Sermon for the Twentieth Sunday after Pentecost

Texts:
Genesis 2:18-24;
Hebrews 1:1-4, 2:5-12;
Mark 10:2-26.

Every now and then a message pops up on the computer screen. It says, Changes have been made that affect the global template. Do you wish to save these changes? This is an alarming question.

Because, what is the global template? How did it get changed? What are the repercussions of changing it?

When it comes to the law of God we hold a similar view of things. It is global in scope. Changes to the law are a serious matter. There are repercussions when it changes.

Welcome to the scripture lessons today.

In a nutshell here are Jesus and the Pharisees litigating divorce. There’s a legal template for it. They are talking about Deuteronomy 24. Not from God’s commandments, but courtesy of Moses.

From this text has come centuries of legal restraints on divorce and heavy judgment on divorced people. Because it’s just so clear what it’s all about, right? But if that’s the case, why did the disciples ask Jesus about it later? And why did Jesus add his judgment about divorce leading to adultery?

Deuteronomy deals with divorce as a matter of legitimacy and inheritance. Problems arise with remarriage because it can become debatable which children are legitimate and rightful inheritors. Jesus redirected the conversation into the reason why divorce happens – because people harden their hearts against one another.

As a parting shot Jesus brilliantly locates the global template in Genesis. The two become one. Let no one separate what God has joined. This last remark leaves the lawyers to think about their role in the dissolution of marriages as the agents who adjudicated divorce proceedings. It also reminds us that marriage is far more than a means of getting your needs met.

But Jesus did not condemn the parties who divorced. No did he restrict or abolish it. Not here, and not anywhere else either. The actual challenge was not about divorce anyway.

*Some* religious lawyers thought Jesus was not legitimate. Not as a rabbi, not as a proper Jew, not as a messiah, not as a rightful inheritor or representative of God’s kingdom/reign/rule. Their hearts where hardened against Jesus and his followers.

The disciples still wondered what it was all about. Jesus replied that the decision to divorce is not simply a man’s right. It is a responsibility that falls on both men and women.

Subsequent remarriage will always come with entanglements – a mixing of things called adulteration. There is no evidence Jesus said this as judgment. He may well have said it with compassion.

The global template that Jesus used was the law of love. He applied it repeatedly and creatively. Jesus said over and over again that God’s kingdom/reign/rule is open and graciously welcoming. There is no test of legitimacy beyond love.

How do we come to God? Not by righteousness. Not by innocence or purity. Not because of our exemplary lives. We are all adulterated.

So. It’s back to the school of grace and mercy for the disciples. They thought they were doing Jesus a favor by preventing him from touching or holding the little ones. Remember how Jesus called even the disciples “little ones”?

Jesus reset the template we use to measure legitimacy of faith. Back to God’s law of love. So it’s back to studying that law for all of us whose hearts have become hardened by this tough world.

“Little children” come to Jesus as they are. Not to take, but to receive the kingdom/reign/rule of God. They come without pretensions or privilege. Utter dependent, trusting, hoping. Humble. Lowly.

There’s no preventing them from being embraced by God. Indeed, Jesus hopes that we will be among them. And he also said there’s plenty of room at the back of the line. Amen.