Read Matthew 19:1–12
Questions from the Scripture text: What did Jesus finish (Matthew 19:1)? Then where did He go? Who followed Him (Matthew 19:2)? What did He do there? Who came to Him (Matthew 19:3)? What were they doing to Him? What do they ask Him about? What does He ask them if they had done (Matthew 19:4)? About Whom does He speak? What did He do at the beginning? How did He make them? What did He say about making them this way (Matthew 19:5)? Whom must a man leave? To be joined to whom? How many of them are they? What do they become? What are thy no longer (Matthew 19:6)? Who has joined them together? What must no one do? What do the Pharisees ask about (Matthew 19:7)? What is Jesus’s answer to their “why” question (Matthew 19:8)? When had it not been so? Who adds His Word to Scripture (Matthew 19:9)? What makes for a lawful divorce? What does someone do if he divorces unlawfully? What does someone do if he marries someone unlawfully divorced? Who now answer Him (Matthew 19:10)? What do they say? Whom does He say can accept this saying (Matthew 19:11)? What three types of eunuchs does he say there are (Matthew 19:12)? Whom does He say should accept His saying?
What should we think of divorce? Matthew 19:1–12 prepares us for the sermon in the morning public worship on the coming Lord’s Day. In these twelve verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that we should hate divorce, just as God does.
The Pharisees “test” Jesus with their question, because they apparently know from His other teaching that His view of divorce doesn’t agree with their reading of Deuteronomy 24:1–4. They think that this is a winning issue, where others will be on their side, and the disciples sadly prove them correct in Matthew 19:10. They all have a sinfully low view of marriage. And they will have to choose between their sin and Jesus. This is always the case! And, how often it is the sad case that one keeps himself from Christ, because he “tests” Jesus by whether he will be able to keep his sin or not. Dear reader, do not let this be you!
Jesus’s answer is not to go to technicalities of the civil law, but to a biblical theology of marriage beginning not in Genesis 2 (Matthew 19:5, cf. Genesis 2:24), but in Genesis 1 (Matthew 19:4, cf. Genesis 1:27). Marriage is glorious because it is part of God’s making us in His own image. And marriage is glorious because it is a miracle in which God makes the two (not the three or more!) into one flesh. And marriage is honorable (cf. Hebrews 13:4) because it is God Who joins the two together (Matthew 19:6, cf. Proverbs 2:17). We must not be driven to our view of divorce by what we wish to be permitted to do, or what we think we are comfortable doing. We must be driven to our view of divorce by God’s view of marriage. If we have God’s view of marriage, how we will prepare for it! How diligently and cheerfully we will labor in it! How jealously and carefully we will guard both our own, and others’, marriages!
The Pharisees (and disciples), however, want to defend their view of marriage and divorce, and appeal to the civil law. But Jesus answers their “why” question not with something in God’s design for marriage, but with something in them: their own sin, their own hardness of heart. But the civil law only establishes and punishes crimes, not sins. They shouldn’t be content with what they can get away with from the state. They must strive for that which actually pleases God. And God hates divorce (cf. Malachi 2:16)—and Jesus’s teaching, here, gives us a window into some of the reason why. All divorce is adulterous. Either it is caused by adultery, or else the divorce itself is adulterous, and it spawns further adultery if there is any remarriage. What abominable perversion!
We need new natures—kingdom natures—if we are going to accept Jesus’s saying. He speaks authoritatively, as the only One Who has the right to add His own words to Genesis and Deuteronomy—because Genesis and Deuteronomy are also His own words! But His saying is only welcomed by those to whom it is given, those who are given grace to do everything of the sake of heaven (Matthew 19:12). Marriage is God’s gift for our being made in His image. The civil law was God’s gift for restraining the effects of men’s sin. But Christ is the greatest gift, from Whom we receive life and light to take God’s own view of things, and to be willing to do whatever is necessary to please Him.
How are you guarding your own marriage? How are you guarding others’ marriages? What sin might you be trying to hold on to, rather than giving it up to have Christ?
Sample prayer: Lord, we thank You for he gift of marriage. Grant unto us to take Your own view of it, and to live our lives accordingly. Forgive us for when we form our opinions by what pleases us, rather than by what Scripture teaches, and what therefore pleases You. Glorify Yourself by blessing our marriages we ask, through Christ, AMEN!
Suggested songs: ARP45B “Daughter, Incline Your Ear” or TPH128B “Blest the Man”
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