions to divorce that were contained in the law, but that is not what Jesus asked them about. Jesus' then answers his own question by quoting for them what had been commanded about marriage in the law. This was Moses' command concerning marriage and it speaks for God on the subject: What God has joined together let man not separate. This isn't to imply that Moses was wrong in his exception, but that one needs to go back to the account of creation itself to see what God's will for marriage is. Marriage creates not a new partnership but a new human being that should never be separated. In Jesus' mind, what Moses wrote in Genesis (Jesus assumes that Moses was the author) spoke for God on the subject of marriage and divorce.
Moses gave exceptions because of the hardheartedness of the Israelites. They were unwilling and unable to hold to God's intentions. This has implications for Jesus' own ministry. In Moses' day, Israel was unable to fulfill God's intentions and needed laws that represented the second best reality. In the same way, Israel was to have been God's light to the world, but hardheartedness had foiled that ideal as well. In suggesting a return to the strict ideal standards of Genesis, Jesus is either hopelessly idealistic or believes that his work of inaugurating the kingdom will somehow offer a cure to this hardheartedness of human beings.
Jesus' final words in this section, concerning children make more sense when we keep in mind the low first-century views of children. The key words here are such as these. He is not talking specifically about children (although he certainly loved and was concerned about children), he is saying that the kingdom of God is not about personal status, it is about humility.
Devotional Thought
Jesus had a great deal of wisdom in realizing that it was not always the time and place to say everything that he believed. What can we learn from this? Has there ever been a time when you shared your feelings on a subject, but in retrospect realized that it was not the best time to say it? What can you learn from Jesus' actions here to apply your life?
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