Mark 10:1-16 (NRSV Updated Edition)
He left that place and went to the region of Judea and beyond the Jordan. And crowds again gathered around him, and, as was his custom, he again taught them.
Some, testing him, asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?” He answered them, “What did Moses command you?” They said, “Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of dismissal and to divorce her.” But Jesus said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart he wrote this commandment for you. But from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.’ ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.”
Then in the house the disciples asked him again about this matter. He said to them, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her, and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.”
People were bringing children to him in order that he might touch them, and the disciples spoke sternly to them. But when Jesus saw this, he was indignant and said to them, “Let the children come to me; do not stop them, for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs. Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it.” And he took them up in his arms, laid his hands on them, and blessed them.
~
"How did it become this situation where women belong to men and are subordinate to them? People married to each other aren’t two individuals fighting each other or one holding absolute power over the other so that they can’t fight. No, they are no longer two at all, but one flesh. Each side to the union constantly yields to the other. God made us this way; and strangely, we become human as we learn how to make it work. We must learn to converse and compromise. We must yield our hearts if we want to be fully human.
"Ironically, Jesus implies that Moses yielded to their hardness of heart in writing his commandment. Moses himself didn’t have to have it just his way. He could compromise. Can the Pharisees compromise or do they make their law higher than those it’s meant to serve? This is not an empty question. [...]
"The disciples, stirred by this, bring it up again when they are alone with Jesus inside a house. This time Jesus answers “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her; and if a wife divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.” He takes a strong position honoring commitment before God and then he adds the missing clause that makes the genders equal. “And if a wife divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.” He holds wives and husbands equally responsible for avoiding adultery. There is no subordinate partner but both stand before God, their creator.
"All along the issue wasn’t marriage and divorce. It was power; who has it, how can it be shared and how to use it for the good of the union. Jesus wants us to take power over ourselves and not the other and to use that power to listen, yield and bless.
"An opportunity to demonstrate this kind of power soon follows. “People were bringing children to Jesus so that he would bless them. But the disciples scolded them.” They didn’t want Jesus to take up his time blessing children. They have no power and therefore don’t count. They have nothing of significance to say and therefore why listen. Just as women have been made subordinate to men, so too, have children. That’s still the way it is in much of the world.
"“When Jesus saw this, he grew angry and said to them, ‘Allow the children to come to me. Don’t forbid them, because God’s kingdom belongs to people like these children.’” “God’s kingdom belongs to people like these children.” He grants full citizenship to those without power. They are of value too. He became angry with people who cause the little ones to stumble and now he is angry with those pushing the powerless away. For the third week in a row Mark has featured an awareness of the vulnerable and their importance.
"Beginning with the children he widens his description of participants in the new culture he is bringing. Everyone who wants to belong to this community must come to it as a child. You can’t come with arrogance and the assumption of your own superiority. You must be willing to take the other, even the one you consider lesser, into account and listen to them. You must allow yourself to be changed by them, and adapt your own behavior to them. The kingdom of God is a web of dynamic relations each vibrating in response to the other and all are in the web."
- Thomas L. and Laura C. Truby, from sermon delivered on October 4th, 2015 (https://girardianlectionary.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/Proper22-2015-Yielding-and-Unyielding-Hearts.doc)
~
"I feel it would be helpful to put this matter of marriage and divorce squarely in its modern context. The institution of marriage has undergone tremendous change over the last several decades, and probably the biggest factor has been the liberation of women within the oppressive structures of a male dominated marriage. There has been so much change that many conservatives still cry out for a backlash or a return to the past. I think that the two parts of our gospel can help us to steer somewhat of a middle road, perhaps.
"The first part, Jesus’ challenge to the hard-hearted Pharisees and their way of oppressing others with all their laws and their false authority, is squarely on the side of liberation. No person, whether religious authority or husband or whomever, should attempt to take God’s place as the authority in another person’s life. The husband is not the head of a household; God is. And we can’t go back to situations of oppressive marriages. Jesus challenges the hard-hearted Pharisees, with their view of marriage and divorce, just as Moses challenged the hard-hearted Pharaoh saying, “Let my people go!” Our faith calls us to liberations of all kinds, calling us to be equal partners, brothers and sisters of our loving “Abba.”
"But the second part of our gospel, in which Jesus calls us to become like children, does bring a word of caution to our liberation movements, I think. We might need to ask ourselves: Do we become so liberated that we cease to see ourselves as God’s children, as still needing to be grounded and rooted in God’s loving desire for us and for Creation? In other words, have our liberation movements sometimes moved us to be equal brothers and sisters but no longer with any parent in our lives? No higher authority other than our own selves? And what is the cost of that loss of grounding in God? Haven’t we [seen] that the fruit of such a move is more rivalry and conflict, not less? So Jesus cautions us that no one can enter God’s household without becoming a child. We cannot be truly brothers and sisters, we cannot truly be equal partners in marriage, unless we have a parent. A loving, heavenly “Abba.”
"Finally, we would be remiss if we didn’t let the last word in a sermon on marriage and divorce be one of forgiveness. Jesus called us to know God as loving “Abba,” as the one who loves us unconditionally, as the one who is always calling us home with a forgiving love that can make us truly God’s children, and, as God’s children, loving brothers and sisters of one another. We are called first of all to be brothers and sisters in baptism.
"And we are called again and again to [the Communion/Eucharist table], where Jesus our older brother offers us God’s forgiveness for all of our sins. He offers us the strength and guidance of learning to becoming like a child. As the Son of God he shows us how to be sons and daughters, obedient to our loving “Abba’s” desire for us."
- Paul J. Nuechterlein, from sermon delivered on October 4-5, 1997 (https://girardianlectionary.net/reflections/year-b/proper22b_1997_ser/)
[Source of the sermon links, and for extensive analysis and discussion on all this week's lectionary texts: https://girardianlectionary.net/reflections/year-b/proper22b/]
[I also highly recommend James Alison's video "Homily for Sunday 27 in Ordinary Time 2021" : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOXL6U2pnu8]
No comments:
Post a Comment