A Question about Marriage

Intro
Following the Fourth Discourse of chapter 18, Jesus leaves Galilee for the final time and heads toward Judea. He is surrounded by his followers, and as we so often see in Matthew, he provides both healing and teaching. The teachings of the following chapters deal with broadly applicable topics, such as marriage, money, and position, topics as relevant for followers today as they were for Jesus’ immediate audience.

Exposition
After a couple introductory verses providing the above-mentioned context, a question from the Pharisees in verse 3 sets the stage for Jesus’ extended teaching. While the topic of marriage and divorce is the same as what we saw Jesus address in the Sermon on the Mount, the approach of the Pharisees is far different. In Matthew 5 Jesus is teaching about the norms of the Kingdom, but the Pharisees frame their question in terms of what they are permitted to get away with. Rabbinic traditions of time differed in terms of how broadly they interpreted Deuteronomy 24:1-5, which made the question of permissible reasons for divorce a contentious one. The Pharisees know that Jesus answer could easily turn the crowds against him and potentially land him in political trouble. They ask the question from the most permissive side of the spectrum: is it permissible to get a divorce for any reason? Jesus answers by pointing them back to the original ideal of marriage, before the Fall (Genesis 1:27, 2:24.) In doing this, Jesus is reframing the perspective of adultery away from theft of property and back to a violation of God’s design and intent (Malachi 2:14-16.)
The Pharisees challenge his response by claiming that Moses commanded a certificate of divorce to be given in certain situations. This is both incorrect (Deuteronomy 24:1-5 does imply that there are situations where one will have been given, which would have been necessary to protect the woman, but nowhere actually commands it) and missing the point. Jesus corrects their error by referring to why Moses “permits” a certificate of divorce, and redirects the point by teaching that the permission stemmed from hardness of heart (referring to general sinfulness – Ezekiel 3:7, Jeremiah 4:4) rather than original design. Jesus then bases his answer to when divorce is permissible on that original design. The only grounds that Jesus explicitly mentions is sexual sin, which would have included adultery but not been limited to it. Because Paul adds abandonment by an unbelieving spouse in I Corinthians 7, we can recognize that Jesus is not speaking exhaustively here, but rather addressing the only grounds that would likely be applicable to his audience of Jewish men. Sexual sin, like abandonment by an unbeliever, would be a breaking of the marriage covenant. They are not permitted to break that covenant themselves, but if it is broken for them, then divorce is permissible.
Afterwards, the disciples ask Jesus a follow-up question, probably at a later time when they have some privacy. The disciples feel that this criterion is so restrictive so as to make marriage a very unattractive proposition. To many Jewish men at the time, marriage was more a duty than blessing, and thus the more one was bound to it the less attractive that it seemed. Jesus responds that marriage isn’t for everyone, and for the sake of the Kingdom, some are better off being single. Rather than seeing singleness as a deficiency or dereliction of duty, those who are forced into that or choose it for the sake of the Kingdom should see it as a blessing.

Application
The approach of the Pharisees is a familiar, but dangerous, one. So often professing Christians approach God’s commands from the perspective of how far we can push the boundaries of what is permissible, instead of how close we can get to the ideal to which God is calling us. Jesus not only provides guidelines for when divorce and remarriage is permissible for a believer, but also the ideal to which God calls both those who are or will be married, and also those who are called to be single. In so doing, Jesus shows us how to glorify him in whatever marital situation to which we have been called, and also how to model Kingdom fullness and joy to a world that needs to know him.