Monday, October 04, 2021

Sermon - Pentecost 19 - Mark 10:2-16

 


Holy Matrimony was instituted and blessed by God.  It’s his invention, his creation.  In marriage, therefore, it is God who joins together man and woman in a one-flesh union meant to last a lifetime.  And it’s a very good thing! 

Marriage is full of blessings.  It provides companionship so that we are not alone in this life.  It affords help – one to another – through the difficulties that are sure to come.  Marriage is also the cradle into which children are to be born and raised – and taught the fear and love of the Lord.  Even secular studies have shown us that it is in a home with a mom and a dad that children are best poised to thrive.  It’s God’s design, after all.

Marriage is also meant for the delight of man and woman in each other.  That love that is shared and grows year over year – that’s not an accident either.

As much as we joke about the drudgeries of marriage – the old ball and chain and such – perhaps we ought to think again and treat this institution of God’s as the holy thing he has made it to be. We honor God when we honor marriage.

But like all of his gifts, we find ways to ruin it.  And if we had to discuss the difficult teaching of hell last week, then we better not shy away from the difficult teaching of divorce today. 

What did Moses tell you?  Jesus answers their question on divorce with a question.  Which they, of course, get wrong.  They blather on about some certificate of divorce, an accommodation to human sin that Moses conceded in order to protect poor women who were victims of their husband’s abandonment. 

But what did Moses tell them?  “You shall not commit adultery!”  The sixth commandment!  Moses told you what Moses hear from God.  That’s the foundational answer.  That’s the answer to the question of divorce. Back to basics.

And Jesus goes back even before Moses, back to creation, back to the very beginning, when God made them male and female.  When he instituted marriage – when he made a suitable helper because it was not good that man should be alone.  (And by the way, another reason the doctrine of creation is important – it is the foundation on which marriage rests!)

In the beginning, before sin entered into the world, there was marriage.  But like everything else corrupted and tainted by sin, even marriage, the very heart of the family, the foundation and building block of human society, is now tarnished and stained and broken.  And sometimes, in this fallen world, marriages fail.

But they don’t fail because of some accident of nature, like a tree falls and randomly crushes a car during a storm.  Marriages fail because husbands and wives are sinners.  Sinners make messes of everything.  No married person can honestly say they have loved their spouse as they should.

And if you, personally, have not been divorced, consider your attitude toward marriage and divorce.  Do you take it lightly?  Have you become numb to the great evil divorce is?  Do you hear of divorces and simply shrug, “oh well, life goes on” with no more concern than if someone stubbed a toe?  People grow apart.  Life’s twists and turns.  Or how did one famous couple put it when they announced their split, “we no longer believe we can grow together as a couple in this next phase of our lives.”

Our attitudes toward this holy thing of God are part of the problem, friends.  While you may not have hired the divorce attorney, you may just as well be contributing to the culture of divorce by your own sins of thought, word and deed.  Sins of commission and omission.  Whatever your posture, God’s mind is clear on the matter.  In Malachi 2, God puts it simply, “I hate divorce”.  There aren’t many things he speaks about in such strong terms as this.

And then for you who have been divorced, have experienced a divorce – I’m sure this hasn’t been a pleasant sermon to sit through so far.  I’m sure it would be more comfortable to hear about some other sin – any sin.  Maybe, humanly speaking, you were the victim of your ex’s infidelity, abuse, or abandonment.  Maybe you tried your hardest and it still failed, and yet you might still feel guilty about it.  Or maybe you were the guilty party in every way, and made a mess of marriage that you cannot go back and fix now even if you wanted to.  The truth is often somewhere in between.

Nonetheless, Christians have but one thing to do when faced with our sin – whether the sin of divorce or the sin of contributing to a culture that despises marriage.  Whether failing to love our spouse as well as we ought, or dishonoring marriage by our fornication, adultery or lust.  The answer is the same:  repent.  Turn from sin.  And turn to Christ in faith.

Christ, who comes to join together what man has put asunder.  Christ, who comes to heal and reconcile the great divorce between God and man.  Christ, who alone can restore, renew, and revive, who can clean your conscience and balm your guilt.

Jesus dealt with people who had made a mess of marriage, too.  Remember that Samaritan woman at the well?  He called her out on her adulterous living, and yet he still spoke kindly to her and revealed his identity to her as the Christ and called her to worship in spirit and truth.  Remember the other woman, the one caught in adultery?  They were trying to stone her to death, and Jesus pointed those accusations back on the crowd, “let him who is without sin cast the first stone”.  And then he said, “Who condemns you now?  Then neither do I condemn you.  Now go and sin no more”.

The same Christ deals with us.  He doesn’t wink at our sin, nor does he want us to pretend it’s not there.  He calls us, rather, to bring that sin to him in contrition, and confession, and faith.  And he forgives.  He doesn’t cast stones at us, his people, for our sin, or condemn us as we deserve.  He speaks kindly, and calls us to worship in spirit and truth.  And then he sends us to go and sin no more.

Christ knows of marriage not only because he founded it with the creation of Eve.  He also knows it as he himself is the true bridegroom.  And he has come to court and win his holy bride, the new Eve, the church.  With his own blood he bought her, and for her life, he died.  No look at Christian marriage is complete without this major biblical picture – of Christ and his bride, the church.  One might even say that all earthly marriages also point to this heavenly reality – this eternal love story.  Though even the happiest marriages on earth are tainted by sin, the heavenly marriage of Christ and his bride is pure and true and holy.  Though earthly marriages end in divorce, or when death do us part – there will be no end to the marriage feast of the Lamb in his kingdom which has no end.

And now let’s visit the second part of this text, which deals with children.  It’s likely no accident that Mark places Jesus’ comments about children after some talk of marriage – for marriage and family go together, and it is in the bound of marriage that God blesses new families with children. 

Jesus invites the children to himself.  He rebukes the disciples who would hinder them.  He lays his hands on the children and blesses them, and commends their faith, “of such is the kingdom of heaven”.

You know, we often point out that children have a faith that is so much simpler and straightforward than adults, they seem to trust as a matter of course.  And Jesus wants us to trust him with a similar child-like faith. 

But consider this, children also take correction more easily than adults.  Maybe because they are more used to it.  But children quite often hear both the correcting word of their parents, as well as the kind and loving word.  They trust that even when a parent is telling them to do this, do that, do the other thing – that parent loves them and wants what is best for them.  Not always, of course, for children are sinners too, but they do seem to have a higher tolerance for correction than so many adults.  Adults, in our pride, are often so much harder to correct.  We feel we’ve outgrown such things.  We know better. And we are outraged, offended, indignant(!) if some other person should dare to correct us!

Rather, receive the kingdom of God like a little child – in both correction and love.  With the discipline of God’s word, and with the promises of his gospel.  Trust him as a dear child trust his loving Father.  For he desires only your good, and he has procured it in Christ.

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