Mark 10:2-16

LOVE FOSTERS MORE THAN LAW CAN COMPEL?
Some ten years ago, after we had first moved to Texas, I gave a speech in Dallas
in which I used the word “niggardly.” During the discussion which
followed, an elderly black woman rose to say that the time was long past when
we should use such words in public. It was an easy mistake to make because
the word she was worried about has a similar sound. However, the two words
have completely different derivations. Her word is from the Romance languages
and means “black (negro from Spanish and Portuguese),” while the
other word has a Scandinavian origin and means “stingy,” “miserly,” or “grudgingly
mean.” In reality, although the Romance language word came to imply a
racism and meanness of spirit on the part of users in America, the Scandinavian
language word refers to something far more sinister and profound. Niggardly
people are focused on themselves, on what’s in it for them, on operating
with the least possible standards. They are the centers of their own being.
Being niggardly is WORSE than it sounds!

Sometimes texts also carry a problem far worse than appears on the
surface. Today’s text is avoided by preachers and shunned by hearers
because it seems to contain a law-oriented message which holds up standards
higher than those capable of being met. If all who divorce are committing
adultery, and adultery is a grave sin, one for which people are still
stoned to death in Islam, is there any hope for people like us when divorce
has become so common? Perhaps this is one of those texts best taken out
of the preaching series so that we don’t have to fumble and bumble
around with it. On the other hand, perhaps there is something going on
in this text which is far more complex than the disobedience to the Sixth
Commandment and a law-oriented reprimand for those who are disobeying
it. What do you think that might be? I would suggest that it is niggardly
behavior on the part of the Pharisees who are testing Jesus with their
questions. Let’s listen to what they’re saying and see if
we can understand why niggardly behavior for them and for us is WORSE
than it sounds.

When New Attitudes Press Us Farther Than The Law Can
On the surface, some Pharisees seem to be asking Jesus whether he considers
it religiously appropriate to divorce one’s wife. In reality, however,
they were asking a niggardly question more like “what’s the least
possible standard with respect to marital fidelity that we might be able
to get away with?” To understand why their question was miserly and
grudgingly mean, we have to understand their approach to religious law at
that time, and specifically with respect to the matter of divorce. There
were many layers of religious law (Torah) from written to oral (Mishnah)
to interpretive (Halakah and Gemara) all of which sought to apply God’s
intent to minute practical situations. In reality, however, the various interpretations
often made it possible to avoid the original intent of the law. In the case
of divorce, for instance, Rabbi Hillel had provided so many causes for divorcing
one’s wife (including burning a husband’s dinner) that divorce
was an extremely common practice by Jesus’ time. When some Pharisees
reminded Jesus that Moses had allowed them simply to dismiss their wives
with a piece of paper, Jesus retorted, presumably in disgust, “it was
because of your hardness of heart.” Niggardly attitudes had allowed
people to treat one another in ways that God’s good law never intended.

Jesus’ response to this attitude seems surprising, but he is
taking his hearers into the heart of his message about the Kingdom—and
we shouldn’t miss this. He overrides the Torah, the very Law of
Moses, in implying that while Moses may have been generous to self-centered
men who are stingy with their love by divorcing their wives for any cause,
God had greater plans for them when he made them spouses to each other
through his blessing. And, he might have continued, “when you simply
hoard God’s love in a covetous fashion and become grudgingly mean
in your attitudes to your spouses, this sin, this adulteration of God’s
blessing of oneness, is without excuse.” Of course, such words
are intended for people who consider themselves to be a part of God’s
people. Those who have not would not accept the thought that God had
made them one. However, that is precisely Jesus’ point. These were
people who had accepted the Scripture that what God had joined together,
humans should not separate. Why were they running from that blessing
and privilege?

Does this mean that this Jesus is harder and tougher than the Jesus
who preached God’s love and forgiveness to sinners? Not at all.
He was asking disciples like you and me to replace a niggardly question
such as “how little can we get away with in marriage relationships?” with
a bolder question such as “how committed could a person who has
accepted God’s love and blessing in a marriage like yours really
be?” In other words, who you are says a great deal about what you
can do. If you accept your place in the dawning divine movement in which
extravagant kindness reigns, then one doesn’t settle for the least
that can be scrounged out of a stingy heart. One goes the extra mile,
gives the last coin, forgives seventy times seven, and thanks God an
equal number of times for his blessing of marriage before considering
divorce. In a Kingdom where God’s good news motivates and drives
us, parsimonious passes at legal hedges stand less of a chance.

When New Attitudes Affirm Surprising People
There’s another big question which this text is raising for some Pharisees
in Jesus’ audience as well as for us. It is the question for spouses
about how far a new ethic of love can really drive them? This question may
seem to have been answered in our own time, but it was very real in Jesus’ day
and there are dimensions of the question we can press in the here and now.
The question has a dual dimension and might read something like this: “Can
you legitimately relegate people to lesser roles with which your own need for
recognition is comfortable?” (the niggardly question), or “Will
you not rather offer women and children opportunities commensurate with your
own extravagant kindness and their talents and abilities?” You see, in
Jesus’ time, even though it was permissible for a woman to divorce her
husband on four stipulated grounds in a court of law, only men had the right
to dismiss their wives just by deciding to do so– on almost any ground they
chose. At the heart of Jesus argument against his accusers was also the concern
to have women play an equal role in the dawning reign of God. However, in a
patriarchal society such a role could only be given by those who knew their
hearts to have been enlarged enough to share the very love they had received.
And, for that matter, such a role can only be given to immigrants, the mentally
challenged, street people, or HIV victims if new attitudes in New Kingdom people
in our own time affirm them.

Equally surprising, Mark and our pericopal series
includes the story of Jesus blessing of children, objected to this time not
by Pharisees but by niggardly
disciples. After all, children had no rights and nothing to contribute in
that era, so even though it was a custom for parents to bring children
to a rabbi
for a blessing, this took time and blessings (remember how Jacob ran out
of blessings for Esau!) away from those who on this day coveted them
for themselves.
Yet in Jesus’ alternative, topsy-turvy Kingdom where the least are often
the most and the poor inevitably the rich, children can be models for us all.
In fact, Jesus says, if you don’t claim this Kingdom like a child, you
will never really enter it. What could this possibly mean?

This last Sunday at a picnic I watched a five-year-old son of a friend
of mine interact with my wife. He was filled with energy, enthusiasm,
curiosity and caring. He wanted to try all the picnic foods, move from
one activity to the next and help with setting everything up, as well
as clean up after. He was oblivious to the adult concerns for time, propriety,
and patience, but he trusted all of us totally, and wanted to experience
the fullness of all that we seemed to consider meaningful. It’s
a charming model for those before whom Jesus lifts up his vision of a
Kingdom or a world in which people enter with an eager and innocent spirit
because they trust that God has prepared something greater therein than
they have concocted in this world for themselves. This is the child-like
attitude which Jesus holds up to us and the beautifully designed world
he invites us to enter.

Of course, a child-like attitude could grasp all of this if it could
get rid of the niggardly questions like “what’s the least
that I have to do in order to perform acceptably in this world?” This,
you see, is a legalistic question which always ends with boredom, arbitrary
attitudes and unsatisfying answers. A childlike attitude could grasp
the notion that even in a marriage on the rocks, there is more yet to
be discovered if the same extravagant love with which God claimed me
can express itself through me. It could seize the prospect that larger
than my needs for hoarding my time and money are the opportunities to
make changes and differences in people’s lives which enrich all
of us. A child-like attitude can overwhelm the senses and sweep people
off their feet because of gratitude for an affirming love that lives
wherever Jesus’ name is spoken. Do you understand that Jesus is
not giving a moral code in these words, a code which seeks to challenge
and condemn us? He is much more providing examples of what can happen
when the reign of God enters our sphere of influence, when God’s
extravagant kindness takes its rightful place in our lives. He is telling
us what can happen when we understand that niggardly behavior is far
worse as a practice than it sounds as a word. He is loving us to the
end because such love gives greater expression in our human relationships
than any law could compel.

Prof. Dr. Dr. David Zersen, President Emeritus
Concordia University at Austin
dzersen@aol.com