"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.Some Pharisees came and tested him by asking, "Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?"
"What did Moses command you?" he replied.
They said, "Moses permitted a man to write a certificate of divorce and send her away."
"It was because your hearts were hard that Moses wrote you this law," Jesus replied. "But at the beginning of creation God 'made them male and female.' 'For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.' So they are no longer two, but one. Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate." -Mark 10:1-12
The reality of divorce is troubling, and was troubling at Jesus' time, and at Moses' time, and I expect, because of the hardness of fallen man's heart, there will be trouble until judgment day.
One thing that is great about Jesus, is that he is wise. He is able to keep the most basic and simple truths at the forefront of his mind, and he doesn't let human disagreements, or even unique situations bend the Truth.
Jesus would have angered people by siding with the rabbis who thought it was okay to get a divorce only if certain wrongs were committed by the wife (there was no situation where a woman could seek a divorce that I know of), or the rabbis who taught that as long as the man filled out the paperwork, he could do whatever he desired. (Herod was quite obviously on this side.)
But Jesus heard their question, and responded with THE question. What is commanded? What does God, through Moses tell us about what we are to do? What is God's expectation?
They responded by answering the wrong question. The teachers of the law let the debate be about the interpretation of a Deuteronomy 24 section which was about a specific situation. They debated about this because they were asking the question, "What can we get away with?" not "What has God designed?"
It seems on these grounds that Jesus, maybe shaking his head, would say, no, that's because you are sinful that Moses had to make rules to protect a doubly divorced woman from being taken advantage of. What I want talk about is what God designed. Here in that paragraph he quotes Moses, (God) four different times, twice from Genesis, once from Exodus, and once from Deuteronomy. How inspiring his full knowledge of Scripture is, that since he is the Word, that the Word simply flows freely from his mouth.
Jesus seems to take such a firm stand on this. This seems to be because if he is to be accused of siding with anyone, he wants to be accused of siding with his father alone.
We might learn something valuable from this about dealing with the troubling reality of divorce. Jesus makes a clear effort here to avoid the dangerous path of taking sides between two people who are loved. When the united are split, it's like a deep river fills the gap between the two sides, and there is no way to be on both sides. By supporting the one side, you are caught with your back turned to the other. But Jesus here teaches us that the goal might be to walk on the water. Go to the place that can only be reached by complete trust in God's power, love and truth.
If someone will accuse me of taking a side, let it be that they are frustrated because I have taken God's side again....
Rather than supporting a fallen human's decision, we can spend our time dwelling on what it is that God has commanded. Due to our sinfulness, we will find ourselves lacking. We will recognize that we have not kept the commands, and then find ourselves united in heading to the river--united in our need for God's grace.
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