Pentecost 19
Bethlehem Lutheran Church, Baltimore
St. James Lutheran Church, Baltimore
October 7th, 2012
Mark 10:2-16
Grace, mercy and peace....
Introductions, etc...
The Pharisees can't trip up Jesus. He
is the one who puts men to the test, not the other way around. So
here, as always, their attempts to trap and trick him fail.
But there's more to this than Jesus
besting them in a theological debate. There's instruction on
marriage and family. There's teaching on sin and blessing. And
there's hints of a deeper reality that comes in the kingdom of God
through Christ – where the marriage is forever, and the children
are eternally blessed.
Their question about divorce reminds me
of my 7th grade confirmation students asking, “Is this a
sin? Is that a sin?” It is the little legalist in all of us that
wants to know what can we get away with? How far can I push the
limits of the law, and still be good to go? Behind that is the
assumption that if we simply avoid this or that, we can avoid sin and
justify ourselves. If divorce is a sin, then just get divorced, and
you haven't sinned. But if divorce is permitted, and all you need is
a certificate, then get the paperwork and you're free and clear,
right?
Wrong, according to Jesus. He takes
them, and us, back to the source, the foundation of marriage – he
takes them back to Eden. There, God created male and female. There,
God instituted the one flesh union of marriage, and blessed it.
There, and then, he established for us something that holds great
blessing and something that should not be put asunder. So the
question begins not with do's and don'ts, but with the free blessing
of God for us. Sadly, we don't always receive God's gifts as the
blessings he intends.
Jesus pulls no punches, so let's not either. Yes, divorce is sinful. It is a
painful reality in a sinful world. And it is a sin which Christians
too often give a pass. “Oh they were just too different”. “They
grew apart.”. “They couldn't make it work”. We treat divorce
as something that just happens by chance. We say it's nobody's
fault. But sinners do sinful things that lead to divorce. Jesus
says it is because of hardened hearts.
And other sinners gloss it over, so as
not to make anyone feel bad. But providing cover for a sin by acting
like it's not a sin, is just as sinful. There's plenty of guilt to
go around, and ample reason for all of us to repent.
Even for those of us “happily
married”, do we honor God's gift of marriage as we should? Do
wives submit to their husbands as to the Lord? Do husbands love
their wives as their own bodies, nurturing and caring as we should?
Do we lay down our lives for our wives? Paul's instructions for
marriage in Ephesians could accuse us all. And if our marriage was
compared to the scrutiny of our marriage vows, how many of us love,
honor, and cherish as we should?
We all stand condemned. We all
dishonor the gifts God gives. We all seek to put God's blessings
asunder.
Jesus is not in the business of seeing
people divided, separated, torn apart. He is about making whole,
making one, reuniting and reconciling. Not only sinner to sinner,
but sinner to God.
In Christ, God and man are made one –
even in the person of Jesus. True God and true man – being of the
substance of the Father, but conceived in the flesh of man in the
womb of Mary. God and man are “joined together” in the
incarnation, a not so subtle indication of his overall mission to
bring God and man, once separated by sin, back together forever.
In Christ, God reconciles the world to
himself. At the cross, even as his body is broken, Jesus repairs,
restores, revives and renews. Even when we were enemies, outsiders,
and wanted nothing to do with him, he sought us and made us his own.
We are united to him, buried with him
and raised with him in Baptism. We are united with him and each
other in the Holy Communion. There, we are together with angels,
archangels and all the company of heaven. There, we are united in a
physical but mysterious way with our Lord, with his Body and Blood.
What God has joined together, in
Christ, let man not put asunder. Let man not separate. You see, for
a Christian, marriage is much more than just two people who vow to be
together until death. Christian marriage is a picture of the very
union between Christ and his bride, the church. We are, all
together, the bride of Christ. He is the ever-faithful bridegroom.
We were the damsel in distress – the distress of sin and death. He
is the knight in shining armor, our champion, who rescues from the
dragon us and wins us a happily ever after.
And is it an accident that our text
about marriage is followed by Jesus' regard for the little children?
For one of the great blessings of marriage is that through the one
flesh union, God brings forth new life. In the bearing of children,
the two, quite literally, become one. Even as much as we are part of
his bride, the church, so also are we, through Christ, children of
God. And Jesus regards even little children.
I remember as a child of about 8 or 10,
being given the great responsibility of ordering some lunch-meat
while mom shopped for some other groceries. And so I stood at the
deli counter, waiting for my turn. But the people behind the counter
didn't seem to notice me, and only waited on the adults. Maybe they
didn't think that I was old enough to do my own shopping. Or maybe I
was just too short to see.
But Jesus regards the little ones. He
has a special place in his heart for them. He touches them and
blesses them, blesses even us. He gives us all blessings at the
font. He brings us to himself, even when some would say the blessing
isn't for children. He calls us his own, calls us by name, and
commends us to the Father.
Receiving his kingdom like a little
child means to receive him, Jesus, with childlike faith and trust in
him to make it all right.
He brings forgiveness, for all who sin
- for the divorcee and those who dishonor marriage in any way, for
all those who are separated from God by our sins. He brings life to
those whose lives are torn apart and in tatters. He brings
salvation, renewal and reconciliation to all who receive him and look
to the blessings of his cross rather than to our own devices.
Therefore what God has joined together, let no one put asunder.... in
Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.
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