{"id":11380,"date":"2021-02-07T19:49:04","date_gmt":"2021-02-07T19:49:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theologie.whp.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/?p=11380"},"modified":"2023-02-05T17:25:08","modified_gmt":"2023-02-05T16:25:08","slug":"mark-102-16-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/mark-102-16-4\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark 10:2-16"},"content":{"rendered":"

18th Sunday After Pentecost, October 8, 2006 <\/strong>
\nA Sermon based on Mark 10:2-16 (RCL) by Hubert Beck <\/strong><\/h3>\n

Pharisees came up and in order to test him asked, \u201cIs it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?\u201d He answered them, \u201cWhat did Moses command you?\u201d They said, \u201cMoses allowed a man to write a certificate of divorce and to send her away.\u201d And Jesus said to them, \u201cBecause of your hardness of heart he wrote you this commandment. But from the beginning of creation, \u2018God made them male and female. Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.\u2019 So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n

And in the house the disciples asked him again about this matter. And he said to them, \u201cWhoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her, and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n

And they were bringing children to him that he might touch them, and the disciples rebuked them. But when Jesus saw it, he was indignant and said to them, \u201cLet the children come to me; do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God. Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.\u201d And he took them in his arms and blessed them, laying his hands on them.<\/em> (English Standard Version)<\/p>\n

THE KINGDOM OF GOD \u2013 A FAMILIAL COMMUNITY <\/strong><\/p>\n

Jesus, the Discomforter<\/p>\n

The words of Jesus are uncomfortable: \u201cBecause of your hardness of heart he wrote you this commandment [concerning divorce]. But . . . \u2018a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.\u2019 . . . What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate,\u201d he says, citing today\u2019s First Lesson<\/p>\n

The Pharisees who \u201ccame up to test him\u201d concerning marriage and divorce were undoubtedly uncomfortable, for they knew the answer to their question already, as Jesus suggested when he asked what Moses had said concerning the subject of divorce. They were very likely quite unhappy with his retort that divorce was not in the intended order of things. It was only an accommodation to their \u201chardness of heart\u201d that caused Moses to write what he did.<\/p>\n

His response was equally uncomfortable to the disciples evidently, for they inquired further about the matter once they were alone with him. He only reinforced what he had said earlier with perhaps still harder words: \u201cWhoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her, and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.\u201d This very stance cost John the Baptizer his life when he objected to the illicit divorce and remarriage of Herod to Herodias.<\/p>\n

Jesus\u2019 words have made many people uncomfortable through the ages, for dissatisfaction with a partner, unhappy alliances made in marriage, discontent of every sort have caused the dissolution of marriages without number . . . all in the face of what Jesus says in our text. Even a major division in the church took place over Jesus\u2019 saying when Henry VIII separated the English church from the Roman Church because he could not receive permission for his sought-after divorce from Catherine of Aragon. Clearly Jesus\u2019 saying at the heart of today\u2019s Gospel reading has made many a person uneasy over the course of the church\u2019s history, for it makes demands that have seemed unbearable to those who sought relief from unhappy circumstances.<\/p>\n

Even Paul, in counseling the Corinthians (I Cor. 7:10-16) concerning marriage and the possibility of divorce doesn\u2019t hold quite as hard a line as Jesus does in our text, for Paul at least makes room for the possibility of a believer and an unbeliever divorcing if the situation comes to such a head. The church throughout the ages, recognizing such extreme circumstances, has many times over found reason to sanction divorce \u2013 not as an ideal, but as an extreme circumstance.<\/p>\n

So how comfortable are you, now that the subject has been introduced in such stark terms as Jesus presents in speaking of divorce and remarriage? Whether you, yourself, have come from a home in which divorce separated your mother from your father or whether you, yourself, have come to a place in a marriage where divorce was deemed better than staying together or whether you, yourself, have ever passed judgment in your heart on those who were divorced \u2013 whether divorce in any fashion has touched your life . . . are you comfortable with these words of Jesus?<\/p>\n

I am quite sure you are not, for it is a hard-nosed saying, to be sure. \u201cWhat . . . God has joined together, let not man separate.\u201d If you have ever heard these words at your wedding or another\u2019s wedding, they probably did not strike you with the extreme force that struck the Pharisees with whom Jesus was speaking nor the disciples who inquired about them later, for within the lifetime of some of you who hear this Gospel reading for who knows how many times divorce has not only become far more possible than it was only a relatively short time ago . . . it is also practiced with far greater ease and frequency than was ever imagined a mere fifty to seventy five years ago.<\/p>\n

So what do you make of these discomforting words?<\/p>\n

Or, for that matter, what did you make of those uncomfortable words that were read as last<\/strong> Sunday\u2019s Gospel? \u201cIf your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than with two hands to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire. And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life lame than with two feet to be thrown into hell. And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into hell.\u201d Is the kingdom of God only for blind quadriplegics? What is Jesus all about? We all too frequently speak of Jesus as though his kindness was so great that he would neither speak a harsh word nor commit a harsh act. It is only when we listen to him seriously that we find, rather, that he \u201csticks it to us\u201d far more than we like to hear.<\/p>\n

Listen to him again next <\/strong>week. When a rich young man inquires about inheriting eternal life, Jesus tells him that the one thing necessary is to \u201cgo, sell all that you have and give it to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.\u201d \u201cHow difficult it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God! . . . It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.\u201d Jesus says. And again the disciples are highly distressed, just as in today\u2019s Gospel. They, who have themselves forsaken everything to follow Jesus, ask, \u201cThen who can be saved?\u201d His declaration is terribly uncomfortable even for those closest to him.<\/p>\n

So what are we, gathered here today, to do with these sayings of the one whom we revere and call Lord? Are we to simply brush them aside as the sayings of someone who doesn\u2019t seem to be in touch with the reality we experience every day of our lives? Can we possibly take them seriously and still call ourselves his followers if he calls us to a way of life that is beyond our keeping?<\/p>\n

Jesus, the Bearer of Truth<\/p>\n

But would we even want<\/em><\/strong> to follow him if he asked for less? Would we be enchanted by a Jesus who reduced the requirements of the Father to a \u201cDo the best you can\u201d type of appeal? Would we respect a Jesus who said, \u201cThe Father asks a great deal of you, but in the interests of your obvious weakness I am willing to receive you if you only take divorce seriously enough that you do it no more than in absolutely extreme circumstances\u201d? Would we be able to call Jesus Lord if he told us that he was repealing, annulling, canceling out the extremity of the original intention of marriage with a new, though still highly restrictive, understanding of what was originally intended in marriage? Do we not long for a representative of God to tell us what God wants of his creation rather than for one who is willing to compromise God\u2019s intention in the interests of our own wayward wills?<\/p>\n

It is for those who want a Lord bearing divine and eternal truth that Jesus unremittingly requires of us that which the Father<\/strong> requires of us, tells us the unvarnished truth rather than a watered down truth, leads us to the fountain of original intentions rather than to the brackish waters of humanly tainted expressions of what we hope the Father will settle for. No hand or foot or eye or self-serving search for personal happiness is worth more than the Father\u2019s will if by that will we can enter the kingdom of God. \u201cSalt is good,\u201d we heard Jesus say last week, \u201cbut if the salt has lost its saltiness, how will you make it salty again?\u201d In other words, \u201cThe word of the Lord is good. If you want anything less than true salt, you will never have full undistorted truth.\u201d Better by far to hear God\u2019s will for what it is than to try to figure out ways to make it more comfortable, more manageable, more acceptable to our human taste.<\/p>\n

Only a truth-full Jesus is acceptable as Lord. And truth he will tell, you can be sure.<\/p>\n

The Question Restated<\/p>\n

Something has happened in the course of the questioning and response we hear in the Gospel, and it is this: Jesus has turned the very nature of the discourse on its ear. The Pharisees, in \u201ctesting\u201d Jesus, have essentially asked the question, \u201cWhat is allowed<\/strong> concerning marriage and divorce?\u201d Jesus\u2019 response turns the question to \u201cWhat is intended<\/strong> by marriage\u201d<\/p>\n

In doing this Jesus makes clear that God\u2019s intention in marriage is to establish a solid base for life in community. The Pharisees are asking about how to protect an individual\u2019s happiness, how to secure for one\u2019s own self, the place that seems best to the individual. How can marriage serve the marriage partners, giving them the most happiness . . . and if it fails in that, what allowances are there for getting out of the marriage?<\/p>\n

It is a subtle switch that Jesus makes, but a very significant one . . . especially for our time when the individual is understood to be the supreme concern and the interests of the community are secondary. Jesus indicates that marriage is a \u201ccommunity affair,\u201d not simply in the sense of the husband and wife in their own private lives together under one roof, but in the sense that the entire community around them discovers through<\/strong> the married couple a better understanding of how people with varying interests, concerns, strengths, weaknesses, desires, worries, fears, anxieties, joys, happinesses, etc., can live together under God in such a way that the lives of those involved are uplifted and sustained in ways that best serve one another. It was to that end that God created the estate of marriage. Marriage is not a human invention. It is a gift from God serving a variety of purposes beginning with intimate companionship and extending all the way to the welfare of the human community. It was not merely to promote the satisfaction of the lives of a husband and wife together but to signify through them what life in its larger sense is all about.<\/p>\n

Therein lay the problem of divorce . . . a problem that the Pharisees missed entirely by reducing the question to a purely legal, contractual inquiry, \u201cAre there circumstances that make it possible to break the inner community of a husband and wife apart so that each may go their own way \u2013 or even to search for a better match?\u201d Jesus responds with an assertion that their question is misguided, for they have failed to see the point of marriage in the first place. They have asked a secondary question. He proposes to put the question another way: \u201cWhat is the point of a marriage to begin with?\u201d God knows why he created man and woman and put them together. He told you in clear language. Why do you question his intention \u2013 or why would you wish to countermand it?<\/p>\n

An Apparent Interruption<\/p>\n

Then follows a really quite surprising \u201cinterruption\u201d in this sequence of rehearsing the high demands of the Father upon those who are really interested in becoming citizens of the kingdom of God. Some parents are bringing their children to Jesus \u201cthat he might touch them.\u201d The disciples are irritated. For what reason? It is hard to say. Maybe they feel that Jesus needs some respite from these difficult confrontations. Maybe they feel that this interruption is unseemly just when the whole scene is heating up. (Note that Jesus\u2019 \u201ctriumphal entry into Jerusalem\u201d [Palm Sunday] is less than a chapter away in Mark!) Maybe they think that Jesus should be \u201cprotected\u201d from these children [nobodies in the society of that day . . . and perhaps more \u201cnobodies\u201d in our day than we like to think or confess] when so many \u201cimportant\u201d people are seeking audience with Jesus. Whatever the case, \u201cthe disciples rebuked them,\u201d which makes Jesus \u201cindignant,\u201d saying, \u201cLet the children come to me; do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God.\u201d<\/p>\n

How so? Because they are so innocent? One need not be around little children for long to discover that the apparent \u201cinnocence\u201d of children cannot be trusted very long! \u201cInnocence\u201d becomes \u201cguilt\u201d in a hurry when it is acted out! Yes, children bring out our emotional best in response to \u201ccuteness,\u201d but they also bring out our irritation and aggravation rather quickly. Rare is the parent who teaches a child to be innocent. Parents more quickly instruct a child in how not to be guilty! Grandparents, who dote on their grandchildren, are quick to tell you there is reason why young children are born to young parents and not to grandparents in their older age!<\/p>\n

What, then, is the point? \u201cTruly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it,\u201d Jesus says as he takes them up in his arms to bless them. The original Greek leaves some leeway in just how to both translate and interpret this phrase, but let us say at this point simply that children are dependent on those who care for them. The little boy who ran by me recently in a store crying out, \u201cMommy! Mommy!\u201d is a case in point. Oh how independent he was when he went off to do his own thing, but when suddenly, for whatever reason, mommy disappeared from his sight he realized he wasn\u2019t as independent as he thought he was. His momentary \u201cdivorce\u201d from her made him realize how very ideal the ideal truly was!<\/p>\n

Jesus takes up the children and sets them before those who have been befuddled by the hard and harsh \u201crequirements\u201d that have been set before them concerning life, marriage (and soon to be spoken) wealth, and reminds us in the midst of the Father\u2019s insistent directives that were built into his creation, there is only one way to live: By exercising our dependence on God alone. Jesus will make this very plain when he, in the reading for next Sunday, responds to the disciples\u2019 plaintive question, \u201cThen who can be saved?\u201d by saying, \u201cWith man it is impossible, but not with God.\u201d It is only when we become child-like (not childish, mind you, but child-like) that we can see our way out of this very complex difficulty of how best to live under God . . . as his children!<\/p>\n

So this is not really an interruption at all. It is, in fact, something of a \u201ckey\u201d to this whole section of Mark.<\/p>\n

Jesus, the Merciful<\/p>\n

Jesus is even now moving rapidly toward the cross. It is perhaps a month away, but probably less. The one of whom the Second Lesson speaks, saying, \u201cHe is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature\u201d is on his way to the cross. Twice already, according to Mark, Jesus has told his disciples that \u201cthe Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected . . . and be killed, and after three days rise again.\u201d (Mark 8:31, 9:30) He will tell them yet once more before he gets to Jerusalem that this journey is to his death. (Mark 10:33, 34) But none can either understand what he is talking about nor would they believe that what he said was true.<\/p>\n

Here he is, though, preparing to \u201cmake purification for sins,\u201d as the Second Lesson puts it. \u201cWe see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels [today\u2019s Psalm!] . . . crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.\u201d His glory is to be his cross, as he makes plain at the last supper. (John 13:31-33, 17:1-5) In him and through him and by him the sins of the world are gathered up, placed upon him, borne by him, that sinners might be reconciled to God; that those who were at enmity with God might be called his friends; that those whose lives were set on the way of death might have life in his name.<\/p>\n

He it is, the one whose way is even now set toward the cross, who takes the children in his arms and blesses them. He it is who calls us<\/strong> to place ourselves<\/strong> entirely into his care and keeping as children who need protection, care, security. In our baptism he enfolds us in his arms and in the bread and cup he feeds and nourishes us. \u201cLet the children come to me,\u201d he says, and we rejoice with great joy.<\/p>\n

For he who holds us, calling us his children, is the one through whom God, who spoke to our fathers by the prophets, speaks to us also. [Second Lesson] He speaks the word of today\u2019s Gospel, through it breaking us with all its divine severity, in order that he might speak a saving word of blessing to us whose lives are thereby revealed to be in such desperate need. He enfolds us as children who are entirely dependent on him, taking us in his arms and blessing us, assuring us that we need fear no evil so long as we are in his loving embrace. For he has done all things well himself, has taken up the guilt that is rightfully ours, pleads our case before the Father, and then prods us along like a parent prods the child learning to walk, urging us along in the ways of the Lord, to hear ever and again the eternal word that leads and guides us in the path of life everlasting. And we, tumbling over our own feet time after time, toddling along like infants taking tentative step after step, falling and rising, stumbling along as best we can, bumping our knees, our elbows, our heads, follow after him who leads us, knowing always that he turns again and again to pick us up, to hold us in his arms, laying his hands on us and blessing us. It is this confidence that enables us to continue the journey.<\/p>\n

It is good to know that we do not walk alone. He who walks before us and with us as our Comforter, our Counselor, our Strength, gathers a whole family to walk together with us on the journey. To divorce ourselves one from another in this family is disastrous. He asks only that we learn from each other, strengthen one another, give guidance to one another, comfort one another, support each other in our mutual pursuit of the kingdom of God, the vision of which draws us always onward and upward to nothing less than the marriage feast of the Lamb.<\/p>\n

Hubert Beck, Retired Pastor
\nComments are welcome to hbeck@austin.rr.com<\/a> <\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

18th Sunday After Pentecost, October 8, 2006 A Sermon based on Mark 10:2-16 (RCL) by Hubert Beck Pharisees came up and in order to test him asked, \u201cIs it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?\u201d He answered them, \u201cWhat did Moses command you?\u201d They said, \u201cMoses allowed a man to write a certificate […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15691,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37,727,853,108,110,734,3,109],"tags":[],"beitragende":[],"predigtform":[],"predigtreihe":[],"bibelstelle":[],"class_list":["post-11380","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-markus","category-archiv","category-bibel","category-current","category-engl","category-kapitel-10-chapter-10-markus","category-nt","category-predigten"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11380","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11380"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11380\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16476,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11380\/revisions\/16476"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15691"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11380"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11380"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11380"},{"taxonomy":"beitragende","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/beitragende?post=11380"},{"taxonomy":"predigtform","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/predigtform?post=11380"},{"taxonomy":"predigtreihe","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/predigtreihe?post=11380"},{"taxonomy":"bibelstelle","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theologie.uzh.ch\/apps\/gpi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/bibelstelle?post=11380"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}