October 6, 2024 Sermon
Sermon title: “What About Divorce?”
Scripture: Mark 10:2-16
(Other lectionary suggestions include Job 1:1 and 2:1-10, Psalm 26, and Hebrews 1:1-4 and 2:5-12.)
Mark 10:2-16
2Some Pharisees came, and to test him they asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?” 3He answered them, “What did Moses command you?” 4They said, “Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of dismissal and to divorce her.” 5But Jesus said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart he wrote this commandment for you. 6But 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, 8and the two shall become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two, but one flesh. 9Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.” 10Then in the house the disciples asked him again about this matter. 11He said to them, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her; 12and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.”
Jesus Blesses Little Children
13People were bringing little children to him in order that he might touch them; and the disciples spoke sternly to them. 14But when Jesus saw this, he was indignant and said to them, “Let the little children come to me; do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs. 15Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it.” 16And he took them up in his arms, laid his hands on them, and blessed them.
Today’s Scripture is a toughie: according to the Gospel of Mark, you should not divorce! And Jesus sounds even tougher than Moses, saying that Moses “allowed” divorce because of your hardness of heart. But what I think Jesus is doing is standing up for the ideal, and in the ideal situation, a man shall leave his father and mother and cleave unto his wife, and the two are not only two but ONE. So, under the original ideal, a man and woman who marry each other will stick together. And Jesus says, “what God has joined together, let no one separate.”
Thinking like a lawyer (which I am not!), I might say, “Yeah, but what if GOD didn’t join them together. Maybe their LUST did! Then is it okay to split?”
Again, this is a tough issue - but Jesus had to have known Biblical history and how the patriarchs had not only MANY wives, but concubines as well!
When Jesus says God created us male and female, he was quoting from the first part of Genesis. When God said it was not good for man or woman to be alone, what God was saying was that we are made to be IN RELATIONSHIP. That may be a marriage, but not everyone gets to be married. In my opinion, when some loner goes on a shooting spree, it’s because he IS a loner that the violence happens. Somewhere along the line that person fell out of relationship, maybe with his father or maybe with his mother. People are not born to be serial killers!
We in America just LOVE our myth about “rugged individualism.” We have this WRONG understanding, in my opinion, that a group of individuals gets together to form whatever: a government, a sect, or what have you. No, the TRUTH is, in my humble opinion, that the GROUP exists first, and individuals emerge as to how they relate to their group. Jesus was a Jew first, so he knew what the Hebrew tradition was about. Look at the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. He was a Christian, so he knew about the Christian tradition. He was also an American, so he understood what the promise of America is. And as a BLACK man, he understood what it was like to be part of a racial minority. Dr. King could call on ALL Americans to remember their “sacred” texts, such as the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. He could remind each of us that “all men are created equal” - it says so in one of our American “sacred” texts. If King weren’t an American, he wouldn’t have been able to quote with authority from any of those documents.
Anyway, the point is that you and I were created to be IN RELATIONSHIP with one another. The “lone wolf” like a Sherlock Holmes or the Lone Ranger may have a certain romantic appeal - but the truth is that if we are not part of some group, we are like a voice crying in the wilderness! We need our friends and our spouses and others in our wide circles of relationships. So, when a marriage ends, it’s sad in the eyes of Jesus. Nobody should be in an abusive relationship - but there is something sad about a relationship coming to an end.
Something else here......Did you see how this passage ends? Jesus is REALLY concerned about the vulnerable, the CHILDREN! When a divorce happens, who suffers? Usually the children. Again, I am not saying that people should stay in abusive relationships because of the children. But when we end a marriage, more than the adults can suffer.
Earlier I mentioned that Jesus had to have known that the patriarchs had more than one wife, and even some concubines. The passage we heard today from Mark seems to have Jesus speak in black-and-white terms. “No divorce, and if you marry a divorced woman, you are committing adultery and so is she.” Okay, that’s MARK’s Gospel. In Matthew and/or Luke, Jesus is quoted as saying, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery EXCEPT in the CASE of UNCHASTITY!” Did you get that? After Mark’s Gospel, at least one other Gospel leaves a little wiggle room! What that says to me is that the Gospel writers who followed Mark realized that some relationships don’t last forever! Yes, we should try to remember our marriage vows - but sometimes living together or staying together is impossible! And the Gospel writers who followed Mark realized that. The Apostle Paul says that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Those who have divorced may have sinned, but if you stayed married, what was YOUR sin? Paul said, “There is not one righteous, no, not one!”
I happen to like the current pope. He’s still too conservative for me, but occasionally he’ll let a little light in. Remember that news conference he held a few years ago on a plane? He did not condone homosexuality, but did say something like, “Who am I to condemn somebody else?” If you are a good Catholic, you still can’t share carnal love with a person of the same sex, but Francis I isn’t going to condemn you!
Finally, what I think Jesus is saying is that we ought to be responsible with our lives and with what we say. And it’s sad when a relationship dies. But what if despite all our efforts, we still fail? We need to repent and ask God for forgiveness. Where would we be without God’s never-ending love and grace? Amen.
Pastor Skip
