"Jesus is being tested for his detailed knowledge of the Torah and his ability to demonstrate wisdom in his application of it to real life issues."
Year B, Season of Pentecost
Proper 22, Ordinary Time 27
Sunday Between October 2 and October 8 Inclusive
18th Sunday After Pentecost 2009
Read the passage: The Message or The New Revised Standard Version (NRSV).
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In the interests of full-disclosure of potential conflicts of interest, I will say right at the start that I am divorced and re-married. So I am not a disinterested discerner of this text.
Back in Chapter 8, Jesus began to lead his disciples south; away from their rural, country-bumpkin origins to the big leagues of the capital city Jerusalem. Today's text is the first of several challenges to Jesus by the elites from the city, in this case the Pharisees.
The public fame and honour that Jesus has been gaining is a major threat to the status quo. And the first line of defence against someone who was getting out of place was to put them back in place by successfully shaming them in public. And the preferred way to honourably shame someone was through trick questions. Catching an opponent out this way proved one's superior cleverness and deflated the upstart's standing in the eyes and ears of the watching crowd.
Notice here a pattern. Jesus responds to hostile questions with hostile questions - "What did Moses command YOU?" Jesus does not ask, "What did Moses command US?" This is not because Jesus is not Jewish. The point of separation that Jesus is making is between elites and non-elites.
Surprisingly, the Torah says very little about marriage and divorce laws. The answer by the Pharisees in Verse 4 reflects Deuteronomy 24:1-4. But the teaching there is not directly about divorce, it is about re-marrying a previously divorced wife. It takes divorce for granted and simply describes how this was done by the man giving his wife a certificate of divorce because "she does not please him because he finds something objectionable about her."
In response to this, Jesus refers to another part of the Torah, Genesis 1:26, and equates the marriage relationship to blood relationships (e.g., parent-child) that are also given by God.
As usual, the disciples do not understand what Jesus has just said, and must be given additional explanations in private.
But the explanation in Verses 11-12 somewhat muddies the matter since the response, "Whoever divorces ..." seems to presume the possibility of divorce. The verses do not prohibit divorce; they prohibit re-marrying. Or to be more precise, they teach that whoever divorces and re-marries commits adultery.
Because Jesus' answer referred to women and men in equal ways, he protected women from the practice of being divorced simply at the whim of the man by the issuing of a divorce certificate. Tragically, it has also had the effect for 2,000 years of locking women into the relationship even when it was abusive.
OK. So as someone who has divorced and re-married here's the case I'm going to plead at the Pearly Gates.
First, let's observe the difference between a wedding and a marriage.
(And let's acknowledge that this distinction is a distinctly modern one. It is only in recent times that relationships are understood to be dynamic; that people do not grow like plants - simply getting bigger. Experience can and does result in changes to our soul - for good or ill - that can and do change our relationships over time.)
A wedding is an event that happens once, at a particular time, in a particular place.
A marriage is a relationship; it is an on-going process.
"Are you wedded," is a question that can be answered by referring easily to a past event that is over and completed. "Are you married" - if we take it to mean, "What is the nature of your relationship," - might evoke a more prolonged and nuanced answer.
So my quibble with Jesus is over his use of the past perfect verb tense:
What God HAS JOINED together, let no one separate.
"Has joined" makes sense to for an event like a wedding. Or, as was the case in Jesus' day, it makes sense if what is being joined is understood to be static and unchanging. But it makes no sense when thinking of an on-going, dynamic, process such as the relationship of marriage.
But if we change the verb tense:
What God IS JOINING together, let no one separate.
then I completely agree. We should always be giving our whole selves to work that God is doing.
However, whatever the verb tense, this teaching of Jesus also has an unstated second possibility:
What God HAS NOT JOINED, let no one hold together.
or
What God IS NOT JOINING, let no one hold together.
Now God knows that I am quite capable of self-serving self-justification, but my testimony of my first marriage is that my wife and I over-estimated the quality of our relationship. Our relationship wasn't capable of the intimacy of marriage; and we finally had to face that and not hold together what God was not joining.
Now I know that divorce happens for reasons that are a lot more complicated and messy than mine. But I think the calling remains the same: To discern the work that God is doing in our lives, and to let nothing separate us from that. That's my excuse, and I'm sticking with it.
David Ewart,
www.davidewart.ca
* Link to Amazon.com Bibliography for Bruce Malina, et. al., Social Science Commentary on ... The Synoptic Gospels; The Gospel of John; The Book of Acts; The Letters of Paul; The Book of Revelation; and others.
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