Jesus and Divorce

By Zeth    28th March 2004    0 responses
Part of the series

Matthew 5:31-32   Expand passage

"It was also said, 'Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.' But I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except on the ground of sexual immorality, makes her commit adultery. And whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery."

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Britney Spears’ recent 48-hour marriage shows the status of marriage in today’s society. Newspaper front pages are devoted to the ups and downs of the often-short marriages of high-profile entertainers.

However, we can see from the bible that marital problems are as old as time. There is after all no doubt that marriage is hard work – all good things take time and effort. After a fabulous two years of marriage, I feel I’m still only beginning to find out the physical, emotional, intellectual and even psychological issues involved in building a healthy long-term relationship.

Marriage “must not be undertaken carelessly, lightly, or selfishly, but reverently, responsibly, and after serious thought.” (The Marriage Service – Common Worship).

Without love, care and hard work, problems can grow into so-called ‘irreconcilable differences’: the nebulous most cited cause for divorces today. Divorce is not without consequences.

The best interest of children is best served by children maintaining a loving, meaningful relationship with both parents, according to section one of the 1989 Children Act. However forty percent of all fathers lose contact with children within two years of a divorce according to government statistics.

The result of under-parented children is teenage crime, drug taking and truancy. Children without sufficient access to parents are also more likely to become teenage single parents.

Also children from divorced homes are more likely to get divorced themselves, which for me, a child from a divorced family, is a sobering fact.

Sometimes though, divorce is the least bad option in a bad situation. Domestic and child abuse can often leave no other option. Constant arguing also does not provide a healthy situation for a child’s development.

Divorce in the New Testament occurs in three main passages. As well as this passage, another appears in Matthew 19:1-12 which is clearly a version of Mark 10:1-12, as is Luke 6:18. The third passage is 1 Corinthians 7, where Paul looks at issues of marriage brought up by martial problems in the Corinthian Church.

Jesus follows the normal formula in Matthew of quoting the Old Testament, in this case, Deuteronomy 24:1, and then replacing it with his own superior judgment. Jesus does this to show his revelation supersedes all others, and that the Old Testament is not sufficient without the revelation of Jesus Christ.

Looking at this passage and chapter 19, Jesus seems to imply that the only grounds for divorce are for adultery and only the ‘innocent party’ is able to remarry. The obvious question is how workable this is in reality but that would be the wrong question.

Jesus does not outline a practical legal system but a revelation that requires a lifestyle of faith – faith in the impossible and faith in the healing and forgiving power of Jesus.

Jesus forbids flippant divorce, he thinks that people are important, indeed worth dying for, and so should be treated accordingly. In the ancient world there was no welfare state and there was little paid work for women. So the circumstances of a woman abandoned by her selfish husband would have been desperate. To survive and provide for her children may require prostitution or marriage to an undesirable husband and father.

Jane Kopas wrote that “a man who divorces his wife is responsible for putting her into a compromising situation, and that his relationship to her continues beyond any unilateral decision of his own.”

Kopas says that these passages “invite the hearer to consider unexamined forms of violence, sexism, and racism that underlie the need for conversion.”

The question that Jesus asks throughout the Sermon on the Mount is whether you are still examining your life and your attitudes or do you consider yourself perfect and beyond reproach?

I know I am certainly not perfect and still have many unexamined corners in my attitudes. However “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” (John 1:5, ESV) If you are willing to keep letting the light of Christ shine into your life, then the darkness of pride will not overcome your attitudes or your relationships.

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By Zeth

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