Sermon Tone Analysis

Text: Mark 10:1-12

Theme: The Bible’s teaching on divorce.

Do you remember your wedding day?

As part of your vows, you probably said these words: "To have and to hold from this day forward; for better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish; until we are parted by death."

Important words, aren’t they?

They are words of commitment.

They are ++words.

Did you think about their meaning when you said them?

Have you thought about their meaning since then?

Think about them -- for better or for worse.

These words are found in most traditional wedding services, unfortunately in far too many cases, “the worse” often outweighs “the better” and the marriage dissolves.

The statistical evidence for this is overwhelming.

In America about 42% of all first marriages will end in divorce within an average 8.2 years after the wedding.

Subsequent marriages fare even worse — 60% of second marriages end in divorce, and 73% of third marriages will end in divorce.

In three-quarters of those divorces, it is the wife who files for the dissolution of the marriage.

There is also a significant difference in divorce rates among economic groups.

The divorce rate among higher income couples is 11%, while the divorce rate for lower income couples is 17%.

(I guess “poorer” often goes hand-in-hand with “worse”)

Among Evangelical Christians, the percentage is – sadly – not much better with a quarter of Evangelicals divorcing.

(That statistic is somewhat skewed because it includes all self-identifying Evangelical Christians whether-or-not they attend church.

Across the board, couple who are active in weekly worship, whether it’s in a Church, a Synagogue, or a Mosque — those couple have significantly lower divorce rates.

Weekly worshiping together is one of the biggest indicators in the longevity of a marriage)

The good news is that divorce rates have dropped significantly over the last twenty-five years.

In 1992, there were 4.8 divorces per 1,000 population.

By 2016, this had dropped to 3.2.

Those who do tie the knot tend to be older, better off and more highly educated.

What does the church have to say about divorce?

Some churches are guilty of twisting the Scriptures to accommodate their own particular bias.

We either raise the standard to a level that puts more importance on the institution than on the people involved in the institution.

Or, we lower the standard to a point where we place no importance on the institution what-so-ever.

On one hand, well-meaning people raise the standard in their desire to stop divorce.

The would maintain that there should be no divorce for any Christian for any reason, and absolutely no remarriage for any Christian at any time, period.

The problem is that this can force a believer to remain within an abusive or even dangerous relationship.

This may be well-intentioned, but it cannot be biblically substantiated.

On the other hand, there are those well-intentioned people who look at the problem of divorce and say we must not forget that people are involved, and we need to love them, care for them, minister to them, and accept them.

What happens is that the standard is lowered to accommodate the believer’s divorce for any reason what-so-ever.

While these churches rightly emphasize forgiveness, they end up lowering the standard to the same as the world's.

And that is as equally biblically untenable.

The best position for the church to take is the biblical position.

So let's look at the elements of this passage in order to discover the plain, biblical teaching concerning marriage.

I want us to see The Testing of the Scribes, The Testimony of the Savior, and The Teachings of the Scriptures.

I. THE TESTING OF THE SCRIBES

vv.

1-2 "And rising up, He went from there to the region of Judea, and beyond the Jordan; and crowds gathered around Him again, and, according to His custom, He once more began to teach them.

And some Pharisees came up to Him, testing Him, and began to question Him whether it was lawful for a man to divorce a wife."

1. Jesus was engaged in teaching people

a. as always, there were Pharisees in the crowd, listening and plotting to trip Jesus up and publically embarrass him by asking questions designed to put him between a-rock-and-a-hard-place

b. they were always seeking to discredit Jesus, not to learn more about His teaching

2. on this particular day, the scribes would come to Him with a new question

A. THE DISHONESTY OF THE SCRIBES

1. their questions were not asked to elicit information, but to test him

a. you can almost hear the malice in their voice

2. on this occasion, the question of the day is about divorce

ILLUS.

Said sarcastically, So tell us “rabbi” ... is it permissible for a man to divorce his wife?

You’re a wise man.

Tell us.

Give us your insight.

a. in order to understand the full picture of what happened, we must not only read this account in Mark 10, but also its parallel account in Matthew 19

b. here in Mark, the question is about the law of divorce

1) the scribes wanted to know on what grounds it was lawful for a man to divorce a wife

a) Hebrew women were not allowed to divorce their husbands

2) Matthew adds that they asked Him whether it was lawful to divorce a wife for any reason

c. obviously, this was a loaded question

1) what they really wanted to do was to put Jesus in an untenable situation — one that conflicted with the teaching of the leading rabbis of the day

3. there were two schools of thought in Jesus' day concerning divorce

a. they were propagated by two rabbis: Rabbi Hillel and Rabbi Shammai

ILLUS.

These are still considered two of the most eminent religious scholars in Judaism.

So much so that there were schools of thought named for them — the School of Hillel, and the School of Shammai.

Both were Pharisees, and both served on the Jewish Sanhedrin.

It was Hillel’s grandson, Gamaliel — who also served on the Sanhedrin — who in Acts 5 counseled the Jewish leaders to essentially leave the Christians alone saying that if the movement was not of God it would fail, and if it was of God, they couldn’t stop it.

b.

Rabbi Shammai taught that divorce was only permissible on the grounds of some sexual impropriety

1) his was the more conservative view

c.

Rabbi Hillel, on the other hand, had a more progressive view

1) he taught that a man could divorce His wife for any reason what-so-ever

ILLUS.

If she burned his breakfast, put too much salt on his porridge, showed disrespect to him, spoke ill of her mother-in-law in her husband’s presence, spoke to a man on the street, or even let her hair down in public, he could divorce her.

2) his view was the precursor to our own “modern” no-fault divorce

d. the view of Rabbi Hillel was the view that was most popular in Jesus' day

1) this is the reason the scribes tested Him

2) they wanted Him to become unpopular with the people and they knew He would not side with this more liberal view

4. but I think there is something more going on here

a. Mark 10:1 says, “Jesus left that place and went into the region of Judea and across the Jordan ... “

1) so what?

b. across the river is Perea, over which Herrod Antipas rules ... remember him?

1) he’s the one who has John the Baptist arrested, and ultimately beheaded, for publically denouncing Antipas divorcing his wife so he could marry Herodias, who was his brother’s wife

2) they are hoping that if Jesus takes a hard-line on divorce, taking sides with the School of Shammai that Herrod just might solve the “Jesus-problem” for them

B. THE FLAWED INTERPRETATION OF THE SCRIBES

1. this entire controversy was based on a passage of Scripture in Deuteronomy 24

a. when Jesus asked them what Moses had commanded, they referred to this passage

Deut.

24:4 "And they said, 'Moses permitted a man to write a certificate of divorce and send her away.'”

2. the Scribes and Religious leaders of Jesus’ day actually saw this as a command to divorce a wife who displeased them in some way

a. this passage was misunderstood because it was mistranslated for years

1) even in our King James Bible the sense of that mistranslation is perpetuated

b. listen to Deuteronomy 24:1 from the King James:

"When a man hath taken a wife and married her, and it comes to pass that she find no favor in his eyes, because he hath found some uncleanness in her, then let him write her a bill of divorcement and give it in her hand and send her out of his house."