Mark 10:1-16

We'll go with that.

Good evening, church.

Let's turn to Mark 10, verses 1 to 16.

Mark 10:1–16

In the words of the priest from the princess bride,

marriage is what brings us to Geza tonight.

It's page 845.

And it goes as follows.

And he left there and went to the region of Judea and beyond the Jordan.

And crowds gathered to him again.

And again, as was his custom, he taught them.

And Pharisees came up.

And in order to test him, asked,

Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?

He answered them,

What did Moses command you?

They said,

Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of divorce and to send her away.

And Jesus said to them,

Because of your hardness of heart, he wrote you this commandment.

But from the beginning of creation, God made them male and female.

Therefore, a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife,

and the two shall become one flesh.

So they are no longer two, but one flesh.

What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.

And in the house, the disciples asked him again about this matter.

And he said to them,

Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her.

And if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.

And they were bringing children to him that he might touch them.

And the disciples rebuked them.

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.

Truly, I say to you,

Whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.

And he took them in his arms and blessed them, laying his hands on them.

Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, I thank you for this time that you have allowed us to gather in worship.

Lord, I ask that as the word goes forth that you bless it,

that you soften the hearts of the hearers.

Lord, by your spirit, continue to shape each of us into the image of your son.

As we seek to obey what you tell us to do, Lord.

I pray these things in the name of your son, Jesus Christ,

and by the power of your Holy Spirit.

Amen.

So, in going through the book of Mark,

we've been keeping an eye on who Christ is

and what it means for us to follow him.

In these few verses,

we get some specific teachings

and some specific guidelines.

Not only what it means to follow him,

but how to do it.

He does that in chapter 10 by reversing expectations.

Two statements.

The two shall become one,

and adults are to be as children.

When we dive into chapter 10,

we see the Pharisees trying to trap Jesus.

Verse 2.

And the Pharisees came up in order to test him,

and they asked him,

is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?

So, what is this trap?

The first thing we're going to have to learn about

is what Jewish people were talking about

in this divorce issue.

There are essentially two camps.

One would say that a man can divorce his wife

for any cause whatsoever,

even if she burns his food.

The other would say

that divorce can only take place for a serious offense.

Specifically, premarital sex would be one of them.

So, Jesus seemingly has two options.

He could answer yes,

but if he answers yes,

he's going to be vocally aligning himself with one party,

and members of the other party could stir up opposition.

But if he says no,

he could be accused of trying to negate the law of Moses,

which is not on the list of best things to do

in front of Jewish authorities.

So, all things considered,

the Pharisees have got him.

Jesus is backed into a corner

with nowhere to turn, right?

Oh, no.

Jesus does not fall into that trap.

Instead, he digs right to the heart of the issue.

What the Pharisees meant as a political maneuver,

Jesus uses as an opportunity

to reveal to us the divine intention of marriage.

As with all of Jesus' teachings,

we get a glimpse into the mind of God.

What does he say?

Well, he begins by turning the question back on the Pharisees.

He says,

What did Moses command you?

They respond with their understanding of Deuteronomy 24,

that Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of divorce

and to send her away.

But why did Moses allow that?

According to Jesus,

it was because of their hardness of heart.

Note Jesus' consistency in tone and focus.

The questions posed are general.

Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?

Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of divorce

and to send her away.

But Jesus' response is personal.

What did Moses command you?

He gave this commandment because of your hardness of heart.

You can feel the Pharisees squirming.

First of all, he's saying

that the general teaching on divorce

is neither ideal

nor is it indicative of God's purpose for marriage.

Like much of the Mosaic law,

while it is good and holy,

it's not the fullness of God's will for his people.

In essence, the talking about divorce

is an allowance made

because of Israel's and our sinful hardness of heart.

Too often we, like the Jewish people

of Jesus' time and before,

see divorce as an unfortunate occurrence,

but one that is necessary

when we fall out of love

or find ourselves having irreconcilable differences.

But that's not the paradigm that Jesus is setting here.

His teaching is clear from the next few verses,

starting in verse 6.

But from the beginning of creation,

God made them male and female.

Therefore, a man shall leave his father and mother

and hold fast to his wife,

and the two shall become one flesh.

So they are no longer two, but one flesh.

What therefore God has joined together,

let no man separate.

One can imagine Jesus hitting the Pharisees

with this statement

and dropping the proverbial microphone.

What began as an attempted trap

actually results in an accusation

and the invoking of divine authority.

I want us to catch what he's just said.

The central idea of Christ's statement

is that marriage is a divinely ordained institution.

The agent in these verses is God.

God created us male and female.

When it says that the man shall hold fast to his wife,

that's a passive verb.

The man will be joined to his wife,

presumably by God.

In saying that the two are no longer two,

but one flesh,

Christ declares God's intention

for marriage is permanence.

The divine pairing of the vows

and sexual consummation in marriage

seals the deal.

This is not a thing that you just get into

because, well, we've been dating for a while

and it's the logical next step.

If you're going to get into this,

you better be good and sure you're in it for life.

Till death do you part.

Christ puts the lid on this in verse 9

when he says,

what God has joined together,

let not man separate.

The contrast made here is between God

and what God has done

and man and what man seeks to do.

Seeking to separate what God has joined?

Do we see the perversity in that?

Do we see that this is literally

the tearing of a one flesh union?

This is why the halls of divorce courts

are the most miserable halls of a courthouse.

This is the scriptural reason

for the fact that the three most stressful events

in a person's life,

according to the American Institute of Stress,

are the death of a spouse first,

which is God breaking the union,

and divorce and marital separation

in spots two and three.

What takes place in a divorce

is not that two people disagree

and peacefully go their separate ways.

What God has joined,

man has sought to separate.

And chances are,

we have all,

in one way or another,

suffered the effects of that trauma.

Desiree and I,

over winter break,

got into watching

My Strange Addiction on TLC.

It's a show where individuals

suffer from strange,

often dangerous,

compulsive behaviors,

like eating couch cushions

or drinking gasoline

or bathing in bleach.

Just all kinds of ridiculous things.

But there are three major reasons

why these behaviors started.

It could have been

the death of a family member.

It could have been sexual

or physical abuse.

But the most common one

was divorce of their parents.

As children witnessing

the breaking of a covenant,

something inside them snapped.

Witnessing what is essentially portrayed

as decapitation scripturally,

the separation of the husband as head

from the wife as body,

is not something that anyone

walks away from without scars.

Of course,

this does not elevate divorce

to some kind of unforgivable sin level.

In all such situations,

Christ reaches out

when we turn to him in repentance.

When he met the woman at the well

in John 4

and referred to her past five husbands

and the current man that she lived with

who was not her husband,

he still offered her living water.

But I hope we see from this

that divorce is not to be taken lightly.

Ideally,

it ought not even be a Christian option.

But how in the world do we do that?

When the disciples hear these words in Matthew,

they respond saying,

if such is the case of a man with his wife,

it's better not to marry.

How can married couples,

specifically Christian married couples,

uphold that standard?

And no remarriage?

Doesn't that seem unnecessarily restrictive?

Not just that,

what about single people?

All this talk about marriage

seems to be leaving them out, right?

Well,

let's see why this leads into a discussion of children.

Verses 13 through 16.

And they were bringing children to him

that he might touch them,

and the disciples rebuked them.

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.

Truly I say to you,

whoever does not receive the kingdom of God

like a child

shall not enter it.

So after saying these things about divorce,

people are bringing their children to Jesus,

and the disciples shoo the children away.

After all, they're children,

and this is the Messiah.

I mean, Jesus just,

two chapters ago,

Jesus just came down off of a mountain,

having been transformed

with radiant, blazingly white clothes.

Surely Jesus has better things to do

than deal with snot-nosed kids.

As Pastor Greg pointed out last week,

children are helpless,

needy,

and they make a mess all the time.

Surely Jesus doesn't have time for them, right?

Again, wrong.

Jesus got mad at the disciples

for pushing them away.

And he got mad because the disciples,

as is often their problem,

especially in the book of Mark,

don't get it.

And they don't get it

in the same way that we often don't get it.

They don't understand

that to enter into the kingdom of God,

in order to be able to do

what Christ tells us to do,

what he desires us to do,

we must receive the kingdom of God

as a child would.

We must be like children.

So what does that mean?

I can tell you what it doesn't mean.

It's not a reference to innocence.

We've got a cultural understanding

of children as innocent creatures

that's unhelpful

and unbiblical.

And I'm sure that anyone here

who has children

can back me up when I say,

well,

just from, you know,

studying the habits of babies,

that babies are little selfish monsters.

Gifts from God, of course,

according to Psalm 127,

a heritage from the Lord,

but from birth,

we know their and our sinful nature.

Crying and whining to get what you want,

willful disobedience,

no care for whether the parents are sleeping,

or the fact that it's four o'clock in the morning

and the baby's woken you up

every 45 minutes.

That doesn't sound innocent to me.

So what is Christ saying here?

He's saying that we, like children,

must act in continuous dependence

on our loving Father.

This goes back to what Greg said last week

about children.

They're helpless, needy,

and they make a mess all the time.

Is that not us?

Are we not helpless when we face situations

that we can't control and don't understand?

Are we not constantly needy?

Do we not make constant messes,

whether in our relationships

or in our personal lives?

But the advantage that we have

is that, as John says,

to all who received Christ,

who believed in his name,

he gave the right to become children of God.

To receive the kingdom of God as a child

is to live a life

where you consistently remind yourself

of your dependence on the power,

love, and support

of your heavenly Father.

To go back to this portrayal as children,

when we soil ourselves in sin,

it is the Father who cleans us up.

As a matter of fact,

that's why he sent his son.

His son got down and dirty,

sharing with us our experiences of pain,

hunger, and thirst,

and ultimately being brutally tortured,

humiliated, and killed.

But he did that to save us.

He did that because we were helpless

to save ourselves.

And by that sacrifice,

he reminds us,

as he says in John 15, 5,

apart from me,

you can do nothing.

So how does this help us

with the preceding scripture

about marriage and divorce?

Well, it's a reminder

of our dependence

on our loving Father

for the strength and resolve

to consistently do

what he wants us to do.

When you get two sinful people

into a marriage,

which is every marriage,

a deep, profound,

and intensely personal relationship,

stuff gets real complicated

and real messy real fast.

But this is at its core

a question of discipleship.

We need to consistently

remind ourselves

of the grace and forgiveness

that he shows us

when we repent

so that we can show

that same grace and forgiveness

to our spouses.

We must remember

the love that he showed us

so that we can show

that same love to our spouses.

We must remember,

believe in,

and meditate on his death

so that the husband and wife

in Christian marriage

can die continually

to themselves

for one another.

We don't get married

for self-actualization.

We don't get married

to foist our own selfishness

on another person

demanding that they satisfy us

or we roll out.

Therefore,

they are no longer two,

but one.

What God has joined,

let no man separate.

Christian marriage

is meant to exemplify

Christ's relationship

with the church.

Permanent,

uniting,

divinely ordained,

and beautiful.

And that's where

I want us to end.

The beauty.

Paul calls marriage

a mystery

that refers to

Christ's relationship

with the church.

Now,

when we hear

the word mystery,

we think a whodunit

or something that's

mysterious,

inaccessible,

out in the ether somewhere

and we'll never figure out

what it's about.

That's not,

that's not how mysteries

function in scripture.

When we see a mystery

in the New Testament,

it refers to something

that we couldn't have

figured out

but something that God

had to reveal.

In many cases,

it's something hinted at

in the Old Testament

and more fully revealed

in the New.

The meaning of marriage

is just such a mystery.

So,

married people,

how is your marriage

to image Christ's

relationship with the church?

The constant

self-sacrificial love

that is the cornerstone

of your relationship

with Christ,

the fact that he died

for you

when you were still

his enemy,

that is to be

the defining factor

of your marriage.

That dynamic

empowered by the Holy Spirit

is the glorious glue

that holds you together.

It has its unique challenges

but it also has

its unique rewards.

The world needs to see that

and our church

needs to see that.

Now,

for the single,

to the engaged

like myself,

this seems perhaps

like an exaltation

of human marriage

above all else.

So,

here's another secret.

Jewish marriage

came in three stages.

First,

the couple would get engaged

which would be a contract

to marry each other

at a future time.

The next step

would be betrothal

where the couple

is considered

legally married

but they don't have

conjugal rights yet.

The bride lives

with her parents

while the bridegroom

goes to prepare

a place for her.

Some of you can already

see where this is going.

The last stage

of the marriage

is the actual

wedding feast

after which the couple

consummates their marriage.

One could see

the gospel work

in three stages as well.

Christ has been

promised to us

from the Old Testament,

we might say,

from the law

and the prophets.

In his death

and his resurrection,

he has secured us

legally,

but we don't quite

have conjugal rights yet,

so to speak.

Paul says in Romans

3, 21 to 25,

But now the righteousness

of God has been

manifested apart

from the law,

although the law

and the prophets

bear witness to it.

The righteousness

of God through faith

in Jesus Christ

for all who believe.

For there is no distinction,

for all have sinned

and fallen short

of the glory of God

and are justified

by his grace

as a gift

through the redemption

that is in Christ Jesus,

whom God put forth

as a propitiation

by his blood

to be received

by faith.

This redemption

in Christ Jesus,

whom God put forward

as an atoning sacrifice

for our sin,

when we receive it

by faith,

we are declared

just.

That's what justified

means for us.

By faith,

we are legally declared

not guilty,

not on our own merit,

but on the all-sufficient

merit of our Lord

Jesus Christ.

All of that is to say,

as the betrothed spouse

is legally married,

so have we been

legally acquired

by our heavenly bridegroom.

And as Christians,

we eagerly await

to be reunited

to our Lord

and to enjoy

his presence

for eternity.

As single Christians,

we have a unique opportunity

for, as Paul says,

undistracted devotion

to the Lord.

And I assure you,

Christ has more for you

in his person

than any other person

on this earth.

You see,

human marriage

is meant to be permanent

as long as both parties

are alive.

But when we die,

that's actually

when the real feast begins.

That's the real marriage

that we're a part of.

As Christians,

by faith

and by utter grace,

we have entered

into this marriage.

And it's the Holy Spirit's

cooperative work with us

that's basically

just wedding prep.

sanctification is just that.

Preparing ourselves

and being prepared

for our wondrous bridegroom.

Marriage is what

brings us together.

But not just human marriage.

We're talking about

the marriage

that we have

with our Lord and Savior,

Jesus Christ.

And as Christians,

regardless of our

marital state,

that is the reality

that should animate us

and excite us,

motivating us

to live the lives

that God commands us

to live through Christ

and enables us to live

by His Holy Spirit.

Let's pray.

Heavenly Father,

we thank you for

purchasing us

with a price.

Lord,

all of us have

sinned and fallen

short of your glory.

But Lord,

by faith,

when we take hold

of Christ's sacrifice,

we know that

when you look at us,

you no longer see

us and all of our flaws

and all of our

constant sin, Lord,

but we have been washed

by the blood of Christ.

Lord,

I pray for all those

present here

that you continue

to wash them,

continue to forgive

each and every one of us

as we continue

to struggle

in this age

that we're currently in.

But Lord,

I ask that you continue

to prepare each

and every one of us

for that glorious

wedding feast

that we have

to look forward to.

Lord,

for the married couples,

bless their unions.

Lord,

remind them

that their marriage

is an image

of Christ

and the church.

And as Christ

would not leave

His church,

I pray that

that same commitment

is present

in each of the marriages

here, Lord.

For the single Christians

here, Lord,

I pray that

I pray that our devotion

to the Lord

continue to grow.

That for all of us

our relationship

with you

is first and foremost.

Lord,

I pray these things

in the name of

your Son,

Jesus Christ,

and by the power

of your Holy Spirit.

Amen.

So,

after every

sermon

in the evening service,

sorry,

you can be seated.

I'm sorry,

that was my fault.

So,

after every

evening service,

we have

a question

and answer

portion.

So,

you may ask

whatever question

you wish.

It can be about

the passage,

it can be about

anything that came up

over the course

of the sermon,

anything at all.

Yes,

yes.

Yes.

I was commanded to,

that's what I,

but,

but second part?

Okay,

so,

first of all,

why this one?

As I said,

I was commanded to.

This was the weekend

that Desiree was going

to be in town.

I had chosen

another week.

I told her that.

She said she was going

to be in town this week,

so I'd better be

preaching that week.

And it just happens

to be the weekend

of Valentine's Day,

which is also

a sermon on divorce,

so it's just like,

okay,

I guess this is happening.

As for how it's,

as for how it's affected

me,

going into,

so,

so going into,

you know,

proposing and going

into the engagement

and all that,

my first,

my first emotion

has always been

excitement

and anticipation.

As I've continued

to do this,

specifically doing this,

doing this kind of prep,

it was sobering for me

in seeing what,

what Christ says

marriage is.

Ideally,

in,

in,

in it being the picture,

in it being the picture

of Christ's relationship

with the church,

like,

that's a,

that's a really,

really big deal.

It's made me really

even more excited,

but it's,

but it's,

but,

but,

but that excitement

is also,

it's present with

a very,

very deep soberness

about the,

just,

just the,

just the magnanimity

of the,

of the institution

that I'm in,

that I'm entering into.

But for me,

what's been really important

for me,

and this is what

initially prompted me

to,

to,

to,

to propose,

was essentially

when the Lord

revealed to me

that the,

that,

that the two of us

would bring more glory

to him together

than apart from one another.

And at that,

and at that point

I was like,

okay,

well I just gotta buy this ring

and go ahead and do this.

So,

at that point,

there it was.

But,

but,

but this,

but this preparation process

has,

has,

it's,

it's sobered me,

it's sobered me deeply.

As I,

as I,

as I think about the commitment

that I'm gonna make

and 160 days.

Yeah.

What's that?

Uh.

Main Wohn-

Mm-hmm.

Does marriage have any meaning?

I think, and I think this comes from,

it comes from, I mean, what Christ says in Mark,

and also what Paul says in Ephesians,

but I think that we as Christians

must be willing to stand on the fact

that marriage does have meaning.

And I think we have to stand on that

because it's a model of Christ's relationship

with the church.

And so as such, that's not something

that we can sacrifice.

And I really think that the burden

is really on us specifically

because God has told us what marriage is about.

And so as such, the marriages in the church,

that's something that we have to be willing to commit to.

A knowledge that when I enter into this,

I'm entering into something

that is to represent Christ's relationship

with the church.

So in that sense, yes,

marriage absolutely does have meaning.

And I think that we as the church

have a unique responsibility

to really be an image of that.

Because, I mean, I deeply believe

that it's only by the power of the Holy Spirit

that marriage can be as beautiful

as God meant for it to be.

And so, and we as the body of Christ

have the Holy Spirit dwelling in us.

And so I think that's something

that we need to consistently uphold.

Yeah.

Yeah.

What is the best way to cut this path

on people that are divorced to take this path?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Sure, sure, sure.

So what is the,

or what's the best thing for couples

who are divorced to deal with this passage?

So one of the things,

and this is,

I mean, Paul talks about this too,

but the message of it is

that there are essentially two things,

two things to do if you are divorced.

You either remain unmarried

or you're reconciled to your husband.

One of the things that,

and I think this is another thing

that I think the church needs to be

really adamant about

is that the single life is not

a torturous,

unsustainable life.

It's,

and I,

and I tried to,

I tried to touch on this

a little bit in the sermon,

but the single,

the single person as single

has a,

has a unique opportunity

to image Christ's relationship

with the church.

And so,

and so both options,

whether it is remaining unmarried

or,

or being reconciled,

or being,

or being reconciled to your spouse,

in both situations,

there is,

there is an image of Christ

in the church

that you are to,

that,

that we're to shine forth.

And in,

and in all those cases,

we always seek reconciliation

as the first,

as the first,

as,

as the first option.

But sometimes that's,

sometimes that doesn't,

that doesn't work out.

But our commitment to the Lord

is first,

is first and foremost.

And so that's,

that's the,

that's the response to that.

But one of,

but,

but,

but also as I said,

I don't want it to seem like

divorce is some kind of

unforgivable sin that like,

if you're,

if you're divorced,

we kick you out of the church

and we're no longer fellowship with you.

That's,

that's absolutely not

the way that we,

the way that we ever want to,

want to approach it.

As I was saying,

you know,

it's a,

it's a painful,

it's a deeply,

deeply painful process.

And we as the church

should be willing to come up,

to come alongside one another

through that,

through that pain,

praying for one another.

So.

Yeah,

Matt.

Yeah,

so why don't you touch on

just in your answer,

but our society

gives us a lot of

bad,

I mean,

we have good,

you know,

examples like this sermon

and God's words

tell us what a good marriage is,

but at that same time

we have our society,

you know,

bombarding us

with also,

you know,

their own marriage

of what marriage is like.

Yeah.

For example,

if you see on a new television show,

you look at a marriage,

it's usually the woman

who's calling this out

to the man

who just says there,

like,

yes,

David,

yes,

whatever you say.

there,

you know,

the law is good.

And the legalistic things

are not the law,

but what you should expect

and,

you know,

there's nothing

to do wrong with it.

And then,

on the flip side,

you know,

the church is not necessarily,

I mean,

I think it's better

at doing this,

but at the same time

as you were just talking about,

you know,

the church can,

especially certain churches

can really crush it,

but if you're not married,

you're somehow

a second class,

you know,

Christian type thing

or certain notions about marriage

can be messed up as well.

So, can you comment

on some of those things

and just how, you know,

what are the lies and pitfalls

that perhaps crashed through

your own personal,

your most commonly called

religious subjections.

It's up to you.

Sure.

Oh.

Oh.

Oh.

Traps that we are particularly

parallel.

Oh.

Oh.

No, I want to do this.

No, this is, no,

I want to do this.

Yeah.

It was kind of, okay.

Okay.

I'll express an iteration of it.

So, I'll say, okay,

so like what is,

we'll say,

what's a big,

what's a big danger

that we'll say

that the church can fall into

when it comes to,

we'll say specific,

just marriage.

Let's just say

a danger to fall into

when it comes to conceiving of it,

preaching it,

whatever.

We'll do that.

Okay.

So, I think,

so we'll,

I'll just,

I'll just pick one

because there's all this stuff.

One is that,

that second class citizen thing

that you were,

that you were,

that you were,

that you were talking about before.

Because it's funny

when Paul,

when Paul is talking

to the Corinthians,

when you get all that,

you know,

it's,

it's,

it's better to marry

than to burn

and all that,

all that,

all that kind of stuff.

He's speaking to them

where marriage is seen

as a bad,

seen as a bad thing.

It's like,

you just don't,

don't do it.

To which his response is,

no,

it's a good thing.

While I would like you all

to be single

because then you could be like me

and you could have this

undistracted devotion

to the Lord,

I understand that there,

that,

that not everyone is gifted in that,

that not everyone is gifted

in that way.

Christ essentially says that

in the parallel passage

in Matthew 19

where he says that there are some,

there are some who have been eunuchs

from birth,

some who have been made,

some who were made eunuchs

by men

and some who have made themselves eunuchs

for the,

for the sake of the kingdom of heaven.

But,

the thing is,

and some,

and something that I,

that I,

that I wanted to emphasize here

is that

the single,

the single life

and the married life,

both of them have their,

have their,

have their unique challenges

and both have,

and both have unique benefits.

There are things that,

there are things that,

there are things that,

are much easier for single people

than for married people.

Things that are much easier

for married people

than for single people.

And so,

one of the things

that the church,

one of the ways

that the church

can live that out

is by married people offering hospitality to single people

and single people offering hospitality to married people.

There's a capacity of time and flexibility that single people have

that married people don't.

There are resources that married people have

that single people don't have access to.

And if we're to be truly, I mean, as the body of Christ,

that's something that we should be willing to support one another in.

And single people, pray for the marriages in the church.

Because if this is meant to be an image of Christ in the church,

this is something that requires constant prayer.

And married people, pray for the single people in the congregation.

Because there are deep, deep, deep, intense struggles

that go on in the single person's mind.

Even whether it's dealing with kind of unchecked,

in some cases, just unchecked selfishness.

Because when you're on your own, you know,

I can do whatever I want in my apartment.

I don't know, like nobody knows.

And so, but that's dangerous.

And so there's a support in both arenas that needs to happen, I think.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Hi, Mindy.

Why does Moses allow the Lord?

Why?

Why does Moses allow the Lord?

Good.

Good, good, good.

So the question is, it's a difference between

what does Moses command and what does Moses permit?

So the commandment is whoever divorces,

like basically, like the commandment is never,

there is never a command to divorce in scripture.

Never a command to divorce.

Never a command, if someone does this, divorce them.

No.

The command is whoever divorces his wife

must write her a certificate of divorce.

Which is to say that it's an issue of justice.

If you marry, if you marries,

if a man were to marry a woman

and then just put her out on the street,

she would be utterly defenseless.

The certificate of divorce would allow,

would essentially allow her to remarry,

which is like, it's a safety,

it's a safety issue.

And so one of, so that's kind of one of the,

I think that's one of the things

that Jesus was referring to when he says,

he did this because of your hardness of heart.

It was because it's like, why would you put,

why would you, first of all,

why would you divorce your wife is the idea.

Because that's not what marriage was meant.

Marriage was never meant to have this kind of thing.

But the commandment to give a certificate of divorce

was specifically, you know,

to maintain that justice

so that women wouldn't be, you know,

left out defenseless.

But what Jesus is essentially doing here is he's,

I mean, he's showing us,

he's showing us the way that it's supposed to be.

And in that next part that we see about children,

he's giving us how that's supposed to happen.

He gives us the Holy Spirit

so that this can be a reality.

And I think that's,

I think that's where,

I think that's where we need to focus our attention.

Yeah.

But then it said in Mark that

if you are divorced,

you're not going to be there.

In other words,

if you're a certificate of divorce,

doesn't make a person safe

by allowing them to marry

and it has to be not.

Right.

So this is the,

and this is him dealing with,

there are a number of Jewish,

there are a number of Jewish schools at the time,

going back and forth about what this means,

who can divorce,

who can,

all that kind of stuff.

But if you look at just Jesus' response to the question,

where the question is,

is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?

It just seems that his answer,

if you had to choose between yes or no,

it just seems that his answer would be no.

In which case,

that,

that,

that,

this,

this is,

this is not even a thing that he,

that he wants Christians to even deal with.

The,

the answer,

the,

the question of the,

the question of the certificate

was an issue.

I mean,

that was,

it was an,

it was an,

it was an issue for the Jewish people at the time.

And,

and it was,

let me think of the best.

Yeah,

I think that,

I,

I,

I mean,

I really think the best,

I think,

I really think the best way to approach that is just that.

Christ,

Christ in his statement is saying,

this is not the way,

this is not the way that it's been,

that that it's been meant to,

that it's been meant to be.

All,

all those things that he was saying about a certificate of divorce

and all those things were allowances

because of their,

because of their hardness of heart.

But now,

in the church,

he's,

he's,

and now that he's been resurrected,

ascended,

and sent the,

and sent the Holy Spirit,

there's a new,

there's a new capacity for us to be able to do

what he's,

what he's commanded us to do.

So.

Okay.

And,

and I'll be,

I'll be around.

We can still continue this conversation.

Thanks,

guys.

Bye.

Thank you.

Thank you.