Kempsey Baptist - Jesus reply on Divorce

Kempsey Baptist Church

Sunday 4 October 2015

Jesus Reply to Divorce

Good morning, let us come to God in Prayer.

Creator and maker of us all - bless the words of my lips and the meditations of our hearts - grow thou in us and show us your ways and inspire us to live by your truth.  Amen

Bible Readings: Mark 10:1-12 (New Living Translation)

Introduction
The portion of scripture Mark present to us is a contentious issue of divorce which was challenged to Jesus by the Pharisees. Before this encounter Jesus and his disciples journey from one place to another place which had different customs and practices.
To set the scene, they leave Capernaum, goes across the mountains of Samaria to Judea, on a normal pilgrim’s route to Jerusalem, and ends up beyond the Jordan in Perea (William Lane, The Gospel of Mark, p353). What’s significant about that? It puts him in the territory of Herod the tetrarch, where John the Baptist conducted most of his ministry and condemned Herod and Herodias for entering into an adulterous marriage. And you’ll recall John lost his head for his trouble.
Here in Australia, we hear about one person splits with their partner and today on the home page of NINEMSN is this update.
Pia Miller splits with AFL great husband Brad (in bold print and in very light print is) Reports actress is dating music and film producer. When click onto that headline, you are taken to a new page – it is like reading a newspaper, the main page carries the headline then indicates which page to turn to. So displayed on the next page we have the story, the reporter Bianca Soldani of Daily Mail Australia outline her report.
Home and Away actress Pia Miller where she plays a police officer  is a devout Christian and a mother of two sons, Isaiah from a previous relationship and Lennox with her current relationship Brad Miller. She is now 31 years old and now after being married to Brad for ten years in reflection, they have decided to separate. “We are, and always will be a family” she said and they will be co-parenting the children together.
This account about Pia will bring many thoughts across our mind, as a Christian shouldn’t Pia try to remain united as one but in her period of reflection Pia and Brad came to agreement to separate and remain as a family to their two sons Isaiah and Lennox. The definition of family, they are still providing the role of mother and father as co-parent but not husband and wife to each other.
Let us go back to the passage of Scripture before us, Mark 10:1-12 which pick up the gospel of Jesus, a transitional statement in verse 1 as indicated previously.
What does divorce mean in ancient Judaism and how did they interpret Moses commandments. We need to understand how the Pharisee thinks when they are Jesus the question, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?” (v2)
The question is very much male dominated and no allowance by his wife. Under ancient Judaism, divorce is seen as a right only for husband and where women legally seen as the property of their husband, with no power to end the marriage. The husband issued a divorce certificate and handed this to his wife as a means of dissolving the marriage. However the divorce certificate could only be issued under two difference school of thoughts held by ancient rabbinic as legitimate causes.

·        One school of thought, the followers of Shammai, the unique true reason was because of sexual impurity in the wife

·        The second school of thought, the followers of Hillel, was that the wife could be sent away because the husband grew tired of her. This was more appropriate and ruling for the husband. This is how custom or common law came into practice.

Unlike Matthew parallel account (Matt 19:1-12) which focus on the Jewish community deal with the husband divorcing his wife outside of unchastely (engaging in sexual activity outside of marriage) and remarries commits adultery. Whereas Mark is focus on both husband and wife has rights to divorce because of the Gentile setting according to the commentator.
Now that I have shown you the context of where this passage of divorce is located, we will now venture into the principles that Jesus is showing and reinforcing to the Pharisee and the disciples.
Jesus engagement with the Pharisees is mostly when they asked a question and he reply with a question for further clarification to them. It is no different this time, you ask about divorce, he say? As always Jesus points to Scriptures: what about Moses (v3)? Their focus was on Duet 24:1-4 and the Pharisee return a quote as a giving sanction, a command that allow the husband to issue a certificate of divorce.
But Jesus reply according to Hurtado implies that the certificate of divorce is “not a reflection of the will of God but instead reflects the stubbornness of the Israelites.” So the intention of those verses of Moses was permission because of human sin (v5).
Jesus took the Pharisees and the disciples back to the first principle in the creation story of Genesis, God’s original design of bringing two people, male and female together. Jesus declared to the Pharisees that God made humanity male and female (Gen 1:27). This is the foundation stone of God’s creation male and female humanity. Remember this is Jesus take about divorce and to understand divorce is to understand marriage as was created from the beginning.
In our contemporary society, the churches as part of the society are in discussion and dealing with arguments about same sex marriage and civil partnership. These relationships existed for a long time and in ancient Judah times with surrounding nation but in the eyes of Jesus do not envisage marriage as anything other than between a man and a woman – the context here is marriage and divorce. Jesus is pointing to that God made male and female, two different sexes but equal together.
Jesus then shifted our focus to Genesis 2:24:
For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.
The creation account tells the story of how two sexes’ male and female have been created by the will of God. Jesus treats this superior to the Law of Moses and to be proper guidelines. We see the importance of woman in marriage and where equality existed through respect. Marriage reaffirms that man’s forsaking of others for the sake of his wife and the union for by the marriage. God is the one who joins together husband and wife (v9). This is the view that many uphold that marriage in God’s eye cannot be dissolved (except by death).
Jesus defines marriage as a relationship which involves both husband and wife are responsible to each other and to God for maintaining its sanctity. God intended it for life.

·        It isn’t about whether or not marriage ‘works’ as many people are wont to say. It isn’t that ‘we just drifted apart’. It isn’t that ‘things were fine when we were living together, but the moment we got married everything went wrong’. All these are false understanding of marriage. (Faulkner. 2006)

The marriage service that I was married to my lovely wife Maria was in Narrabri Uniting Church in 1986 on October 6 and part of the marriage ritual, contrary to popular myth – ask whether we the bride and groom wasn’t to say “I do” but to say “I will” – which is both a promise and an act of will. The heart of marriage is love will not always be something spouses feel like giving. To be one takes energy and at time through gritted teeth to achieve the union.
Marriage and divorce should never be discussed in some detached environment. People lives have deep convictions and painful experiences are involved. We do not live in a bed of roses, incidents do happen, we are human and were born into sinful environment. In Jesus response to the Pharisees we see Jesus elevates marriage as a creation of God: it is a covenant commitment of unity and faithfulness.
We have reached a crossroad, Jesus has been addressing a culture where it is male dominated and only men could institute divorce. In our culture, we have plenty of friends who are Christian; they have separated and remarried to another person. How does this strong statement of Jesus against divorce?
What Jesus was warning against was an easy exit among men – either for trivial reasons or because they want to bail out (v10)
The Pharisees have departed and the disciples have moved on with Jesus into a house. Alone they ask Jesus again about this matter.

“Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her” (verse 11)

Why? The Jewish Law doesn’t see an unfaithful husband as committing adultery against his own wife, only against the husband of the woman with whom he slept. Again as I alluded to earlier Jesus is “striking a blow for the dignity and equality of women in marriage” (Faulkner. 2006).

“And if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.” (Verse 12)

The accepted rule or common law within the Gentile nation was the rights of party, husband or wife could bring divorce proceeding under Roman law.

Conclusion
Mark encapsulates Jesus teaching as a high view of marriage. Marriage between one man and one woman is exclusive of all others. Creation story unfolds God’s design from the beginning. The rights of divorce under Moses was a permission but was not a command for a certificate to be issue as a protection the weaker party (women, in his culture) and those who would suffer as a result of breaking the union. Divorce is a concession to human “hardness of heart”.
The road of divorce can be savage and I cannot comprehend to understand the trauma of separation. This is a contentious issue where separation does occur and how the restoration begins to heal the wounded and broken-hearten. This is a hard passage of scripture but we must not bypass as if it is not there. The ideal is lifted up before us by our Saviour Jesus for marriage.
As we have said marriage is a partnership between a husband and a wife but when separation occurs both sides are affected. 

But above all, let us pray for and give practical support a those in our midst who are married; to those who suffer the ongoing pain of divorce; to those who have lived through faithful marriages but now miss their spouses; to those who are not married – some happy with that situation, others not so; some who yet marry and others who never will. For the love of God in Christ makes each dearly valued and esteemed by him. (Faulkner. 2006)

Let me pray:

Resources

Faulkner, Dave. 2006. http://bigcircumstance.com/?s=Jesus+on+Marriage+and+Divorce

Hurtado, Larry W. 2011. Mark: Understanding the Bible Commentary Series. Grand Rapids: Bakers Books. pp159-169.

Soldani, Bianca. 2015.  http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-3258408/We-shared-ten-wonderful-years-Home-Away-s-Pia-Miller-announces-split-former-AFL-star-husband-Brad.html