SUNDAY SERMON

October 5, 2003
Proper 22, Year B

Church of the Holy Communion
The Rev. Gary D. Jones

Gospel: Mark 10:2-9

Sometimes, context is everything.

It would be one thing, if the Pharisees in this morning's Gospel lesson had approached Jesus because they were concerned about a family member or a friend or a neighbor, ... if they had been concerned about someone whose marriage was under great stress, the husband and wife in pain and their children suffering.

We can imagine such a scene: "Lord, we are deeply concerned about our friends whose marriage is in trouble. They are both beautiful people; they love each other; they've done all they can do to preserve their marriage, but it just isn't working. And now, Jesus, they're making themselves sick; they're killing themselves and their children. Neither of them wants to do anything that would hurt the other, and they earnestly want to do God's will.

"But as you know, Jesus, the Biblical passages on divorce and remarriage, on what is permissable and what is not, ... the passages that seem to indicate what is right and in accordance with God's will, ... the Biblical witness on these things can be confusing. So we're here, Jesus, because we love these friends of ours and we hope that spending time with you on this difficult situation might give us some ideas on how we can best help our friends. Would you talk with us, please?"

Can we imagine this sort of encounter with Jesus? I hope so. Because I sincerely believe that when we approach Jesus in this genuinely loving spirit and with such sincerity of heart, ... when we approach him in this way, we will not be disappointed. Seek, and you will find; ask, and it will be given to you; knock, and the door will be opened. When we seek and ask and knock out of genuine love and concern for one another, the Lord will provide.

But sadly, this is not at all what the Pharisees are up to in this morning's Gospel lesson. They do not approach Jesus out of loving concern for someone who needs their help; instead, they approach Jesus in order to test him. They are seeking to entrap Jesus. And the fact that human love relationships can be so very complex; the fact that human love relationships can be so deeply nuanced, so intensely personal and so very private, ... this fact, combined with the fact that the Bible has always provided fodder for disagreements, ... this combination would surely yield an excellent trap for this new rabbi from Nazareth.

Sometimes, context is everything. And the context for this exchange between the Pharisees and Jesus was not that a question seeking love but a question seeking to test and entrap.

Jesus answers these Biblical scholars and moral legalists by taking them beyond the letter of the Mosaic law to God's original intention in Holy Matrimony. The relevant passages of the law of Moses in the Books of Exodus and Deuteronomy provided many complicated provisions for selling ones' daughter to another man, along with what was permissable for a man when he wanted to dismiss his wife because she no longer pleased him.

The legal provisions in Exodus, chapter 21 and Deuteronomy chapter 24 are clear in some respects - a woman is similar to a piece of property for the man. There are slight differences. For example, if a man has bought his wife from his wife's father, he is allowed to write a certificate of dismissal and to divorce her, but he may not sell her again to another man. Depending on the circumstances, there were various ways one might deal with a wife who was no longer pleasing to her husband, and to modern sensibilities, these Biblical provisions can sound primitive or archaic, to say the least. But what was crystal clear the law of Moses was that the man could dismiss his wife, but the woman had no such rights over her husband.

We hear much about the sin of spousal abuse today. It is hard to imagine what it must have been like for women in Moses' or Jesus' day.

Sometimes, understanding the context is everything. And it was in this context that Jesus answered the Pharisees by pointing them beyond what Moses allowed to what God intended. Not everyone would be married, of course, but Jesus was pointing out that those who did marry were to become one flesh. The original intention was not a man with a disposable companion.

And this is where the Gospel gets tough. The very next verses in the Gospel according to Mark, the verses we did not read because the shapers or the Lectionary probably feared that too many people would not understand the full context and thus the meaning of these next verses, ... the very next verses show Jesus playing hardball. Our lesson stops at verse 9, but verses 10-12 were no doubt the verses that sent the Pharisees packing. What we read here is this, "Jesus said to them, 'Whoever divorces and marries another commits adultery.'"

For the longest time, I thought of Jesus simply as gentle, kind and mild-mannered - kind of like a bearded and long-haired Mr. Rogers. But let's be honest - who would want to crucify Mr. Rogers? If you don't like Mr. Rogers, you ignore him, you don't nail him to a cross.

No, Jesus wasn't just a mild-mannered push-over. He had a propensity to offend, particularly when he reached the end of his rope with people who used their religion to prove themselves and to control others, rather than to humble themselves and to love others.

Could it be that Jesus had reached the end of his rope that day, when the Pharisees came to ask him a question, not because they wanted to love their neighbor but because they wanted to entrap Jesus and maintain their control over their neighbor? Was this pushing Jesus just a little too far?

One can't know for sure, of course, but one can imagine that the verses following today's lesson show Jesus unloading a bit of holy wrath:

"If we're going to live by the letter of the law instead of by the love of God, then this is what we'll ultimately have to say - if a person divorces and remarries, he or she is committing adultery. And adulterers are supposed to be stoned to death. This is where your Biblical legalism will take you."

But where could a new law of Love take you?

And again, sometimes context is everything. Right after this section in Mark's Gospel, immediately following this urgent discussion about legalism and morality based on Scriptural law instead of on the love of God, the very next verses in Mark's Gospel tell us that people were bringing children to him. Children whose hearts had not yet been hardened and so had no need to ask about what was permissible according to the law, only a desire to love and be loved.

And the disciples were keeping these children and their mothers away from Jesus, saying, "There's an important discussion going on about the law of Moses, and there's no way we can let it be interrupted. The Pharisees know the Bible inside and out; they've just tried to entrap Jesus, and he's answering them now - this is no time for children; go away!"

And Jesus hit the ceiling. "Let the little children come to me. I'm tired and bored with the hard-hearted, small-minded legalism of these Biblical scholars. I didn't come to debate the Bible, I came to love. These children know how to love. Let them come to me." And he took them in his arms and blessed them.

And the Pharisees went away grousing about the moral relativism and wishy-washiness of this new rabbi. "Either he has to go, or we need to start a new church, a church that will read the Bible the way we do."

Surely Jesus knew that every generation would have its own version of the Pharisees. That there would be no end to the human propensity to test one another and divide from one another and judge one another over issues of orthodoxy.

But could there be a new way, a new way that is exemplified in the nonjudgmental love of a child? Perhaps this is the question all of us must answer, not only with our lips, but in our lives.

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