A Startling View of Divorce & Remarriage | Matthew 19:10-12

Scripture

• Matthew 19:10–12

About this sermon

Introduction: We have considered the matter of emphasis as we strive to hear the Scriptures as the Spirit of God would have us to hear them. If we are reading the Scriptures rightly, then what we emphasize will match what the text emphasizes. One of the sad tendencies that you witness in many people as the read the Bible is a willingness to trample on evidence that doesn’t fit their precommitments. You see a willingness to ignore what is plain in the text — to walk right by it as if it doesn’t exist. It reminds me a little of what you see in a White House press conference. If the press secretary acts like something doesn’t exist, then it doesn’t exist. We will ignore what isn’t convenient to acknowledge. Well, that is how I feel about what we find in the verses following our Lord’s teaching on divorce and remarriage. What Jesus said to the Pharisees is NOT all that Matthew recorded about the encounter. He doesn’t just record the conversation between Jesus and the Pharisees. He records a conversation that follows between Jesus and His disciples. WHAT WE FIND IN THAT CONVERSATION IS SIMPLE, AND BRIEF, BUT I BELIEVE PROFOUNDLY IMPORTANT TO AN UNDERSTANDING OF WHAT JESUS WAS ACTUALLY TEACHING. • WHAT THE DISCIPLES HEARD JESUS SAY (vs.10) The first thing I want us to think about is what the disciples understood Jesus to be teaching. And indeed, I would add, that what it clearly seems they understood Jesus to be teaching, is what the rest New Testament writers seem to understand Jesus to teach as well. It appears plain that the disciples heard Jesus teaching something that they didn’t expect. His teaching didn’t match what Shammai taught about the subject. His teaching didn’t match what Hillel taught about the subject. HIS TEACHING WASN’T WHAT THEY EXPECTED. Which is why their reaction to his teaching is one of shock and cynicism. They understood Jesus to teach that unless sexual sin is found during the betrothal period, there is to be no divorce. Hardheartedness is not the standard that pleases God, divorce is not to be pursued, and if a divorce occurs remarriage is not possible. James Montgomery Boice — “If Jesus were referring to adultery as the one legitimate ground for divorce, the text would have used the word moicheia. That it doesn’t suggests we should look elsewhere for Jesus’ meaning. I would suggest that if the exception clause does not refer to adultery, the only thing it can reasonably refer to is impurity in the woman discovered on the first night of the marriage, in which case there would have been deceit in the marriage contract. Jesus would then be saying (in full accord with the accepted views of the day) that although a man may divorce a woman immediately after marriage if he finds her not to be a virgin (in which case he was allowed by the law to remarry and was not to be called an adulterer), he is not permitted to divorce her for any other reason. If he does, he places her into a position in which she may be forced to remarry, thereby becoming an adulteress, and he would become an adulterer if he remarried.” This is in complete agreement with what Paul CLEARLY SAYS about CHRIST’S TEACHING on the subject, in 1 Corinthians 7. ESV 1 Corinthians 7:10 To the married I give this charge (not I, but the Lord): the wife should not separate from her husband 11 (but if she does, she should remain unmarried or else be reconciled to her husband), and the husband should not divorce his wife. HE DOES NOT INCLUDE THE EXCEPTION CLAUSE AND HE DOES NOT INDICATE THAT REMARRIAGE IS ALLOWED. The “exception clause” refers to the Jewish practice of betrothal, not divorce after the marriage has been properly contracted. THE CHRISTIAN STANDARD FOR MARRIAGE IS NOT HARDHEARTEDNESS BUT SUPERNATURAL FORGIVENESS. Boice — “When we compare our practices with God’s standards, we might very well exclaim, as the disciples do in Matthew 19, “If this is the situation between a husband and wife, it is better not to marry” (v. 10). But it is good to marry! The problem is not with the institution of marriage, since marriage is God’s idea. It was God who brought the first bride to the first groom in Eden, after all. Everything God does is good. The problem is sin, or to put it another way, the problem is with our own hard hearts, which Jesus refers to explicitly in verse 8. Jesus says, referring to the Old Testament law about divorce (Deut. 24:1–4), “Moses permitted you to divorce your wives because your hearts were hard. But it was not this way from the beginning.” I am sure this is why, in Matthew’s Gospel, the long discussion of divorce in chapter 19 (vv. 1–12) immediately follows the equally long discussion in chapter 18 (vv. 21–35) of the need of Christ’s followers to forgive other people, knowing that they themselves have been forgiven much more by God.

Topics

• Marriage