OUR FATHER WHO MADE HUMAN BEINGS MALE AND FEMALE

Matthew chapter 19 verses 1 ~ 10 records Jesus leaving Galilee and travelling south east to a portion of Judah on the east side of the Jordan river. Here, He healed the crowds of people who had followed Him. The religious leaders, still looking to discredit Him because He was becoming an importer center of gravity on spiritual matters, took the opportunity to question Him on the contentious issue of divorce.

1 Now it came to pass, when Jesus had finished these sayings, that He departed from Galilee and came to the region of Judea beyond the Jordan. 2 And great multitudes followed Him, and He healed them there.

3 The Pharisees also came to Him, testing Him, and saying to Him, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for just any reason?”

4 And He answered and said to them, “Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning ‘made them male and female,’ 5 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’? 6 So then, they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate.”

7 They said to Him, “Why then did Moses command to give a certificate of divorce, and to put her away?”

8 He said to them, “Moses, because of the hardness of your hearts, permitted you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. 9 And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery; and whoever marries her who is divorced commits adultery.”

 In response to their question about the acceptability of divorce in the law of God, Jesus explained that even though the law of Moses permitted divorce, it was not in the original design specifications of human beings set by the creator of mankind.

Male and female beings, though born separate, are designed by God to become one flesh upon upon marriage and as such, there is no permissisable grounds for divorce except for sexual immorality by one  the partners.

For those who would be citizens of the kingdom of God, Jesus instructs that the original specifications for human beings are in force and as such divorce is disallowed and those who are divorced must stay celibate in order not to commit adultery.

10 His disciples said to Him, “If such is the case of the man with his wife, it is better not to marry.”

The disciples, hearing this high standard being reestablished, concluded that it was better not marry in the first place to avoid the hazards of being so permanently joined to someone in an intolerable partnership.

Have mercy on us O God.

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