From the Sunday Note, with additions following:
The Pharisees approached Jesus and asked,
“Is it lawful for a husband to divorce his wife?”
They were testing him.
He said to them in reply, “What did Moses command you?”
They replied,
“Moses permitted a husband to write a bill of divorce
and dismiss her.”
But Jesus told them,
“Because of the hardness of your hearts
he wrote you this commandment.
But from the beginning of creation, God made them male and female.
For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother
and be joined to his wife,
and the two shall become one flesh.” (quoting Genesis 2:24)
So they are no longer two but one flesh.
Therefore what God has joined together,
no human being must separate.”
Mark 10:2-9, from Sunday’s Gospel
The Pharisees do not want to learn from Jesus—they are simply looking for a new way to attack him. They have not heard him teach about marriage but given the divisions within Judaism on the question of divorce, and the example of Roman culture, they hope to find a wedge issue that could peel away some of the widespread support he enjoys.
Respected rabbis taught various things, from “no divorce” (the small, isolationist Essene community) to “divorce only in a case of adultery” to “divorce for other major violations of the Torah” to “divorce for a string of disappointing burnt meals.”
Keep in mind that those teachers who permitted divorce managed to omit exactly one half all married people in this equation—the women. However, the example of Roman law (and Roman rulers) allowing men and women to divorce influenced at least some Jewish women to initiate divorces, too.
Jesus goes right for the jugular—“What did Moses command you?” All the Pharisees can point to is a requirement that if a man divorced his wife, he must give her a written release. The arguments about why a man might initiate divorce illustrate that Moses gave NO commands about grounds for a divorce. Jesus explains that Moses required the writ to ameliorate the condition of the divorced woman: with the writ, she could safely live with another man, without this man being liable in any way to the hardened heart her husband. In a society where it was practically impossible for a woman to live by herself, Moses’s requirement gave her a decent chance to avoid a life of prostitution.
Then Jesus points to the earliest chapters of Genesis—the creation and foundation of everything, happening many, many centuries before the giving of the Law. God separates humankind into male and female in order to generate new life in their union. In a society where “family is everything” the one recognized reason adult males and females may “leave … mother and father” is to be united with the opposite sex, founding a new family, and bringing new lives into God’s creation.
This union is willed by God, for in it they become “one flesh,” that is, in our terms, “one completed being” a fruitful being, mirroring God’s own unity-and-fruitfulness. “Therefore what God has joined together, no human being must separate.” At this point, the Pharisees suddenly realized that there was a lot more on their plate than they expected to be dealing with. No further questions recorded!
The principal Christ teaches here does not simply settle every question surrounding marriage that will come up. For instance, not each-and-every union of a man and a woman is a marriage by that fact alone. Nor does his teaching settle what civil law should be in a population where only a small percentage are followers of Christ. Nevertheless, the core Christian understanding has not changed over the centuries. Christ’s words remain a challenge in every age.
For further reflection:
“In a society where “family is everything” the one recognized reason adult males and females may “leave … mother and father” is to be united with the opposite sex, founding a new family, and bringing new lives into God’s creation.” Now that Jesus has come, however, a new situation has arisen for every individual in the created world. Now there is one other legitimate reason a man or woman may have to “leave father and mother” –to follow… .
Also from Sunday’s Gospel:
And people were bringing children to him that he might touch them,
but the disciples rebuked them.
When Jesus saw this he became indignant and said to them,
“Let the children come to me;
do not prevent them, for the kingdom of God belongs to
such as these.
Amen, I say to you,
whoever does not accept the kingdom of God like a child
will not enter it.”
Then he embraced them and blessed them,
placing his hands on them. Mark 10:13-16
Jesus become indignant (close to “exasperated” again!) with the disciples, since he had shortly before this illustrated how pleased he was with children as examples of those who, in their simplicity, embraced him without bragging.
Taking a child, he placed it in their midst,
and putting his arms around it, he said to them,
“Whoever receives one child such as this in my name, receives me; and whoever receives me,
receives not me but the One who sent me.” Mark 9:36-37, Sunday before last
Now he “embraces” them, “blesses” them, and “places his hands on them.” This is explicit encouragement to parents to bring children close to Jesus so that he can be part of their lives, too. This reading is foundational for baptism of the very young, and communion and confirmation at an early age. Child follower or adult follower, we all have much to learn and practice as we grow towards maturity in Christ.