“But from the beginning of creation, God made them male and female. For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. So they are no longer two but one flesh.” So much can be spoken and written about this topic since 95% of all Christians have heard these words as the conclusion to the vows that they made with God and his Church. However, I will be drawing some of my insight today from the actual Gospel passage.
There are two aspects in general that are unique in Jesus’ response to the Pharisees, namely how he doesn’t just debate from the standpoint of the male as was required in the law, but from the whole person, including the female who is man’s equal from the creation of the world. The second point in today’s scriptures is how Jesus brings in a child to further the discussion. As we saw a few weeks ago, the Aramaic word for “child” and “servant” are the same. Therefore, we see the shift from one distinctively about marriage between a man and woman to that of marriage in service to the kingdom of God.
Our doctrinal focus today on marriage and divorce comes from the gospel teaching of Jesus when he was asked by the Pharisees about the traditional rabbinical interpretation of divorce as permitted by Mosaic Law (Deuteronomy 24:1-4). Instead of answering on their terms – that is, engaging in legalistic disputation regarding divorce – Jesus shifts the discussion to God’s purpose in creation, the lasting union of husband and wife. Jesus portrays the Mosaic Law as a concession to human weakness (verse 5), but then quotes Genesis in support of his assertion that the divine will is for a lasting union between spouses. After this teaching to the crowds, Jesus speaks to his disciples “in the house” (a clue that Mark’s text is now applying that teaching to its own situation). Mark’s text has Jesus speak of the possibility of a woman divorcing her husband, an option not available within Judaism. This evidence that the Evangelist is writing to a Greco-Roman audience where such an option did exist gives us a glimpse into how the early Christian communities struggled to remain faithful to yet apply the teaching of Jesus to their own, somewhat different, situations. Matthew’s Gospel (5:32, 19:9) allows for divorce on grounds of adultery, while Paul offered the Corinthian Church yet another understanding of what is permissible when only one spouse was Christian. Despite these different ways of interpreting and applying the Master’s teaching, there is unanimity in the tradition that Jesus pointed to the divine institution of marriage as sacred, and that fidelity to one’s spouse is the Creator’s wish for humankind.
The second point is that marriage conveys a sacred character of a sacrament because it serves as sign pointing the way to the eternal marriage of the Lamb. The first book of the Bible begins with the creation of man and woman, each meant for the good of the other (Genesis 1:26-27). The final book of the Bible concludes by presenting a soaring vision of the wedding feast of the Lamb (Revelation 19:7). Scripture thus emphasizes how we are founded in this partnership and how our ultimate goal in Christ is imaged in it. The marriage of the Lamb is Christ, the bridegroom and we the church as his bride. This is an eternal marriage where divorce is not possible once entered into. One cannot leave heaven once one has entered it. (Not that anyone could desire that!) The marriage of divinity within humanity is meant to be entirely creative. Yet sin is the enemy of this creativity.
Sin is symbolized by what Jesus refers to as “hardness of your hearts.” A hard heart (a sinful heart) is one that completely blocks God from bringing forth his desire to love us completely and creatively. Anything that would keep us from experiencing union with the Holy Spirit individually or collectively as a couple or church constitutes this hard-heartedness. In today’s Gospel, the discussion would’ve been concerning men dismissing their wives due to adultery. But Jesus includes the women. In the male dominated society, only men could bring forth the bill of divorce as their right. But Jesus equates women with men as it was in the beginning. However, the true emphasis isn’t on divorce, but on fidelity. “What God has joined, men must not divide.” And he also equates divorce and remarriage with sin, namely, adultery to one’s spouse if one divorces and remarries another.
Culturally, they dealt with the same issues that our culture deals with today. However, its one thing to fight on a legal level, its quite another to return to the level of original creation, prior to original sin and human weakness. This allows us to understand not through human weakness but God’s ultimate plan and human restoration through Jesus. He is not imposing the commandment against adultery as a punishment but as a foundational norm: we shouldn’t desire to be unfaithful or to seek divorce in the first place. This happens due to the weakness of human nature. But if we are to understand God’s restorative plan we need to embrace a vision that includes the end result, namely our union with Jesus, He as our head and bridegroom and we as his body, the bride.
If heaven is the final goal, then marriage is the sign pointing to it. The goal of each man and woman in marriage is to lead each other and their children to heaven. This is what makes marriage vows not restrictive, but transformative. Each day is another opportunity to creatively accomplish this. This is the desire of the human heart that God originally placed there. And when choosing a spouse and discerning a life partner, the question should never be “what this person does for me, but what can I do for them.” In other words, like a child or servant, “not how can this person serve me but how, through Christ may I be able to serve the other.” This vision requires a permanent solution which only the Sacrament of Marriage can point.
