Jesus and the Pharisees Mark 10
Jesus was travelling through Transjordan on his way to Jerusalem and his final Passover before his trial and crucifixion. While in the territory of Perea, which was ruled by Herod Antipas, the man who had imprisoned and executed John the Baptist because of his comments about Herod’s incestuous marriage to his brother’s wife, the Pharisees approached Jesus and tested him by asking,
‘Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?’ Jesus replied (with a question), ‘What did Moses command you?’ They said, ‘Moses permitted a man to write a certificate of divorce and send her away.’ Jesus repied, ‘It was because your hearts were hard that Moses wrote you this law,’ (and then Jesus quoted from Genesis) ‘But at the beginning of creation, God “made them male and female”. “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh”.’ (Jesus concluded) ‘So they are no longer two, but one. Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate’ (Mark 10:2–9).
The response of Jesus is highly significant. He does not launch into a discussion on the possible grounds for divorce or discuss the lawfulness of divorce. In this dramatic encounter the Lord quotes from the two texts in (Genesis 1:27 and 2:24) which form the foundation of God’s ordinance of marriage as an indissoluble one flesh union. This tells us that if we wish to know the mind of Christ on divorce then we must take account of these two verses. Essentially Jesus is saying that God created one man and one woman and when God united them in marriage they became one flesh. Jesus then draws the conclusion that husband and wife have been joined together by God to become one. For this reason, man should not separate them. This was the public teaching of Jesus on the issue of the lawfulness of divorce.
Later, when Jesus and the disciples were in the house they asked him to explain this teaching. Jesus answered,
Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery against her. And if she divorces her husband and marries another man, she commits adultery (Mark 10:11–12).
Here Jesus is saying that remarriage is wrong, reinforcing the teaching given during the Sermon on the Mount. A divorced man who marries a single woman commits adultery against his first wife. This is because the one flesh bond created by God at marriage is still intact in God’s eyes, and so the sexual relationship with another woman is adulterous. Similarly, the woman who divorces her husband and remarries another man commits adultery. This is because the divorce has not freed her from the marriage bond and she is still tied to her husband, although legally divorced from him. Therefore, being still married in the eyes of God, she is required either to be reconciled to her husband or to remain unmarried. For her to marry another man is adultery. The emphatic teaching of Jesus is completely contrary to human expectations. He refers to God’s creation ordinance, thereby confirming from the Scriptures that marriage is indissoluble and so remarriage following divorce is always adultery.
Andrew Cornes’s comments on Jesus’ teaching in Mark are helpful. ‘Since Jesus specifically calls remarriage after legal divorce “adultery”, he is saying that whatever has taken place legally in divorce, the partners are still married. This means that remarriage is not only wrong, it is impossible at the deepest level. Jesus makes the astonishing statement – astonishing in his own day and just as amazing in our own – that it is not actually possible to marry again during the lifetime of a divorced partner; it is only possible to commit adultery with a third party, even though from a legal point of view this new “marriage” has been properly entered into.
‘Jesus’ teaching also means that divorce – at least in the sense in which the Pharisees thought of it – is not only wrong but is impossible. Again, it is of course perfectly possible to secure a divorce that is valid from the legal point of view. But it is not possible to undo what God has done… Since even after divorce, to marry someone else is to commit adultery, clearly this marriage bond still remains, even after legal divorce. Therefore full divorce – in the sense of the “dissolution” or elimination of the marriage bond – is not something which any legal process is capable of achieving. Only death dissolves the bond.’11
It is noteworthy that Mark’s account of this exchange with the Pharisees does not mention the phrase ‘except for marital unfaithfulness’, but makes it clear that Jesus’ teaching on divorce and remarriage apply to husband and wife alike.