The Law in a New LightSample

Jesus Reframes the Law – 3

If you have been around a while, you will already know that divorce is a controversial subject in God’s church. It is worth asking the question why in the light of Jesus’ teaching here in Matthew. I suspect some, not all, of the answer, is that we, like the scribes and Pharisees, are looking for loopholes to justify our behaviour. Marriage isn’t nirvana; your spouse is not your saviour. Perfection isn’t found in any relationship this side of the resurrection. G. K. Chesterton quipped when people were using incompatibility as a reason to finish their marriage, that the very beginning of marriage is to acknowledge men and women are incompatible to start with. This is just the beginning of a robust relationship, not a reason for the end of one.

Divorce was provisioned in the law, and it was readily enough used for the most spurious of reasons. It has been said that the burning of one’s toast by your wife sufficed. I’m not sure about this but you get the drift.

Divorce is a needed provision for certain issues, but it was used in ways never intended – such as wanting a younger wife, or minor annoyances (which any good relationship has in abundance). Sexual immorality was the only get out of marriage clause Matthew recorded Jesus mentioning. And the reason is that it normally does irreparable damage to trust – a vital ingredient in any long-term relationship. It is considered a violation of fidelity, one of the most damaging and severe of sins against another. They aren’t required to stick around, although getting divorced always forced a woman back into a marriage (they couldn’t easily survive on their own), and anyone who married her commits adultery.

Immorality frees a woman whose husband was the sexual aggressor/adulterer to remarry without this stigma that the husband otherwise divorcing her becomes responsible for – “makes her commit adultery.” Jesus is saying that love/commitment can’t be avoided by legal loopholes or provisions. This is a rebuke to the modern church, where divorce and remarriage are seldom questioned, and often (almost) celebrated. This is to our shame, and cause for ridicule by the world we are trying to witness to. This is a law we have relaxed and taught others the same, Pauline exceptions notwithstanding.