HAVING been given by Jesus the ideal of God in marriage we find two reactions to his teaching. The first comes from the Pharisees whose question prompted Jesus to give his teaching; and the second comes from the disciples who, in the corruption of the marriage ideal prevalent at that time, feel totally overwhelmed. The reaction of the Pharisees is given in verse 7 and Jesus deals with this in verses 8 and 9. The reaction of the disciples in given in verse 10, and Jesus answers this in verses 11 and 12.

So in the first place let us look at the response of the Pharisees to this teaching of Jesus.

The Pharisees were in no way convicted by the teaching of Jesus. They presided over a system where marriage was held very lightly and divorce was easy and common, and they had no desire to have this changed. In spite of this they felt no conviction when Jesus told them marriage for life was sacred in the eyes of God, and meant by God to express the wholeness of humankind i.e. 'man'. In their usual way they sought to escape conviction and appealed to the law of Moses. No doubt they felt that they were on safe ground here, and Jesus would find no answer to it.

Again we see how sinful humanity can see just what it wants to see, and not what is really the truth. When we go to Deuteronomy 24:1-4 and related passages, we find that there is no suggestion of a law being laid down, but rather that Moses was reacting to a corrupt situation where men were divorcing their wives as they wished. Moses was seeking to bring order into this mayhem, and bring some sort of justice to wives who were being treated so badly. There is no suggestion that any law had been given making divorce right. All we see is Moses reacting to an evil situation to bring some order into it.

In his reply to the Pharisees Jesus makes this quite clear. Jesus tells the Pharisees that Moses gave no law, but permitted divorce. We see a similar picture to our society today. The sinful corruption of the human heart has brought the disorder and mayhem in marriage, and peoples hearts are hard with regard to this. They divorce without shame. They resist all attempts to correct their attitudes. They will not accept the sanctity of marriage. They are governed simply by what they desire, and will resist any attempts to prevent them from doing what they will.

Jesus lays his finger on the heart of human problems, of which divorce is one serious example. Peoples' hearts are hard. By this Jesus is expressing the sinful corruption which is endemic in fallen humanity. Because of Adam's sin, every human being is born with a hard heart, a corrupt heart. We have a bias towards evil. We are moved and motivated by the desires of the flesh. Because of this, evils like divorce are prevalent everywhere. Because the heart, the inner being of human beings, is like this, divorce and other disorders will always be in society. It is impossible to eradicate them. The best we can do is to bring some order into the situation, and in order to do this in the best way, we need the ideal before us.

Here we see the only remedy is to be found in the new creation made possible through Jesus Christ and faith in him. It is only the redeemed Christian, who has died with Christ and risen to new life in him, who in his inner being has been created to be like God in righteousness and true holiness, who is able to begin to approach the ideal in marriage. It is also the Christian who should so live the ideal, to commend it in society. That Christians are not always able to do this is sad, but even one who has become a new creation in Christ, still has to struggle with the flesh, the sinful nature, and because of this we fail. All of us have our failings through the conflict with the flesh, and none of us have the right to judge and condemn another Christian who has failed where we have not.

Jesus presses on the Pharisees that divorce was not in the mind of God in the beginning, and that they should remember this. Jesus again shows how important it is to have the creative purpose of God in marriage continually, and clearly, at the forefront of our thinking. It is only in this way that we are prevented from sliding into thinking that is ever becoming further from the ideal, and from what brings true happiness.

Because the Pharisees had brought up the subject of the legality of divorce, Jesus finishes with a direction, which is by nature a divine command. Jesus makes it clear that there can be only one valid reason for divorce, and that is for marital unfaithfulness i.e. adultery or fornication. This stands out starkly in the practices of our own society where divorce takes place simply on the grounds of marriage break down, and many reasons may be given for this, not simply marital unfaithfulness.