Sermon Tone Analysis

October 29, 2000                                                                                                                                                                                   Pentecost 20

 

/ Some Pharisees came and tested him by asking, ‘‘Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?” “What did Moses command you?” he replied.

They said, “Moses permitted a man to write a certificate of divorce and send her away.”

“It was because your hearts were hard that Moses wrote you this law,” Jesus replied.

‘‘But at the beginning of creation God ‘made them male and female.’

‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife,  and the two will become one flesh.’

So they are no longer two, but one.

9 Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate.”

When they were in the house again, the disciples asked Jesus about this.

He answered, ‘‘Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery against her.

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

// /

/People were bringing little children to Jesus to have him touch them, but the disciples rebuked them.

// //When Jesus saw this, he was indignant.

He said to them, ‘‘Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.

// //I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.”//

// //And he took the children in his arms, put his hands on them and blessed them.

// //Mark 10:2-16/

/ /

*These are Jesus’ Family Values*

* *

                It’s been said that this is the most important election in our lifetimes.

And I don’t know about you, but I’m getting pretty tired of it.

I’m sick to death of attack ads on TV and I’ll be glad when it’s over.

Having said that, I do think this election is important.

In this campaign, there’s been quite a bit of talk about family values.

You’ve all seen that commercial that says, “Al Gore, father of four ...” and the one for state representative that says, “He’s lived the family values others just talk about.”

All those family values ads are aimed at people like us who think that marriage and family are important.

People who believe that our leaders have a responsibility to be examples to our children.

You are their target audience.

Now, I’m not trying to tell you how you should vote, but I do think all those references to “family values” are meaningless.

After all, whose family values do they represent?

This morning, God holds out to us the only family values that matter.

Not surprisingly, they’re values that our society would consider to be out-of-date, even radical.

Few politicians would stand where Jesus stands today.

But Jesus calls us to stand there with him.

*These are Jesus’ family values:*

*                I.

Jesus is anti-divorce.*

*                II.

Jesus is pro-child.*

*I.*

The Pharisees were trying to sandbag Jesus.

Kind of like when a reporter tries to trip up a candidate by asking him about something controversial, like gun control or abortion.

Taking a stand one way or the other is going to cost him votes.

The Pharisees figured they had a question that was going to cost Jesus.

Now, he wasn’t running for anything, so it wouldn’t cost him any votes.

But he was popular.

And they wanted him to lose some of that popularity.

So they asked him one of the most divisive questions of their time: was it legal for a man to simply divorce his wife?

You have to understand what that question meant.

God’s covenant with Israel included laws about marriage.

When Israel was unfaithful to that covenant, she paid.

Blood ran in the streets and the people were carted off to exile.

No one wanted to be guilty of leading God’s people astray again.

But there was a deep divide in Jewish society over this question.

Some understood Moses to say that divorce really wasn’t permitted, except in very serious cases.

Others felt that the law allowed divorce as long as the husband observed certain legal niceties, like giving his wife a certificate of divorce.

The Pharisees tried to put Jesus on the spot.

He could support one position or the other, but then he would have to call the other position wrong.

Jesus didn’t disappoint them.

He made a clear statement of his family values.

He was anti-divorce.

*                *But first Jesus asked the Pharisees what Moses had said.

They answered, *Moses permitted a man to write a certificate of divorce and send her away.*

Either side in the Jewish argument would have agreed with that statement.

They all argued that a husband could get rid of his wife, as long as he gave her a “certificate of divorce.”

That really wasn’t what the law said.

And it’s surprising, in a way, that the Pharisees held that position, since they were the “religious right” of their day.

But the Pharisees really weren’t interested in the great truths of Scripture.

They wanted to feel like they were righteous.

They couldn’t feel that way because they couldn’t really follow God’s law.

No one can.

So they turned Moses’ commandment on its head and said, “It’s all right to divorce a woman as long as you follow the rules.”

Jesus didn’t let them get away with that.

Moses didn’t give the correct procedure for getting a divorce.

He gave a law to protect women who were divorced in a culture that didn’t give them many rights.

If a man broke God’s will and divorced his wife, then he had to give her a certificate of divorce.

That certificate gave her the right to remarry.

Under the Mosaic law, men and women who were caught in adultery were killed.

So having a certificate of divorce was kind of like saying that your husband divorced you for “irreconcilable differences” instead of because you cheated on him.

But Moses wrote that law because Israel’s hearts were hard.

God knew that some men would unjustly divorce their wives and he wanted to protect those women.

But divorce was never a part of God’s plan for marriage.

God’s plan is simple.

One man and one woman leave their parents and become one flesh -- they join together in the most intimate union this side of heaven.

And they stay that way for life.

Divorce is just plain wrong.

Can you imagine a politician saying that today?

Everyone agrees that the rate of divorce in our society is horrible.

The same psychologists who told us 30 years ago that “no fault divorce” was the best thing for kids in unhappy families have had to admit that divorce tortures children.

But do they say that it’s wrong?

No.

Their answer is that we have to pay more attention to the kids when their parents get divorced.

We have to understand what they’re going through.

But you know what?

Even if you could be so understanding that your children weren’t hurt at all, even if you never let the proceedings degenerate into name calling and spitefulness, even if both husband and wife want it and remain friends afterward, divorce is a sin.

“What God has joined together, let man not separate.”

When a man and woman get married, first of all they make a promise to God.

Before the promise to each other, to their parents, or to the state of Michigan, they promise God that they will live together.

Because human hearts are hard, God does allow divorce in two specific situations: if your spouse -- not you, your spouse --  has sex with someone else or if your spouse just leaves.

But even that’s a concession.

If you get divorced for any other reason, you’re saying that your need to be happy or your desire to have something else is more important than the promise you made to God.