From Matthew 19:3-9 / D.I.V.O.R.C.E.

The Pharisees seemed to have endless energy when it came to testing Jesus. One lexicon says that the word “tested” here means: “to obtain information to be used against a person by trying to cause someone to make a mistake—‘to try to trap, to attempt to catch in a mistake.’ Louw, Johannes P., and Eugene Albert Nida. 1996. In Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament: Based on Semantic Domains, electronic ed. of the 2nd edition., 1:329. New York: United Bible Societies.

The point is that they wanted to prove Jesus to be a fraud, to dissuade people from buying into Him. Perhaps this is because their popularity among the common folk would be eroded if they began to put stock in one who did not agree with the Pharisaical constructs. Perhaps it was that they could not abide anyone who did not support them or hold to every jot and tittle of their interpretations and practices. Perhaps both mixed with other motives as well.

Mind you, the Pharisees took the Bible seriously. They were zealous in serving God as they understood Him and His demands. But in their zeal, they became the biggest practitioners of the “Cancel Culture” of their day. Every disagreement, no matter how small, was a deal breaker for fellowship. Sadly, like so many today. Jesus didn’t fit neatly enough. So He had to be unmasked for the diabolical infiltrator He was. He had to go. So exposing Him publicly as not towing the orthodox line was a necessary tactic.

The problem was, their orthodoxy had features which were not central to Biblical truth, but was more reliant on their interpretations of certain things. Whether or not those were central to Biblical Yaweh worship took second place. If it didn’t fit their entire cast, it was not just suspect, it was evil and needed to be excised.

Sound familiar?

It is still true in politics. And it is still true in much of Evangelical Christianity. Much to our shame.

Note first: The most probable background for the question had to do with a debate between two schools of Biblical thought in that day. One school taught that a man could divorce his wife for things as trivial as burning his toast once too often. The other school, the “conservative” school, thought divorce could only be on the grounds of really serious sin. Of course defining such sin was open to discussion as well. All of this grew out of debate over the guidelines for divorce in Deut. 24.

Jesus was not about to make either side happy.

Why? Because His answer goes beyond questions of merely obeying some letter of the Law. He wants to take them back to consider the question – and all such questions – in terms of their principial foundations. When that is done, quick and easy answers to complex questions disappear. Note second: Jesus makes it clear that marriage is not simply a social contract. In it, God causes the two to be joined in a mysterious way which is meant to demonstrate the nature of Christ and His Church. So it cannot be dissolved easily and without due consideration for what else is involved. God has acted in it, not just the two people married. And no one ought to presume to sever what God has divinely brought into union before His eyes and for His purposes. This is a very high matter. More than man’s reasons and desires need to be dealt with.

Flippant reasons often given like: “We’ve just grown apart”, or, “we made a mistake”; “we were too young”; “I need to do this for me”; “He, or she doesn’t meet my needs”; or worst of all, “I’ve fallen in love with someone else” – don’t cut it.

Divorce is meant to complicated. God determined it so when He gave the Mosaic Law. Marriage, divorce and re-marriage are not issues where one just ticks off the right boxes. It has cosmic implications.

Note third: As was the issue with the Pharisees approach to the Sabbath, something is always amiss when we are called to serve what was meant to serve and bless us. The Sabbath as Jesus says in correcting their view, was made for man, not man for the sabbath.

So it is with marriage. Marriage was meant to bless and contribute to the flourishing of man. Man was not meant to serve marriage. When this is upside down, the institution takes on more importance than the people the institution is meant to bless.

Note fourth: Central to understanding Jesus’ words here, is rightly understanding vss. 8-9, which sadly have been greatly misunderstood by many.

Some interpret these verse so as to say God granted divorce to Israel to accommodate the sinful desires of some. This would be most strange indeed. It would be as though one said: “I am a serial rapist and cannot control myself due to the hardness of my heart”, and God replies: “I will make a law then that serial rapists are not to be charged for their sin, after all, it is due to the hardness of their hearts.” At once we see the folly of such an interpretation.

The sense is this: Because there are some, whose hardness of heart leads them to such an extreme that they would even violate the most basic, most sacred covenant of marriage – God gave to the innocent party a means of relief – that they might leave and be married to another who is faithful.

Divorce is not license to the wicked, it is relief for the betrayed.

Jesus is saying that the Law was not given to give those with hard hearts a pass, but rather to protect those injured and sinned against.

Note fifth: It is true that there is no divorce without sin. It is not true that who are divorced have sinned. If in fact divorce itself IS sin in all cases, then God writing Israel a decree of divorce in Jer. 3:8 implicates Him in sin. We know this cannot be true. But what was behind God’s divorce? Spiritual adultery. And what is it Christ appeals to here in our text? The same. Adultery.

Now it is obvious that the Bible has much more to say about the topic in a number of other places. But for Jesus’ purpose of refusing to be drawn into a war of interpretive niggling, and calling all parties to lift up our hearts and minds to see such matters on higher places indeed, He silences His prosecutors, and blesses His people.

What a Savior.