Testing Jesus

Introduction

This week we touch on a sensitive subject. While it is not always crystal clear, I want to approach this subject in a different way today. Today we are focused on the way in which we test Jesus. We test Jesus to figure things out. We test Jesus to find boundaries. Sometimes we test Jesus to push those boundaries. Sometimes we test Jesus to see the purpose of those boundaries. Today as we dive into the topic of testing Jesus, may you focus on hearing God in this conversation and learning and understanding how this may apply in your life.

Trouble in the Text

Before we start trying to sort this out, it helps to understand the original context of what Jesus was responding to. In the 1st century, there was debate around the topic of divorce that had been part of public debate for a while. In looking at different references, there was even some debate amongst the religious groups. There was very little given in the Old Testament to go by other than the pieces Jesus quotes.

What were these pieces? First was the part Jesus quoted which comes early in Genesis when God created Eve as the first couple. You also can find the Pharisees quote in Deuteronomy. So these are at odds with each other. Interestingly enough, this is not what they debated over. What they debated over was not the absolute that Jesus stated but the terms in which it should be legal or not.

Over time, this topic was debated and it came down to what terms the husband can divorce or send away his wife. It was never about when a wife could divorce or send her husband away. Bible scholars mention there were likely a few different interpretations that expanded what conditions were valid. Here is what one bible scholar puts together for the differing views of the first century.

The Gospel of Mark Marriage and Divorce (10:1–12)

While the permitted grounds of divorce were debated in the rabbinic world, the admissibility of divorce (of a wife by her husband, not vice versa: Josephus, Ant. 15.259) as such was not questioned: Dt. 24:1–4 (the only legislation relating specifically to divorce in the Torah) was understood to have settled the issue. The more restrictive interpretation of the school of Shammai (only on the basis of ‘unchastity’, m. Giṭ. 9:10) was almost certainly a minority view. More typical, probably, is Ben Sira 25:26: ‘If she does not accept your control, divorce her and send her away’, or Josephus’s laconic comment (Life 426): ‘At this time I divorced my wife, not liking her behaviour.’ Josephus paraphrases Dt. 24:1, ‘He who wants to be divorced from the wife who shares his home for whatever cause—and among people many such may arise—…’ (Ant. 4.253), and the school of Hillel allowed this to cover a spoiled meal, or even, so R. Akiba, ‘if he found another fairer than she’ (m. Giṭ. 9:10).

In short, some said adultery only (minority view) which Jesus is shown staring view this in Matthew 19:9. Others said it was if the wife did not accept the husbands control over them. Yet another view was anything that the husband found dissatisfying such as a bad dinner was grounds for divorce. As you can see the views on this debated topic in Jesus’ time here was all focused on the husband and what conditions he could divorce her, or send her away.

Even the disciples further questioned him on this subject because Jesus’ answer to the problem was there shouldn’t be divorce. Even today that is still shocking to hear but sharing one bible scholar’s interpretation also helps clarify the root issue at hand

“Jesus both questioned the appropriateness of the use of Dt. 24:1–4 as an ethical basis, and offered an alternative and more fundamental consideration drawn not from the Sinai law code but from the original order of creation before the Fall. If marriage was instituted as a permanent ‘one-flesh’ union of man and woman, then it must always be against the will of God for it to be broken. The legal provision of Moses in Dt. 24 was not intended as a statement of God’s purpose for marriage, but as a regrettable but necessary means of limiting the damage when that purpose has already been abandoned. It is a provision to deal with human σκληροκαρδία, not a pointer to the way things ought to be. The marriage ethics of the kingdom of God must be based not on a concession to human failure, but on the pattern set out in God’s original creation of man and woman. What God has joined together must not be separated by human initiative.”

R. T. France, The Gospel of Mark: A Commentary on the Greek Text, New International Greek Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI; Carlisle: W.B. Eerdmans; Paternoster Press, 2002), 388.

Perhaps as this bible scholar put it, the real problem at hand was God’s original design and human failure. This was not be limited to just divorce but many other ways in which sin corrupts us and we fail to uphold what God intends us to in our relationship with God and with each other. Perhaps what was really being debate was what were the limits or boundaries to the relationship of marriage. The debate going on with the people listening to Jesus was more to do with what ways can I break that relationship that are still withing the boundaries God allows.

Easily assumed, it is also possible that husbands made decisions based on selfish humanly desires How do they reconcile Jesus’ shocking response to them that they should not be focused on the permissible terms for divorce but rather not divorce at all? How should they deal with the brokenness?

Trouble in our world

In some ways, we too have the same dilemma going on today. In what ways will God be OK with divorce? While this is a tough subject to tackle, I don’t want you to think I am oversimplifying this. There are many ways in which you will not hear me speak on this subject in absolute terms. I want to approach it from two angles: (1) How are we testing Jesus with this question of when is it OK for me to divorce? and (2) How do we deal with the broken relationship between God’s intention and our human brokenness?

At the risk of sounding insensitive, how often to relationships fail because one or more people in the relationship fall into a temptation or belief that pulls them away from that original relationship or pushes them away? How often does it occur that selfish human desire harms a relationship? Perhaps to what Jesus was pointing to, are we pushing the boundaries on what we are obligated to in marriage versus what we do that breaks the relationship. How are we supposed to deal with the relationship being broken? How are we to understand what limitations we are to put on this relationship? No different than in Jesus’ time, we too have many questions on this subject. How do we deal with our own brokenness?

Grace in the passage

Luckily, Jesus’ hard truth pushed them to deal with the heart of the matter. What did God intend in this relationship versus debating what are proper grounds for dissolving the relationship. In Jesus’s culture, the debate centered on when the husband could break the relationship. Jesus turned it around by focusing instead on the intention of the relationship being lifelong not conditional based what the husband wanted to do.

Jesus showed a way to go back to the meaning of marriage as a relationship God intended to make for life. Jesus highlighted human desire is what gets in the way of that relationship. If this is what God intends, then an alternative is to see how God can be put in the center of that relationship. Ultimately, this depends on both people and whether human desires override God’s desires.

Grace today

If we take a deeper look at this relationship, it is possible for God’s grace to reconcile us. God’s grace can bring healing where human desires have harmed one another. While I am not saying that I am of the opinion that no divorce should ever occur, I am saying bringing God’s desires into the relationship can bring grace that enables us to move beyond our human desires that lead us to testing boundaries.

Just as grace has healed our relationship with God, so too can God’s grace bring healing and restoration in our marriages too. Just as God’s grace transforms your heart away from sinful desires and into God’s desires, so too can God’s grace transform our hearts to see our marriage relationship and follow God’s desires there too.