The Question of Divorce: Mark 10:1-12

Former First Lady, Barbara Bush died on April 17, 2018. She and George had been married for 73 years! I’m 73 years old, and some people think I’m old! Imagine being married for 73 years. That’s the idea, stay married for life!

Jesus was asked a question about divorce by the Pharisees. It wasn’t sincere, but they were trying to get something on Him, but His answer is worth the adventure!

Today, we will look at the question, the answer and the application. Look at Mark 10:1-12. In verses 1-4 we see the question.

Jesus finished His ministry in Galilee and went into Judea, moving closer to Jerusalem and while in Judea, crowds came to Him, and He began to teach them.

While Jesus is teaching, some Pharisees came to Him and asked a question. They wanted to know if it was lawful for a man to divorce his wife.

Remember this is in the area of Pereia, which is ruled by Herod Antipas. He’s the guy who married his brother Phillip’s wife while she was married to his brother. John the Baptist called them out on that publicly and was eventually beheaded over it.

It could be the Pharisees were looking for a way to get Jesus into the same controversy so He would get killed. We know they were looking for a way to kill Jesus.

The Pharisees ask the question, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife? And Jesus answers with a question, “What did Moses command you?” (Mark 10:3A NIV)

The Pharisees came back with, “Moses permitted a man to write a certificate of divorce and send her away.” Mark 10:4 NIV)

In verses 5-12 we get the answer.

In verse 5 Jesus made it clear Moses permitted a man to write a certificate of divorce and send his wife away because people’s hearts were hard.

Jesus recognizes the law that permitted a man to divorce his wife and send her away was because of the hardness of people’s hearts. Generally, that law was an attempt to bring order out of a disorderly situation.

Deuteronomy 24:1 is where this law of divorce was written in the Law of Moses. Basically, if a man’s wife displeases him by him finding something indecent about her, he could write a certificate of divorce and send her away.

The Jews had two schools of thought about how to define “indecent,” one was the Shammai, school of thought, which would define indecent as something like adultery. The Hillel school of thought would define something indecent as something as simple as burning dinner.

Some men would use the Hillel interpretation of the law as a way to unload one wife for another. They misused it.

In verses 6 through 9 Jesus gets to what Moses commanded, not what He permitted. This is the important teaching.

In verse 6 Jesus said, “But at the beginning of creation God made them male and female.” (Mark 10:6 NIV)

God made two genders. He made male and female. Here’s the news flash for American culture in 2022, nothing has changed since creation. God still creates every human as male or female.

The feelings or thoughts of mankind don’t change the creation of God. We don’t have gender selection! God has gender creation! Male genitalia identify a male, while female genitalia identify a female!

The feelings and thoughts of people can confuse them and lie to them, but God’s creation and word doesn’t lie.

Many of the schools in America today are teaching 5- to 8-year-old children they can identify as something other than male or female, or they can change!

This isn’t a case of good people getting confused! This is pure evil!

Now, there’s a reason God made them male and female, and Jesus gets to that next. Verse 7, “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, (Verse 8) and the two will become one flesh. So, they are no longer two but one.” (NIV)

God made humanity male and female so a man can leave his father and mother and be united to his wife and they’re not two anymore, they’re one flesh! The point of that is they’re no longer two, but they’re now one!

Marriage is the answer to the question of divorce. That’s the answer of Jesus to the question about divorce! One man and one woman get married, and they’re one.

In the wedding services I have done, I put it like this: 1+1=1! That’s why I say George and Barbara Bush got it right.

Jesus says the thing God put together, let no man take it apart!

When a couple gets married, God puts them together! So don’t let man take them apart!

Take note of this: not everyone has to get married. There are people who chose not to marry. There’s nothing wrong with that. Single is OK.

But the usual thing for people is that man and woman get married.

I have performed weddings since the 1970’s. I don’t mind doing them, but they’re my least favorite events to officiate. Why? Trying to get people to focus on the marriage, not just the wedding is almost impossible.

I had a premarital counseling program I put people through, and they still were focused on the wedding. But some would take the marriage seriously.

Not long ago I went through the line at the grocery store. The guy working the cashier line asked if I was Tom West. I said I was, and he introduced himself. Then I recognized him.

I had done premarital counseling and the wedding service for him and his wife 22 years earlier. He made the point clear they were still happily married. Again, that’s the idea!

Jesus isn’t through teaching about divorce yet. He and His disciples go into a house and the disciples ask Him about the divorce thing.

Jesus explains to the disciples if a man divorces his wife and marries another woman, he commits adultery against his first wife. Why is that? The guy took the 1+1=1 thing God put together with his wife and broke that oneness by being one with another woman. Wrong equation. 1+2 doesn’t equal 1, which was God’s plan and the thing God put together for man and woman.

Divorce isn’t outlawed, but when one divorces and remarries, he commits adultery against that first wife as he’s now one with someone else breaking the union of “oneness” God put together with wife number 1.

In Jewish culture women couldn’t divorce men. Only men could divorce the woman. A woman could make life so miserable she could force the man to divorce her, but she didn’t have legal authority to divorce the man.

Listen carefully to what Jesus said in verse 12, “And if she divorces her husband and marries another man, she commits adultery.” (NIV)

Jesus makes it clear the woman can divorce her husband, but the same principle applies, if she marries another man, she commits adultery against her first husband.

People don’t miss what Jesus did here. He made it clear women are equal to men in terms of legal rights, and they can divorce like their husband can, but they have the same moral obligation he has.

What’s wrong about divorce is it breaks up the intended oneness God created between a husband and wife.

Now let’s look at the application.

God made husband and wife, one for the purpose of creating a family unit. Mom and Dad and their kids create the nuclear family. 1+1=1, and they have kids who go out and create more families made up of one husband and one wife and their kids. More 1+1=1!

For governments to take over they have to break up the family. That’s why the government pays more welfare for a single mom with kids, but not when a father is in the home!

Currently, many in our government want the school to have more authority over children than the parents have. Whether they can articulate what they’re doing or not, it’s an attempt to take power over the family and replace it with the government!

My parents and both sets of grandparents were married until they died! My in-laws were the same way. My wife and I had our 49th wedding anniversary recently.

The most powerful way to crush the attempt for the government to take over is to honor God’s plan of 1+1=1, and those two people raise children who go off and live out God’s plan of 1+1=1!