1 And he left there and went to the region of Judea and beyond the Jordan, and crowds gathered to him again. And again, as was his custom, he taught them. 2 And Pharisees came up and in order to test him asked, "Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?" 3 He answered them, "What did Moses command you?" 4 They said, "Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of divorce and to send her away." 5 And Jesus said to them, "Because of your hardness of heart he wrote you this commandment. (Mark 10:1-5)
A Test
Many have been disillusioned and disappointed by marriage. Through this study of Mark, we will consider how sin broke marriage, but the gospel restored hope.
The passage begins with Jesus on his journey to Jerusalem. He is heading to the cross, but he stopped in the wilderness of the Jordan to preach to the gathering crowds (1). As he taught, the Pharisees came up to test him (2). They asked, "Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife" (2)?
It was not an honest question. One way or another, they were determined to trap Jesus. Here, they invited Jesus into one of the hot theological debates of the day. Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?
Jesus told them to go back to the Bible (3). "What did Moses command you?" he asked (3).
So the Pharisees said, "Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of divorce and send her away" (4). This is quoted from Deuteronomy 24. In that passage, Moses told the people that, when they divorced, they needed to write certificates. This paperwork was designed as a way to protect the women, enabling them to remarry someone else and get on with life.
The Debate of Their Day
Deuteronomy 24 gave the people a procedure to follow in the case of divorce, but it did not encourage divorce. As a nomadic and tribal people, the lack of structure was making their relationships chaotic. People were divorcing and then remarrying left and right, often to their original spouse. There was no procedure for divorce.
And you can imagine the chaos. Without a process to follow, a people infected by lust or anger, or laziness could give up on their marriages too quickly. So Moses made them write certificates of divorce. At least with some paperwork, they could have some order.
But, by the time of Christ, the people had formed two camps about Deuteronomy 24. Moses had said they had to write a certificate of divorce if they found "some indecency" in their wives (Deuteronomy 24:1). So they debated what phrase "some indecency" meant.
One camp, led by a rabbi by the name of Shammei, was conservative with its definition. To them, it meant only major immorality.
The other camp, led by Rabbi Hillel, was liberal in its application. To them, it meant any disapproval of any kind justified a husband's divorce of his wife. In a sinful and male-dominated society, this lenient view became the popular one.
Permission To Divorce vs. Commanded To Take Divorce Seriously
You can easily see the error of the Pharisees. They emphasized that Moses allowed men to divorce their wives. They took Moses' words as permission to divorce for nearly any reason. But Moses said what he did because of their stubbornness.
This is why Jesus said, "Because of the hardness of your heart Moses wrote you this commandment" (5). They had taken Moses' words to mean they had all the permission in the world to divorce their wives for almost any reason. But Jesus told them they missed the point. Moses said what he did because they were so hard-hearted.
Sin Broke Marriage
Jesus was able to look past the surface and see the root sin. Their stubbornness meant they wanted what they wanted and would find any loophole to get it. The Israelites during Moses' time were bent toward sin. They required regulation.
We must recall this: sin is what breaks marriage. The conclusion many in our day have come to is that marriage is an idea that has run its course. Right now, a record share of grown adults in America has never married. There are various reasons—economics, goals, and demographics all contribute to this rise. And most generations are deceived into thinking that cohabitation has no negative effect on society, so it also is on the rise. This means fewer people are marrying. These are some of the solutions the world proposes.
Extreme solutions are also proposed. Programs and curriculums and movements often have the goal of dismantling the traditional family, and this is often motivated by the belief marriage is a broken and manmade institution.
Jesus, though, knew it is people that are broken, not marriage. It was the hardheartedness that killed them in Moses' day and is hurting us in ours. So if the gospel could have its way, then the heart can be dealt with, and there is hope for marriage after all.
We will get to that hope in a moment, but let this thought settle in your mind. The fracture and pain in the family have been caused by the effects of the fall.
Our Lens
God's people have always understood the world through the lens of fall.
In Genesis 3, sin broke a perfect world. So when we see a broken human institution, we suspect sin is at the core of the problem. When we see dysfunctioning schools, failed states, or depressed economies, we look for the root sins.
The same should be said for a Christ-follower's attitude about marriage. Broken marriages abound. Every family, workplace, and school has to deal with divorce's impact on our modern world.
But the believer should not think of marriage as broken. Instead, we know we are broken by sin, but that the gospel of Jesus Christ can restore us. In Jesus, we find forgiveness and grace, and he rebuilds our lives.
Sin has done its dastardly work. And the aftershocks of broken marriage are felt to the ends of the earth. Fatherlessness, distrust, suspicion, promiscuity, gender confusion, poverty, crime, depression, anxiety—many of these things have their roots in or are made worse by broken marriages. Sin has done its work.
