Mark 10:2-16

Nineteenth Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 22, Ordinary 27) [B]

(3 October 2021) | Sermon on Mark 10:2-16 | by Paul Bieber |

Mark 10:2-16 Revised Standard Version

The Pharisees came up and in order to test Jesus asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?” ³ He answered them, “What did Moses command you?” ⁴ They said, “Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of divorce, and to put her away.” ⁵ But Jesus said to them, “For your hardness of heart he wrote you this commandment. ⁶ But 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, 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 put asunder.”

¹⁰ And in the house the disciples asked him again about this matter. ¹¹ And he said to them, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another, commits adultery against her; ¹² and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.”

¹³ And they were bringing children to him, that he might touch them; and the disciples rebuked them. ¹⁴ But when Jesus saw it he was indignant, and said to them, “Let the children come to me, do not hinder them; for to such belongs the kingdom of God. ¹⁵ Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.” ¹⁶ And he took them in his arms and blessed them, laying his hands upon them. 

Marriage and Family

Grace, peace, and much joy to you, people of God.

We come this week to the question about divorce. The Pharisees, once again seeking to test Jesus, inquire whether divorce is allowed by the law. Jesus turns the question around, asking, What does the law say? The Pharisees know what it says: Deuteronomy 24 allows divorce.

The Pharisees are trying to drive Jesus into one of the opposing camps of rabbinical thinking about the grounds for divorce, so that either the liberals or the strict constructionists will regard his teaching as wrong. But these different rabbinical schools did not question Moses’ allowing of divorce. The rabbis’ disputes dealt not with the possibility of divorce but with the grounds for it.

We are familiar with Jesus deepening and internalizing the law in his teaching, as in the Sermon on the Mount: not only murder but even anger is against the commandment, not only adultery but even a lustful look is proscribed. Here, Jesus goes even further. No rabbi would have interpreted one Old Testament text as flatly invalidating another.

But Jesus bypasses the Law of Moses to appeal to God’s original order of creation. Jesus appeals to (the second) creation story in Genesis to proclaim not so much that divorce is forbidden but rather that it is impossible. The one-flesh unity created by marriage makes the marriage bond unbreakable. It cannot be broken; it can only be adulterated.

The difficulty of this position was recognized by early Christians. In St. Matthew’s revision of St. Mark’s gospel, he inserts “except for unchastity” in Jesus’ prohibition of divorce, his statement that remarriage after divorce is adultery. And the Church has continued to struggle with Jesus’ answer to the question about divorce to this day. Human society struggles with marriage and divorce.

No institution in our society has greater importance than marriage, and none today is more embattled and imperiled. Not every marriage will hold together. Some, for good reasons, should not. But can we learn something about God’s intentions for his human creatures from this difficult teaching? Perhaps even people who have been through divorce and maybe remarriage, people who are going through divorce, people who are contemplating divorce, can find some help here, and also couples struggling to live up to what from the beginning God intended their life together to be.

At the center of the marriage vow is the promise of lifelong faithfulness. Both parties to the marriage give themselves entirely, without keeping any part back. It is not a matter of being together until further notice or until I find something better. It is not a contract or an experiment. This clinging to and joining with each other is part of our human nature. We are created with a need for others.

In the portion of the creation story we hear as our First Reading today we encounter the first thing God calls “not good,” and that is being alone. Even the animals, beautiful and beloved, cannot meet this need. Man rules over the animals in the creation story, but in the woman he recognizes himself. We are made to give ourselves to each other, so as to make the gift of new life in doing do, and then finally to devote ourselves to this new life.

Who enters the kingdom? The one who receives it like a child. God’s intention for marriage is God’s intention for family. Whenever two people give themselves to each other and, between them, give life to children, this touches the mystery of human existence. The great mystery of husband and wife becoming one flesh points to a greater mystery: the marriage of Christ and his bride, the Church. He left his Father and became man to seek a bride. He loved her and gave himself for her.

The redemptive order confirms the order of creation as Jesus, the pioneer of salvation, brings many children to glory. The consummation of the Father’s will for all whom the Son redeems is depicted in the closing chapters of the Bible as the marriage supper of the Lamb, the New Jerusalem adorned as a bride.

We do not yet see the world as it was meant to be. We see death, destruction, misery, sin, and disaster all around. We see divorce, God’s allowance for our human weakness. We see family members opposing one another, and believers suffering the loss of family. We very seldom see human beings fulfilling their God-given destiny. But we do see Jesus, the exact imprint of God’s very being, who, having become one of us, is crucified and risen, fulfilling God’s will and promise for us.

The promise of God’s destiny for humanity is fulfilled in this Jesus, who suffered death for everyone, giving his life as a ransom for all, and now crowned with glory and honor, making us children of God, and bringing many children to their intended glory. We enter the kingdom by receiving it as children.

We are created in the image of God and God himself is love. We are truly like God in the measure that we relinquish our hardness of heart and become persons who love and receive love, that reciprocal “yes” that cannot be revoked. This love, like Jesus’ love, is the surrender of ourselves.

In this broken world, it may—it will—mean taking up the cross. It means affirming life, love, and God’s good intention for us even as we recognize that we cannot know what the future holds for a person, a marriage, a family. We pray with Dietrich Bonhoeffer in prison: “I do not understand your ways, but you know the way for me.” Indeed, for all of us. All we have to do, all we can do, is trust that our Father will yet make of us what he created us to be, promised that we shall be: his dear children, the bride of his only-begotten Son.

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

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The Rev. Dr. Paul Bieber

San Diego, California, USA

E-Mail: paul.bieber@sbcglobal.net