...love and marriage...

“1 Jesus left that place and went to the region of Judea and beyond the Jordan. And crowds again gathered around him; and, as was his custom, he again taught them.

2 Some Pharisees came, and to test him they 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 dismissal and to divorce her.’ 5 But Jesus said to them, ‘Because of your hardness of heart he wrote this commandment for you. 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 Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.’

10 Then in the house the disciples asked him again about this matter. 11 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’” Mark 10:1-12.

Here Jesus is challenged to speak about divorce and remarriage. Jesus treats women and men as equally responsible for the maintenance and quality of their marriages. In Jewish contexts in Jesus’ day, only men could divorce, but which was less true for Gentile in Mark’s day. By the husband’s choice alone, a marriage either continued or ended. Moreover, adultery could be committed only against a man. If a man had sexual relations with another man’s wife, that was not viewed as a sin against one’s own wife. Instead, it was a sin jointly committed by the man and the woman against the woman’s husband. This text puts all that into new focus.

Jesus says that to commit adultery is to sin, first and foremost, against one’s own spouse. That is true both for men and for women. Moreover, women are as responsible as men to avoid the adultery that divorce-and-remarriage rules are thought to legalize. This text is a radical statement on the equal dignity and value of women. It appropriately makes women as responsible as men to work toward permanence and integrity in marriage. In a day when all the control was, at least officially, in male hands, what Jesus said was radical!

These verses, like many of the preceding texts on this discipleship journey, are about protecting and valuing those who were, in that culture, less powerful, less influential, and more vulnerable. In this case it is women,

and especially women married to philandering and/or abusive husbands.

Like all texts on this journey in Mark’s Gospel, this one is about “thinking divine thoughts” rather than “thinking human thoughts” Mark 8:33. Thinking human thoughts leads to justifying lust and sexual sin, seeking easy ways out of challenging situations, and playing games with texts. Thinking divine thoughts means looking for God’s true intentions, resisting temptations to sin, and living lives of purity and integrity. And I think that is the key to Christian marriage and the teachings of Jesus.

Regarding marriage, Jesus calls us to resist temptations to sin, and to live lives of purity and integrity. To do so, we have to think Divine thoughts about men and women and human sexuality and marriage. When we don’t — we sin. But if we want to understand Jesus’ teachings about Christian marriage and the teachings of Jesus, this is the only way to approach and live our lives as sexual human beings.

So bring this to prayer. When you undo this, you will think Divine thoughts. When you don’t do this, you will fail.

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, have mercy on me a sinner.