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Seeing and Seeking God's Best (Mark 10:1-12)
Anyone who likes a bit of gossip and animosity will like this passage. It's more than a little like a soap opera. There are colourful characters, a hidden agenda, a simmering resentment, a dangerous trap and a brooding schemer who says something like, "Come on then if you think your hard!"
The Story so Far
John the Baptist, an eccentric fundamentalist preacher had caught people's imagination and they had flocked to hear him preach repentance and to be baptised (Mark 1:4-5). Meanwhile, Herod the "king" - who was actually more like a regent or steward but who called himself king. A bit like Denethor, Steward of the house of Gondor in Lord of the Rings - had married the daughter of Aretas IV of Arabia while his brother, Phillip, had married Herodias, Phillip and Herods niece and granddaughter of Herod the Great.
Phillip and Herodius lived in Rome and Herod came to visit. While in his brother's house Herod took a shine to his brother's wife, Herodius, and persuaded her to leave Phillip for him. Herod divorced his own wife and he and Herodius made a home for themselves back in Galilee, Herod's "kingdom". John the Baptist got wind of this unconventional arrangement and told Herod in no uncertain terms that marriage to his brother's wife, while his brother was still alive, was forbidden by the Law of Moses (Leviticus 18:16).
Now Herod wasn't an Israelite but an Idumaean, or Edomite. The Edomites were one of the people's who had refused passage to the Israelites at the time of the conquest (Numbers 20) and who had continued to war against Israel (1 Samuel 14 and Isaiah 14). There was a history of simmering resentment and you can imagine, then, how the Israelites felt about being governed by this family of Edomites. Herod, like his father, Herod the Great, simply pandered to Jewish sentiment in order to hold on to power and keep order. As far as actually keeping the Law of Moses was concerned, well that was asking too much, so he had John the Baptist beheaded. Are you still with me?
The Challenge
Now the Pharisees were not especially cut up about the loss of John
the Baptist, in fact they were quite relieved. After all, while "the
whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem went out to
[John]. Confessing their sins, [and being] baptised by him in the Jordan
River" (Mark 1:5) their schools of the law must have seemed relatively
unpopular. Just when they thought things might get back to normal, however,
Jesus' popularity was sweeping the countryside and "crowds
of people came to him, and as was his custom, he taught them" (Mark
10:1). What to do, what to do?
"What if we ask Jesus a question about divorce, get him to say something rash about Herod, as John did, and maybe Herod will get rid of Jesus for us too?" Brilliant!
Now the Jews of that time believed that divorce was lawful and the only issue was on what grounds. An unpopular answer from Jesus could do all sorts of damage to his ministry, even if Herod didn't oblige - so they asked in the spirit of "come on then, if you think your hard, answer this one!"
"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."
Jesus' reply here is a revelation of God's patience with us. Divorce was an accommodation to human weakness, a device used to bring order to a society that had no regard for God. This was not, however, God's standard, but an indication of God's grace. The hardships that can ensue when people follow a lower standard of commitment are reduced by divorce but what is God's best for us?
"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. Therefore what God has
joined together, let man not separate."
God's Best
Jesus goes all the way back to creation to illustrate God's original intention for us. Before the fall, before sin, marriage was a great unifying blessing. After the fall, and especially in our day and age, marriage is often entered into on a whim and ended as easily as cancelling a magazine subscription - a bit like Herod and his tangled affairs. Of course divorce is also a difficult and personally painful subject for many, even in the church, and we must show the same compassion and patience as the God we claim to serve. In a fallen and broken world there are no glib answers to these questions - but we can have a clear understanding of what is God's best for us. Are we seeing clearly and seeking fervently God's best? I pray this week will find us seeking God's best, for us as well as for those around us.
Therefore…let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so
easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out
for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus (God's best), the author and perfecter
of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning
its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God (Hebrews
1:1-2).