Some Pharisees approached Jesus, and tested him, saying,
"Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any cause whatever?"
The Pharisees seemed to be hoping that Jesus would expound an opinion about divorce that wasn't grounded in what they considered to be Biblical tradition. They seemed prepared to hear him say that divorce could never be permitted, whether it was limited to specific grounds or even "for any cause whatever". They were ready to jump on what he said with their, "why did Moses command" retort. This leads us to believe that Jesus was already becoming known for teaching and celebrating the sanctity of marriage. We think of the Sermon on the Mount when he taught that looking at another with lust was equivalent to adultery. And we think too of the joy that he brought to the wedding feast at Cana. These are hints of the how important marriage was to Jesus. And no doubt there were others as well that made his perspective impossible even for the Pharisees to ignore.
He said in reply, "Have you not read that from the beginning
the Creator made them male and female and said,
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, man must not separate."
Jesus, perhaps sensing they would appeal to the teaching of Moses, preempted them with what Moses said (as was thought) in the book of Genesis. But, as was typical of the Pharisees, they let minutia distract them from original intent and purpose. Just as they tithed on mint, cumin, and dill, but neglected the weightier matters of the law (see Matthew 23:23), so too here. They used a small statement from Moses to justify what they already wanted to believe. Their intention directed their study rather than God's intention. Jesus did what he was wont to do and brought things back to first principles, to the overriding intention of God. And for marriage that intention was that it would be indissoluble. This was because the marriage of a man and a woman was meant to symbolize the covenant fidelity of God to his people. This is why we so often see marriage used as an analogy in the Old Testament.
And I will betroth you to me forever. I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy. I will betroth you to me in faithfulness. And you shall know the LORD (see Hosea 2:19-20).
Yet in the Old Covenant there was a problem, both for the covenant between God and Israel, and for marriage covenants between men and women, that being "the hardness of your hearts". For this reason Moses allowed divorce. He did not create a new permission for divorce so much as give regulation for what was happening and would continue to happen regardless. But Jesus brought marriage back to its original purpose. By bringing to pass the words of Hosea and establishing a new and everlasting covenant with mankind he made other kinds of covenant fidelity possible as well. By teaching that divorce was now equivalent to adultery he implied that there must now be some possibility to overcome that Old Testament hardness of heart that made divorce inevitable. Such new hearts had been promised. And in Jesus the promise had arrived.
And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh (see Ezekiel 36:26).
Jesus espoused himself to his Church, his pure and spotless bride (see Ephesians 5:27) in a way that was unbreakable. His union with the Church, stemming from his complete fidelity to the Father and his steadfast love for his bride, could not be undone.
if we are faithless, he remains faithful— for he cannot deny himself (see Second Timothy 2:13).
Christian marriage thus participates in the reality of the union of Christ and his Church and acts as a sign for us in the world of that fidelity. We are immensely thankful for all those marriages that have been lived out so faithfully as wonderful witnesses to the world that true and lasting love is possible.
The disciples were worried because they knew all too well the potential problems that could make marriage difficult. Every marriage has its own spiritual opposition, its own "Amorites, Perizzites, Canaanites, Hittites, Girgashites, Hivites and Jebusites". But every marriage can nevertheless prosper if it is based on God's on faithfulness and his gift of grace. Just as he led Israel to victory, so too will he give victory to every relationship that that relies on him for strength.
"I gave you a land that you had not tilled
and cities that you had not built, to dwell in;
you have eaten of vineyards and olive groves
which you did not plant."
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