MARRIAGE, DIVORCE, AND CELIBACY.
Matthew 19:1-12.
The Pharisees’ question about divorce was cynical in that it, like many of their questions addressed to Jesus, was asked with the intention of “tempting” Jesus into saying something that would cause offence (MATTHEW 19:3).
I assert this on two counts:
(i). Matthew locates Jesus at this time in Herod Antipas’s jurisdiction (MATTHEW 19:1). This is the same Herod who had divorced his own wife in order to take his brother’s wife, and who had arrested and beheaded John the Baptist for speaking out against them (cf. Matthew 14:3-12). When this particular king Herod heard about Jesus, he declared that this was John the Baptist, risen from the dead (cf. Matthew 14:1-2)!
(ii). There was a controversy within Judaism about the right interpretation and application of Deuteronomy 24:1. The school of Shammai insisted that a man may not put away his wife unless he finds unchastity in her, whilst the school of Hillel wanted to trivialise the expression ‘she find no favour in his eyes’ to include a failure in culinary skills! Hence the wording of the question in MATTHEW 19:3 - ‘Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife FOR EVERY CAUSE?’
(i). Jesus got right down to basics: “Have ye not read that He which made them at the beginning made them male and female” (MATTHEW 19:4; cf. Genesis 1:27),
(ii). “And said, For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and cleave to his wife; and they two shall be one flesh?” (MATTHEW 19:5; cf. Genesis 2:24).
(iii). “What therefore God has joined together let not man put asunder” (MATTHEW 19:6).
They boiled down the passage in dispute (cf. Deuteronomy 24:1-4) to just one thing: “Why did Moses then command to give a writing of divorcement, and to put her away?” (MATTHEW 19:7).
Jesus pointed out that this precept was written on account of “the hardness of your hearts!” (MATTHEW 19:8).
Jesus said, “Whosoever shall put away his wife, EXCEPT IT BE FOR FORNICATION, and shall marry another, committeth adultery, and whoso marries her which is put away doth commit adultery” (MATTHEW 19:9).
Similarly, in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus taught, ‘That whosever shall put away his wife, SAVING FOR THE CAUSE OF FORNICATION, causes her to commit adultery’ (cf. Matthew 5:32).
Later, when Jesus and His disciples returned to the house (cf. Mark 10:10), they asked Him privately about this matter of divorce, suggesting that “If the case of the man be so with is wife, it is not good to marry” (MATTHEW 19:10).
Jesus added what must surely be a striking, if not alarming, metaphor, speaking of ‘becoming eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven’s sake’ (MATTHEW 19:12). I pity the man who acted upon too literal an understanding of this verse!
FOOTNOTE.
Jesus has told us that Moses wrote Deuteronomy 24:1-4 because of “the hardness of your hearts” (MATTHEW 19:8). Divorce will, and does take place: but the burden of that passage is that a former husband may not remarry his ex-wife after she has been married to another (cf. Deuteronomy 24:4).
