Mark 10:1-16

Bringing the sermon home:

Mark takes us from one challenging passage to another, moving from the topic of hell at the end of chapter 9 to the topic of marriage and divorce at the beginning of chapter 10. This portion of Mark’s Gospel, perhaps more than any other, serves to test the degree to which our thinking has been infected by the twisted culture in which we live.

This passage addresses gender (there are only two, they were designed by God for marriage, and they are assigned at birth), marriage (a lifelong covenantal union designed by God for human flourishing), divorce (an ineffective attempt to sever what cannot be severed), adultery (a truly heinous sin that God employs as the metaphor for all sin), remarriage (which is adulterous), and, by implication, celibacy and singleness (explicitly noted in Mt 19:10-12).

Mark’s account does not speak of any Biblical grounds for divorce (and thus for remarriage), and we must allow that silence to instruct us regarding the seriousness of the “one-flesh” union of marriage by which two lives become one (1+1=1). As we debate whether divorce is permissible in the case of adultery (Mt 5:32; 19:9), desertion (1 Cor 7:15), or physical abuse (1 Cor 7:11), we must recognize that Jesus is not teaching that it is ever required, in direct contrast to the beliefs of all of the Jews at that time.

In light of the context of this account in Matthew’s gospel, with it immediately following the parable of the unforgiving servant, we see that Jesus is calling us to strive, as best we can, to put the forgiving grace of the gospel on display in our imperfect marriages so that our marriages might accurately picture the forgiveness-saturated relationship between Christ and His church.