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Mark 10:2-12
In Mark 10:2-12 The Pharisees asked Jesus about His thoughts on divorce and if He believed it to be against the Mosaic Law. The text also informs us that the Pharisees were not so much interested in learning from Jesus as much as they were testing Him, presumably to find fault in His teaching. The Pharisees noted in Mark 10:4 NKJV, “Moses permitted a man to write a certificate of divorce, and to dismiss her.” In the response from Jesus, He quotes Genesis 1:27; 5:2 and 2:24 declaring, “6But from the beginning of the creation, God ‘made them male and female’ [Genesis 1:27; 5:2]. 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’ [Genesis 2:24]; so then they are no longer two, but one flesh. 9Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate.” Jesus has trumped the words of Moses with the words of God. And earlier in Mark 10:5 Jesus has already given the Pharisees the reason why Moses permitted divorce as the states, “Because of the hardness of your heart he wrote you this precept.”
Jesus’ disciples also asked Jesus to explain this to them. His reply, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her. 12And if a woman divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery” (Mark 10:11-12). Jesus does give one exception to this command in Matthew 5:31 as He declares, “Furthermore it has been said, ‘Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.’ But I say to you that whoever divorces his wife for any reason except sexual immorality causes her to commit adultery; and whoever marries a woman who is divorced commits adultery.” Jesus also declares in Matthew 5:28, “But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” It is clear that Jesus intended to convict everyone in having a proper relationship in marriage as it is our representation of our relationship with Him; God is a jealous God and allows no others – no lustful thoughts of other gods that take our attention away from Him.
This is a command from Jesus concerning divorce.
Jesus has a way of putting things in the words of Almighty God and simplifying them to the point at hand, as He does here concerning His thoughts on divorce. Jesus was not someone who sugar-coated His words, but His words were and still are convicting, as is His mission to convict sin and bring people to repentance.
Divorce is something that is not considered sacred any more by most of society as it is more of a convenience when comfortable, and then discarded when things change or get a little tough. Many of us have been divorced, but that is not the end unto condemnation no more than any other sin that any of us have committed if we come to a point of realization and understanding of the sin(s) that we are guilty of and bring them to God with a repenting heart for forgiveness. Jesus came to save the world from sin (John 3:16-17) in which there is no sin greater than another in the eyes of God as all sin is punishable by death. The Apostle Paul teaches us in Romans 3:23, “…for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,…”, and in Romans 6:23 he teaches us, “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Dear LORD,
We constantly strive to twist Your desires for us into something more comfortable for us in this evil world. We are all guilty of pointing our fingers at others in hopes that it will draw the attention away from our own sins and to the sins of others. Please help us to see sin as You see sin – disobedience to You. Please help us to regain a sacred outlook on our lives as You would have us to be – in Christ, and to bring all our sins to the cross – to Jesus as He died for all our sins so we may be set free from them. In Jesus name I pray, amen.