Matthew 19:1-9
When Jesus had finished saying these things, he left Galilee and went to the region of Judea beyond the Jordan. Large crowds followed him, and he cured them there. Some Pharisees came to him, and to test him they asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any cause?” He answered, “Have you not read that the one who made them at the beginning ‘made them male and female,’ and said, ‘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.” They said to him, “Why then did Moses command us to give a certificate of dismissal and to divorce her?” He said to them, “It was because you were so hard-hearted that Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but at the beginning it was not so. And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for unchastity, and marries another commits adultery.”
This can be a painful text to read or hear, especially if you or someone you love has experienced divorce. Two historical notes may help us both understand it in its context and think about it more clearly in our own.
First, many biblical scholars believe Jesus’ answer was intended to protect women. In the culture in which he lived, women had no power and were regarded – as in the larger Roman society of the day – as property. Which meant that men could divorce their wives for nearly any reason. All that was needed was a written notice to the wife, and the divorce was complete…and the woman was most likely destitute, left to fend for herself in a world where she exercised neither power nor influence. And so Jesus’ “upping of the ante” of how to regard divorce was meant to protect women far too vulnerable to the whims of their husbands.
Which means, among other things, that the practice of divorce Jesus teaches about and the one we know today have very little in common, and that’s helpful to remember. If one is to draw any lasting significance from this passage, it may be that God cares deeply about our relationships – and that certainly includes marriage as one of our primary relationships – and that these relationships are meant to be places of strength and security, not risk and vulnerability. For this reason, any who treat others in such a cavalier, uncaring, and dismissive way are indeed guilty of violating the very nature of their relationships (which is what adultery was, the absolute disregard for the covenant of marriage).
Second, given that many look to this passage as the primary and normative establishment of marriage between a man and woman, it’s interesting that so few mark the interpretive move Jesus’ makes. After all, in these verses Jesus appeals to one passage in the Bible in order to re-interpret another. Why? Because he believes that his contemporaries are not so much misinterpreting Scripture as they are misreading God’s will. The passage that allows divorce (Dt. 24:1) should be read – indeed, must be read – in light of another passage (Gen. 2:24) that expresses God’s overarching concern for marriage. Used this way, the Genesis passage reinterprets and, indeed, relativizes the passage from Deuteronomy. The law about divorce, Jesus said, was given as a concession to our weakness and penchant for disregarding our relationships; that does not make the practice the best expression of God’s will for us.
So also today, many of us look for passages of Scripture that capture overarching, or perhaps more accurately, underlying themes about God’s concern for us, our relationships, and indeed the whole creation that serve as guiding norms not only in life but also in the way we read Scripture.
Is there risk to this approach? Undoubtedly, as we are as likely to misread and misinterpret Scripture today as were Jesus’ conversation partners two thousand years ago. But while good interpretation matters, I also try to remember that we are justified not by right interpretation, but by grace alone.
Prayer: Dear God, you have given us the Scriptures in order that we may know of your great love for us and of your concern that we treat each other with dignity and respect. Help us, therefore, to read all of Scripture in that light. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
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