#41 Jesus On Divorce Series

#41 Jesus on Divorce

Series: Mark

Chuck Sligh

March 14, 2021

NOTE: A PowerPoint presentation is available for this sermon by request at chucksligh@hotmail.com. Please mention the title of the sermon and the Bible text to help me find the sermon in my archives

TEXT: Please turn in your Bibles to Mark 10:1.

INTRODUCTION

Illus. – Gary Thomas, in his book, Sacred Marriage, tells the story of a businessman who moved over slightly as a young man crowded into the airplane seat next to him. They both fastened their seat belts, and the businessman good-naturedly asked whether the young man was traveling on business or pleasure. “Pleasure,” the young man replied. “I’m on my honeymoon.”

“Your honeymoon?” the businessman asked, mystified. “Where’s your wife?”

“Oh, she’s a few rows back. The plane was full, so we couldn’t get seats together.”

The plane hadn’t started rolling yet, so the businessman said, “I’d be happy to change seats with her so that the two of you can be together.”

“That’s okay,” the young man replied. “I’ve been talking to her all week.”

Well.—That man was already tired of his wife, so I bet his marriage didn’t last long. The sad truth is that too many marriages don’t last. A recent 2020 report on the state of marriage revealed that in 2019, 42-45 percent of first-time marriages ended in divorce; 60 percent of second marriages ended in divorce and 73 percent of third marriages ended in divorce.

That was before COVID-19. Illus. – A September 1, 2020 New York Post article informs us that the number of people looking for divorces was 34 percent higher from March through June and 31 percent of the couples admitted the lockdown has caused irreparable damage to their relationships. Today we’re going to examine what Jesus says about divorce.

Let me tell you up-front that Jesus is not always “politically correct,” but He is always perfectly correct. In your life, you must decide whether you will follow what Jesus or what society says. In today’s sermon I want to declare clearly what Jesus taught about divorce, which runs counter to our culture, but at the end of the sermon, I want to speak with grace and compassion to those who have faced the misery of a failed marriage that ended in divorce—sometimes through no fault of one of the parties, often before someone came to Christ and a myriad of other scenarios you could imagine.

I. NOTICE FIRST THAT THE PHARISEES SET A TRAP FOR JESUS IN VERSES 1-2.

Verse 1, says, “And he arose from thence, and cometh into the coasts of Judaea by the farther side of Jordan: and the people gathered unto him again; and, as was his custom, he taught them again.”

As we’ve seen in many places in Mark’s Gospel, what happens in the story is often all about “location, location, location.” Mark tells us that Jesus and the disciples had travelled to Judea, which means that they had come back to a region ruled by King Herod. That fact is central to what follows.

As happened whenever Jesus was in Judea, crowds of people gathered about Him, and as was his custom, He taught them again. And fuess who also shows up again?—Yep, the PHARISEES, and they came “loaded for bear” again. – Verse 2 says, “And the Pharisees came to him, and tempting him, asked him, ‘Is it lawful for a man to put away [that is, divorce] his wife?’”

Now this seems like a pretty straight-up question, right? Not really; this was actually a very well-crafted trap. The Pharisees thought that no matter how Jesus answered, He would be ensnared. They knew that in Deuteronomy 24:1-4 the Law of Moses allowed divorce.

In verses 1-2 of that passage, we read, “When a man hath taken a wife, and married her, and it come to pass that she find no favor in his eyes, because he hath found some uncleanness [or literally indecency] in her:…let him write her a bill of divorcement, and give it in her hand, and send her out of his house.

A considerable disagreement had arisen among the rabbis over the meaning of the word “indecency” in this text. There were two lines of reasoning expounded by two notable rabbis:

1. Rabbi Shammai stated that “indecency” referred to adultery and therefore, adultery was the only grounds for divorce. – Although they wouldn’t have used the terms then, let’s call this the “conservative” view.

2. The school of Rabbi Hillel taught that “indecency” could be anything the husband found displeasing in his wife. We’ll call this the “liberal” view. Rabbi Hillel said that if a wife spoiled a dish for her husband, he could divorce her, and other rabbis later chimed in and said that a man could divorce his wife if he found another woman more attractive than she, or if she walked about with her hair down, or if she spoke disrespectfully of her husband’s parents. In other words, he could divorce his wife for just about anything.