Male And Female - Mark 10:1-12 Series

Mark 10:1 Jesus then left that place and went into the region of Judea and across the Jordan. Again crowds of people came to him, and as was his custom, he taught them. 2 Some Pharisees came and tested him by asking, "Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?" 3 "What did Moses command you?" he replied. 4 They said, "Moses permitted a man to write a certificate of divorce and send her away." 5 "It was because your hearts were hard that Moses wrote you this law," Jesus replied. 6 "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. 9 Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate." 10 When they were in the house again, the disciples asked Jesus about this. 11 He answered, "Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery against her. 12 And if she divorces her husband and marries another man, she commits adultery."

Introduction

The Importance of Marriage

I don’t know if it’s possible to overstate how much damage the human race has done to itself by rejecting God’s design for marriage. The marriage relationship is such a fundamental building block of society that if you weaken marriage, you undermine and destabilize the entire human race. What happens if you build a building and 80% of the bricks lose their structural integrity? And half of them crumble to pieces. That’s what’s happening in our culture. You look at inner cities, where over 80% of black children are born to unmarried parents. And you can just watch the crime and poverty and filth and gangs and drugs and chaos in those neighborhoods—the whole society just unravels. So often pundits and politicians want to blame poverty. But if you look at low income homes where the family is intact, you don’t see these problems. It’s not that crime is caused by poverty; it’s that both crime and poverty are caused by fatherlessness.

All that to say, your marriage doesn’t just affect your household; it’s part of God’s work in the whole human race. Marriage is the only human institution mentioned in the creation account. It’s the only one that exists before the fall. It’s a fundamental part of God’s design for humanity, and so each new wedding is another chapter in the unfolding story of creation. And each divorce is another chapter in the unravelling of creation caused by the fall.

The Judean/Perean Ministry

In our study of Mark we come today to ch.10, where you should hear some ominous music playing in the background. The storm clouds of the crucifixion that first appeared on the horizon two chapters ago are now billowing and filling the sky.

Mark 10:1 Jesus then left that place and went into the region of Judea and across the Jordan.

Jerusalem Looming

Jesus has been telling them, “When we get to Jerusalem, I’m going to be killed.” And ever since the Transfiguration, they have been getting closer and closer. And now they’re really close. The original readers knew the geography, so when they read verse 1, that he’s now in Judea, they would hear the ominous music playing.

1 … Again crowds of people came to him, and as was his custom, he taught them.

So now he’s back to public ministry. Up north in Galilee Jesus gave up on the crowds and focused on teaching his disciples in private. But now, down in Judea, Jesus opens back up to the crowds. This is known as Jesus’ Judean ministry, which went on for several months. Luke and John devote 17 chapters to this period, but Mark just tells us about three incidents.

Context

And they have a specific purpose. This section of Mark is still teaching us what Jesus meant in ch.8 when he said, “deny yourself and follow me.” We got the basic principles in ch.9, and now in ch.10 Mark is going to make it really practical. He’s going to pick out three specific events from the Judean ministry that will show us what “follow me” looks like in the nuts and bolts of life: first marriage, then children, then possessions. Radical discipleship isn’t about doing grandiose things 1000 miles away. It starts in your own house.

We’ve all seen those people who get the servant of the year award at church. If someone needs help, before he hangs up the phone, he’s putting on his jacket. “I’ll be right there!” He’s helping everybody. But if his wife needs the screen door fixed, it will take 3 months of nagging before he’ll get around to it—and even then he’ll have a bad attitude.