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TRUTH OF MARRIAGE Mark 10:1-16 Key Verse 10:9
Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate.
For last three weeks we have been studying the New Year special lectures. God has taught us his strategy to be successful and prosperous—through meditation of his word and absolute obedience to his instructions. God also gave us direction to know Christ more deeply and personally in this year. And last week God taught us the purpose of his calling on us—to be good disciples and disciple makers for Jesus. From this week we resume our study of the Mark’s gospel. Especially in today’s passage Jesus talks about marriage, one of the most sought after topic by the young people. Jesus also warns against divorce and its serious consequences from God’s point of view. May God help us to learn and accept the truth of marriage based on God’s word today. I. The truth of marriage (1-12) Look at verse 1a. “Jesus then left that place and went into the region of Judea and across the Jordan.” Jesus’ final journey to Jerusalem was progressing. Humanly speaking he could be struggling with the thought of his up coming suffering and death on the cross. He could have simply avoided meeting crowds or concentrated on the more important work of disciple raising. But what did Jesus do when a crowd of people came to him? Look at verse 1b. “Again crowds of people came to him, and as was his custom, he taught them.” Jesus received the crowd and taught them the word of God as a habit or practice. They say that a teacher is a teacher is a teacher. Meaning a teacher starts teaching wherever he goes. When they are not in the classroom they start teaching to the rickshaw man, the subji-wala and even their young children. So people sometime avoid meeting teachers. But Jesus teaching was different from other teachers. He taught the word of God as a matter of life and death—because the word of God is the seed of eternal life. Jesus knew that only the word of God has solution to man’s fundamental life problems and restoration of relationship with God and his
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blessings. Therefore even his own up coming suffering and death did not stop Jesus from teaching the word of God to the crowds of people who came to him. At that time who came to Jesus and what did they ask? Look at verse 2. “Some Pharisees came and tested him by asking, "Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?” The Pharisees were the religious leaders of the time and official interpreters of Moses’ Law. But their purpose of asking a question to Jesus was neither for academic purpose nor to learn the truth from him but to test him. They asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?” The matter of divorce in Jesus’ time was as sensitive and controversial and complex as it is today. Their only motif was to put Jesus in trouble and lose his popularity among his followers regardless of whether he supported or opposed divorce. Given the background of the place—the region of Judea—ruled by Herod who had beheaded John the Baptist because of his objection to Herod’s marriage with his brother’s wife. Perhaps the Pharisees were expecting a similar outcome for Jesus as well. Then what was Jesus’ reply to their question? Look at verse 3 “‘What did Moses command you?’ he replied.” In stead of giving a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answer to the legality of divorce Jesus asked them what the Law of Moses said about divorce. This was Jesus’ wisdom to handle the Pharisees’ difficult question. But more than that, it was also his sincere effort to proclaim the truth on this matter in front of the crowd of people. Look at verse 4. “They said, ‘Moses permitted a man to write a certificate of divorce and send her away.’” Based on Moses’ command in Deuteronomy 24:1-4 the Pharisees believed that the Old Testament permitted Jewish men to divorce their wives and remarry. This shows that divorce happened frequently among the Israelites even in Moses’ time. So Moses made the provision of a certificate of divorce to stop arbitrary divorce. The basic purpose of Moses’ command on this matter was to discourage and stop divorce among the Israelites and allow divorce only after proper verification of the facts. Only in the case of marital unfaithfulness was divorced allowed. So we earlier studied how Joseph had decided to divorce Mary quietly when he doubted her
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faithfulness. But the Pharisees interpreted Moses’ permission as God’s desire, as if God himself allowed and encouraged divorce. Then what is God’s view on divorce? Look at verse 5. “‘It was because your hearts were hard that Moses wrote you this law,’ Jesus replied.” Jesus revealed the Pharisees’ inner thought world by saying directly to them, "It was because your hearts were hard that Moses wrote you this law." As religious leaders their thought world should be filled with the joy and the word of God and shepherd heart for the wandering crowd. Instead, their hearts were hard toward God as well as toward their wives. At best they could think about divorce and that divorce is optional. In Malachi 2:13-15, God did not accept the offerings of the priests. They asked, "Why?" Then God answered, "It is because you have broken faith with the wife of your youth, the wife of your marriage covenant." God warned them not to break faith with the wife of their youth, saying "I hate divorce," says the Lord God of Israel. They were terrible sinners before God because they were willing to break their covenant with God and with the wives of their youth. Because of people's hardened hearts, divorces happen frequently all over the world. In some community divorce is so easy that one only needs to utter a particular word thrice no matter whether he is drunk and no matter what the reason for divorce be. The terrible result of divorce is broken family and suffering and sorrowful children. Rate of divorce in India is among the lowest in the world. It is about 12.5 percent compared to the 50 percent rate of divorce in USA and 70 percent in Russia. In the state of Haryana 5000 divorce occur annually. According to a report in Times of India on December 31, “the year 2006 saw an alarming number of divorce suits in the court. Some of the reasons for divorce include snoring, incompatible eating habits, dress sense etc. On an average, 40 divorce petitions are filed every day in the eight district courts of Delhi. Between January and September 2006, in Mumbai, there were 8,941 divorces, and between July and September, 2,932 divorce applications were filed. On the date of publication of this report 20,265 divorce cases were pending in
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Mumbai.” Nowadays young people are fatalistic about marriage. So they live together without being married so that they do not have to fight court battles for divorce later on. However this is not right before God. We must repent our hardened hearts and restore the true meaning of marriage in this country. Then what is the true meaning of marriage? Let us read verses 7-8. “But at the beginning of creation God ‘made them male and female.’ 7 ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, 8 and the two will become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two, but one.” This is a quotation of Genesis 2:24 which is God’s first wedding Sermon. Jesus saw marriage in view of God’s creation. This tells us that God who created man and woman also created or instituted marriage. God had already in mind to unite them to be one through the marriage. When God made the world, he also made the first man Adam. Adam was the first steward of God’s world. He worked hard. But he was lonely because there was no suitable helper for him. He did not talk because animals did not understand him. He did not smile even once though he worked in the paradise. God saw that it was not good for him to be alone. So God made him fall into a deep sleep and took one of his ribs and made a woman and gave her to him (Gen. 2:20-24). From that time on, Adam began to talk and smile and even sing. He was so happy like Shep Robert and Shps Happy who are going to establish their blessed house church on February 24th. After the wedding in paradise, Adam found happiness in God and the meaning of his existence. He loved his wife as his bone of bones. When God created Eve he did not ask to Adam what kind or what type should be his coworker. God created her with his sovereignty and out of his deepest love for Adam to be the most suitable Adam for Adam. God who created Adam knew what kind of woman could be his suitable helper. When we study Genesis, we learn that Eve came from one of Adam’s ribs. Therefore, they were in actuality, one. ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife’ does not mean breaking one’s relationship with parents. It means a person is ready to be led by God and lead his family independently. This also tells us that in God’s wisdom and
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provision the relation between husband and wife is stronger than any other relation in the world, even stronger than parent and son relationship. Look at verse 8. “‘...and the two will become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two, but one.” Here the two becoming one is unity in faith, in purpose, in hope, in serving God’s mission together and also the physical union to raise up godly children. Through this Jesus tells us that marriage is not simply an arrangement between a man and woman but it is a three-party-covenant between God, man and woman. Although every religion in the world try to make marriage look like divine, in my opinion we must make every effort to meet our Creator God first through deep Bible study especially when we are young. Then we can accept his divine will for our life and prepare myself based on the truth to receive all his prepared blessings including establishment of the family. Secondly, God understands our need for marriage and he views family as the fundamental unit of man’s happiness and God’s all blessings. Therefore we can entrust our marriage matter to God and seek his will and leading for our marriage. Thirdly, God who created us knows what kind of woman would be the suitable helper for me and he has already created our respective suitable helper in his sovereignty and providence. Therefore we should not fix our mind about the kind and type man or woman I want to marry and should keep our faith continuously on the absolute sovereignty of God and his providence for me. Fourthly, a family established by God in his sovereignty and for his will is not only blessing that family but blessing one nation and even all nations of the world. We do not know much about Abraham and Sarah’s marriage, but in his love for all mankind God called them and trained them until their faith grew to be father and mother of nations for the whole world. Later, realizing the importance of marriage by God’s leading and providence, Abraham entrusted the marriage of his son Isaac absolutely into God’s hand and Isaac and Rebekah could marry to inherit God’s blessings. How blessed we are to know this secret of happiness and blessing for our life and the generation to come after us! May God establish many blessed house-church among us through his leading when we live based on the marriage truth and
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entrust our marriage into God’s hand. Especially let us pray that God may raise four blessed house-churches this year. What was Jesus’ final comment on marriage and divorce? Let us read v.9 once again. ‘Therefore what God has joined together, let men not separate.’ According to Jesus, marriage is God’s joining together of a man with his wife to bless them and bless all others through them. On the other hand divorce—the act of separating what God has joined together is standing against God’s will—in other word committing sin against God. When we dishonor our marriage vows by being unfaithful we cannot be truly happy as God rejects our life and offerings and cannot bless us anymore. Initially as a young man I was very anxious about my marriage and thought it was right to frequently think about marriage and make speculation about who would be my future coworker, especially after giving up all desires to make girlfriend and after rejecting my father’s proposals to marry according to his choice. When Sh Samuel got married before me I thought ‘What is the point of my being a senior shepherd, raising up disciples or devoting myself for JNU ministry?’ I complained that God is unjust. But when I accepted the marriage truth in Genesis, I repented of my groundless pride, lack of faith in God’s sovereignty and demanding for marriage though I was not ready to lead a family independently. Then God taught me to pray, be an independent individual and wait on God’s providence for my marriage. That was the time when I devoted myself for Sunday message preparation, and to get a job and take care of the ministry at a crucial time of persecution on our ministry. Then God miraculously guided me to be an Asst Prof at LBSIM and established my blessed house-church with Sh Sarah, who is the most beautiful woman in the world and most precious blessing of God in my life. Just before our marriage, my father asked me, “Can you live with a foreign woman for the rest of your life?” Perhaps he feared that we also might divorce like many other after our love become cold. But because God has united us in faith, in purpose, in mission, in hope and in every-way our love and respect for each other grows deeper and deeper everyday. There is no
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question of divorce in our blessed life. I only thank God for giving me the chance to know him my Creator, who also created marriage--one of his most precious blessing to mankind. I also thank God for establishing my blessed house-church based on his truth and for his purpose. May God use my family to be a source of blessing for the pioneering of more than 320 Indian university campuses beginning from JNU. Look at verses 10. “When they were in the house again, the disciples asked Jesus about this.” The disciples wanted Jesus to be flexible in divorce. They wanted to divorce if there was a problem in marriage. So they asked Jesus again privately. What did Jesus teach them? Let’s read verses 11-12. “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.” Jesus plainly told them that divorce is to satisfy the desire to commit adultery. People explain their cause of divorce in many ways. But at the bottom of their hearts they divorce to commit adultery. In the Old Testament time the sin of adultery demanded both the adulterer and adulteress to be stoned to death. Many are afraid to marry because so many couples divorce. But when we marry before God by faith, there is no divorce in the marriage by faith. II. The Little Children and Jesus (13-16) Look at verse 13. “People were bringing little children to Jesus to have him touch them, but the disciples rebuked them.” Many parents knew that there was a blessing in Jesus. So they brought all their children to Jesus to have him lay his hand on their heads to be blessed. But the disciples thought that children would hinder Jesus’ message and they were too small to understand, especially when a serious topic like divorce being discussed, and not yet qualified to come to Jesus. So the disciples rebuked them, “You children! Turn around and go back! Otherwise, we will do something to you.” Look at verse 14a. “When Jesus saw this, he was indignant.” To worldly people, ignoring children is a trivial matter. But Jesus was very angry and rebuked his disciples. Look at verse 14b. “He said to them, ‘Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the
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kingdom of God belongs to such as these’” Jesus welcomed the little children and asked his disciples also to welcome little children. It is easy to welcome someone who has made his marks in life and who is well known. But the disciples should be ready to welcome any kind of person especially those who are like little children--not well known and not having any fame or achievement in life. What does it mean that the kingdom of God belong to the little children? Look at verse 14b and15. I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it." Here the point is receiving by the little child. When something is offered to them they do not doubt or calculate but receive with trust and happiness. Similarly people who have a simple and seeking trusting mind can receive the kingdom of God and possess it. In verse 16, Jesus took the children in his arms, put his hands on them and blessed them. Jesus is eager to bless those who receive the kingdom of god with simple trust and happiness. How is our attitude in receiving the kingdom of God? We may come to the worship service and listen to a message and yet go back empty without even worshiping God if we are not like the little children. May God grant us a simple and seeking and trusting heart so that we may be blessed by Jesus to possess the kingdom of God and enter the kingdom of God. In conclusion we learned that God created marriage to unite a man and his wife to be one and to bless them and bless all others through them. On the other hand divorce is against the will of God and gives rise to sin of standing against God’s will and the possibility of adultery. We must accept God’s sovereignty and entrust our life including our marriage into his hands to establish a beautiful house church realizing that a family established by God is the fundamental unit of happiness and God’s blessings. May God grant us simple, seeing and trusting attitude like little children to be blessed by Jesus and to receive the kingdom of God.