On Marriage and Divorce 1st in Series of 4: “Life Lessons” October 4, 2009 World Communion Sunday Sermon Series: “Life Lessons from Jesus, in Mark’s gospel” Psalm 26 Mark 10: 2-16 Theme: Marriage in context of God’s plan. Thesis: God created marriage to be an expression of mutual love; its fragile nature only belies our human weaknesses October Series: Life Lessons from Jesus ( Mark chapter 10 ) Intro. This series is straight out of Mark chapter 10, and consists of a string of simple teachings on marriage, legalism, assurance of salvation, pride, and healing. My hope is that these sermons will make clear what Jesus taught and stood for, and help us to love him more! A nervous young bride-to-be was counseled by her pastor: “When you enter the church tomorrow, you will only be walking down the aisle you’ve walked down many times before. Concentrate on that. And when you get halfway down the aisle, concentrate on the altar where you and your family have worshiped for so many years. Concentrate on that. And as you reach the end of the aisle, your groom will be waiting for you. Concentrate on him.” It worked to perfection, and on her wedding day, the beautiful but nervous bride walked smoothly down the aisle in her processional. But people in the audience  were a bit taken aback to hear her repeating to herself, all the way down the aisle, “Aisle, altar, him. Aisle, altar, him.” Today’s reading is on the subject of marriage and Divorce. Notice that this was brought  by the Pharisees, who were on the prowl to trap Jesus in his teachings

Here are some things for us to keep in mind as we study this subject: 1.Most people are trying to live how God wants them to live, and many fall short of that  standard. 2. Marriage was “designed and established by God, who created us male and female for each other.” 3. Christian marriage is designed to show others the relationship between Christ and the church. 4. Divorce is a reality in a fallen world, and judging others does not help them. Jesus speaks on marriage. The Pharisees have questioned Jesus about the law: “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?” (10:2). They want to know about the rules. Who can and who can’t? For what reasons? At the time of Jesus, divorce was generally allowed but its grounds were a matter of debate. The school of the Rabbi Shammai held that a man could not divorce his wife unless he found in her a matter of i ndecency (presumably something other than adultery which would be cause for her stoning, not divorce). In contrast, the school of the Rabbi Hillel held that even a matter as small as spoiling his food provided adequate grounds for divorce. The difference arose from the interpretation of the unusual and grammatically puzzling Hebrew phrase  which the NRSV translates “something objectionable.” So the rabbis debated: Was the “something objectionable” related to indecency or simply anything objectionable? This seems to be the immediate context for the testing of Jesus. But Jesus redirects them back to God’s heart for marriage. The question shouldn’t be “Is it lawful to divorce?” It should be “How can we be one flesh?” “Moses allowed you that one … because you know so little of the meaning of love. But from the beginning of the creation, God made them male and female. [by the way, when I am asked what the Bible says about homosexuality, I rarely go to the most popular passages, like an obscure verse in Levitical