Gospel – Mark 10:2-16
“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.
So they are no longer two but one flesh.
Therefore what God has joined together,
no human being must separate.”
In the house the disciples again questioned Jesus about this.
He said to them,
“Whoever divorces his wife and marries another
commits adultery against her;
and if she divorces her husband and marries another,
she commits adultery.”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.
Reflection on the Gospel
“Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her; and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.” Those are tough words that were just as counter-cultural when Jesus spoke them as they are today. Wow.
These words seem so uncharacteristic of Jesus; He seems to be condemning people who are hurting as a result of a broken marriage and a disrupted family life. And where else do we hear Jesus lay down the letter of Law in a way that puts the written code above human need?
There’s another and better way of understanding this dialogue and the words of Jesus, one which begins with taking this dialogue in its context: in this dialogue the opponents of Jesus were trying to trick and trap Him. When some Pharisees asked, “Is it lawful for a husband to divorce his wife?” they were trying to shame Jesus, to embarrass him in public and to dishonor him, something that happened quite a few times during his ministry.
Remember the Roman tax issue? They asked Jesus, “Should we pay taxes to Caesar?” If Jesus answered “no” to taxes, He would be accused of being a law-breaker/rebel in the eyes of the Roman government, yet if He answered “yes” and encouraged the people to pay taxes to their hated Roman overlords (whose emperor had declared himself a god), He would appear to be a traitor to his own nation and God. When he asked to see their coins, the questioners produced Roman coins with Caesar’s image and the inscription about the divinity of Caesar, not Jewish coins with an image of the Temple. So it was clear their loyalty was to Caesar and Rome.
In similar fashion some Pharisees tried to trap Jesus by asking Him, “Does our law allow a man to divorce his wife?” On the one hand, if Jesus had said “no” to divorce, that would have made it seem Jesus was at odds with the Law of Moses. What we probably don’t appreciate is that if Jesus had said “yes” to the divorce laws it would have meant He was giving His support to an institution that was being used increasingly to abuse the vulnerable. For at that time, women and children didn’t count for much in Jesus’ society, and so when a man divorced his wife he would be taking away her property, her children, her family and her community. It really doesn’t take much imagination to see how divorce was used as a form of abuse, and how the threat of divorce could be used to intimidate an abused partner and keep her quietly subservient.
Would we expect Jesus to support an institution like divorce that had become a tool in the hands of the powerful (mostly male) for the exploitation of the weak (mostly female and children)? Of course not, and so Jesus responded to the trick question by reminding those Pharisees that God designed men and women for relationships of mutual commitment and nurture, and not abuse. And He went even further and sad that whoever uses the Law to justify trading in his old wife for a new one commits adultery, even if he keeps to the letter of the Mosaic divorce Law.
Adultery is adultery and selfishness is selfishness. Jesus here is targeting those persons who would try to justify their selfish and abusive practices by, of all things, appealing to religious Law. He’s all about protecting the vulnerable. And note what happens next in Mark’s text: Jesus commands his disciples to allow another vulnerable group to come to him – the children. He lays hands on them, blesses them, and announces that the Reign of God belongs to such as these.
Yesterday, today and forever, Jesus is the same. He was and He remains the friend of the weak and the protector of the vulnerable.
Mr. Ed Sirois – Religion Department
La Salle Academy, Providence, RI
Thank you Ed for this Gospel reflection!