THE QUESTION OF DIVORCE

Christian Standard Bible (Chapter 10)

10:1 Then crowds converged on him again, and as was his custom he taught them again.

Teaching gives direction (Jesus’ teaching gives right direction)

Questioning Jesus’ teaching

’ ” Mark, as we have noted, seldom records what Jesus taught, and v. 2 is no exception, for it is not the lecture that Mark records but the question-and-answer period afterward.

2 Some Pharisees came to test him

It is understandable to test to see if someone is the real deal. If I scheduled coffee with my sons pastor…. if i’m a good pastor and father i’m not meeting with him because I feel a way.

It would be like a new mother inspecting the ingredients

This isn't the testing of the pharisees (They on some swiper no swiping)

The purpose of their testing is to detract from the ministry of Jesus.

Jesus is teaching , in a region under Antipas’s jurisdiction, the question may have been put to trap him on the issue of Antipas’s marriage to Herodias, over which the Baptist had lost his head

Antipas appears in the New Testament more frequently than any other member of the Herodian dynasty—his rule coincided with the ministries of John the Baptist and Jesus.

What happens when your biblical worldview collides with you favorite politicians views

Teach them.

Jesus isn’t a student of Moses, a subordinate of the King or even John the Baptist

I ain’t one of your lil friends

3 What did Moses command you?”

4 They said, “Moses permitted us to write divorce papers and send her away.”

Deut 24 “If a man marries a woman, but she becomes displeasing to him because he finds something indecent about her, he may write her a divorce certificate, hand it to her, and send her away from his house. 2 If after leaving his house she goes and becomes another man’s wife, 3 and the second man hates her, writes her a divorce certificate, hands it to her, and sends her away from his house or if he dies, 4 the first husband who sent her away may not marry her again after she has been defiled, because that would be detestable to the Lord. You must not bring guilt on the land the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance.i

grossly improper or offensive, nakedness, shameful behavior

“a cause of immorality,” or, more literally, “a thing of nakedness.” Most Jews recognized that this unusual phrase was talking about adultery.

Jesus, however, teaches that marriage is not a male-dominated institution but a new creation of God, to which both husband and wife are equally responsible to practice discipleship in lifelong obedience.

Matt 5:30 “It was also said, ‘Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.’ But I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except on the ground of sexual immorality, makes her commit adultery, and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.

And Pharisees came up to him and tested him by asking, “Is it lawful to divorce one’s wife for any cause?” He answered, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his 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.” They said to him, “Why then did Moses command one to give a certificate of divorce and to send her away?” He said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. And I say to you: whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery.”

Mark 10:2 (PNTC Mk): Mark’s record of the question of the Pharisees is surprising since, as was well known, Jewish law permitted divorce. The only question concerned the grounds of divorce, as recorded in the parallel in Matt 19:3, “ ‘Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any and every reason.’ ” This final phrase was the crux of the controversy over divorce in Jesus’ day, as is reflected in a celebrated passage in the Mishnah:

Mark 10:2 (PNTC Mk): The School of Shammai say: A man may not divorce his wife unless he has found unchastity in her, for it is written, “Because he hath found in her indecency in anything.” And the School of Hillel say: [He may divorce her] even if she spoiled a dish for him, for it is written, “Because he hath found in her indecency in anything.” R. Akiba says: Even if he found another fairer than she, for it is written, “And it shall be if she find no favour in his eyes.” (m. Git. 9:10)

Their attitude reminds us of a person who has just been granted a bank loan and then asks under what conditions he might be absolved from repaying it.

Marrige agreement with divorce instructions

The intent of Deut 24:1–4 was manifold. Most obviously, it discouraged hasty divorces by requiring a man to stipulate a reason for divorce in writing, and also by prohibiting him from remarrying his divorced wife.

Jesus teaching is threatening to people who seek control over other peoples lives…

The instructions are clues to get you to the goal..

Instruction manual has a picture of the final product on the cover and the first page. Then it goes into the step by step instructions

John14:6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

When my navigation stops working and I hit unknown territory I don’t stop driving until it starts working again

Jesus revisits the original command.

Revisiting the original intent helps us understand what a thing should be doing?

•Church —- original intent body, marriage, family, and buildings.

•Marriage —- original Man and a woman unified

Abandonment

10 To the married I give this command—not I, but the Lord—a wife is not to leaveA her husband. 11 But if she does leave, she must remain unmarried or be reconciled to her husband—and a husband is not to divorce his wife.d 12 But I (not the Lord) say to the rest: If any brothere has an unbelieving wife and she is willing to live with him, he must not divorce her. 13 Also, if any woman has an unbelieving husband and he is willing to live with her, she must not divorce her husband. 14 For the unbelieving husband is made holy by the wife, and the unbelieving wife is made holy by the husband.B Otherwise your children would be unclean, but as it is they are holy. 15 But if the unbeliever leaves, let him leave. A brother or a sister is not bound in such cases. God has called youC to live in peace. 16 Wife, for all you know, you might save your husband. Husband, for all you know, you might save your wife.

Reconciliation is posable

Don’t enter haphazardly