1 And he left there and went to the region of Judea and beyond the Jordan, and crowds gathered to him again. And again, as was his custom, he taught them.
2 And Pharisees came up and in order to test him asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?” 3 He answered them, “What did Moses command you?” 4 They said, “Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of divorce and to send her away.” 5 And Jesus said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart he wrote you this commandment. 6 But from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.’ 7 ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, 8 and the two shall become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two but one flesh. 9 What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.”
10 And in the house the disciples asked him again about this matter. 11 And he said to them, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her, 12 and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.” – Mark 10:1-12 ESV
In chapter 10, Mark begins recording Jesus’ journey to Jerusalem. After teaching His disciples about greatness in the Kingdom, Jesus left Capernaum in Galilee for the last time and headed to “the region of Judea beyond the Jordan” (Matthew 19:1 ESV). This would have put them in Perea, a region just east of the Jordan River. This location is significant because Jesus was returning to the area where His ministry had begun more than three years earlier. According to John’s gospel, this was where Jesus was baptized by John.
These things took place in Bethany across the Jordan, where John was baptizing. The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!” – John 1:28-29 ESV
Jesus has come full circle and returned to the place where He received the Holy Spirit’s anointing and His Heavenly Father’s verbal commendation.
“This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.” – Matthew 3:17 ESV
As always, Jesus immediately found Himself surrounded by a large crowd. His reputation had grown, and wherever He went, the news of His presence spread and attracted people like moths to a flame. And Jesus didn’t disappoint; He gave the crowds what they expected: insightful teaching and healing miracles. But some in the crowd that day had a more sinister interest in Jesus. Mark indicates that the “Pharisees came up and in order to test him” (Mark 10:2 ESV). These men had persistently pursued Jesus, following Him everywhere He went, hoping to expose Him as the fraud they believed Him to be. They were unimpressed by His miracles or message, denied His claims to deity, and debunked His miracles by claiming He did them by the power of Satan. But the Pharisees could not break Jesus’ captivating hold over the people. It galled them that He had become a celebrity among the lower classes, and they constantly looked for ways to diminish His popularity. That’s why Mark indicates that they came to “test him.”
This time, they chose to broach the particularly controversial topic of divorce. This entire scene takes place in Perea, a region under the jurisdiction of Herod Antipas. He was the Roman-appointed tetrarch of Galilee and Perea and the self-proclaimed “king” of Israel. This was the same man who had put John the Baptist to death for having publicly criticized his unlawful marriage to his brother’s wife (Mark 6:17).
Perhaps these men hoped Jesus would take a hardline stance, just as John the Baptist had, forbidding divorce for any reason. If so, they could use this news against Him. After all, Herod had already put to death one troublemaker for his more conservative view of divorce.
But their question to Jesus likely had a different motivation. Divorce had become commonplace among the Jews because of their interpretation of the Mosaic Law; they believed that God had given them a “get-out-of-jail-free” card. This belief was based on the following command in the book of Deuteronomy.
“Suppose a man marries a woman but she does not please him. Having discovered something wrong with her, he writes a document of divorce, hands it to her, and sends her away from his house. When she leaves his house, she is free to marry another man. But if the second husband also turns against her, writes a document of divorce, hands it to her, and sends her away, or if he dies, the first husband may not marry her again, for she has been defiled. That would be detestable to the Lord. You must not bring guilt upon the land the Lord your God is giving you as a special possession.” – Deuteronomy 24:1-4 NLT
Divorce was a problem in Israel because the people had been taught to minimize its moral implications. Their interpretation of this passage in Deuteronomy centered solely on one thing: the certificate of divorce. In other words, they interpreted this law as a license for a man to divorce his wife.
It is essential to understand that, in Israel’s ancient culture, women had no rights; they could not divorce their husbands. So, this law was aimed at men. But God had not intended this law to provide men with an easy exit strategy from an unhappy marriage. Yet that is what it became, because divorce became commonplace. All it required was a written piece of paper, a certificate of divorce. No lawyers, courts, or judges were involved. People took the action with little or no thought about the spiritual or moral ramifications.
So, when the Pharisees asked Jesus, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?” they hoped He would say, “No.” This would have put Jesus at odds with the prevailing opinion of the day. It would also allow them to accuse Jesus of contradicting the Mosaic Law. But Jesus saw through the thinly veiled ploy and answered their question with one of His own: “What did Moses command you?” (Mark 10:3 ESV).
They quickly responded with their preferred interpretation of Deuteronomy: “Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of divorce and to send her away” (Mark 10:4 ESV). In a sense, they stated that what was good for Moses was good for them. They justified no-fault divorce with black-and-white ink in the Mosaic Law, but they missed the point. This wasn't the first time Jesus addressed this topic; He had done so in great detail in His Sermon on the Mount. But in that case, He tied it directly to the topic of adultery.
“You have heard the commandment that says, ‘You must not commit adultery.’ But I say, anyone who even looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart. So if your eye—even your good eye—causes you to lust, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. And if your hand—even your stronger hand—causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.” – Matthew 5:27-30 NLT
Jesus followed this with another closely related, equally abused law of God.
“You have heard the law that says, ‘A man can divorce his wife by merely giving her a written notice of divorce.’ But I say that a man who divorces his wife, unless she has been unfaithful, causes her to commit adultery. And anyone who marries a divorced woman also commits adultery.” – Matthew 5:31-32 NLT
The Pharisees had forced Jesus to address this issue again. Every Jew knew that adultery was wrong, but they had separated the idea of adultery from divorce. Yet Jesus would not let them do so. For Jesus, this entire discussion revolved around the condition of the heart. That’s why He told them, “Because of your hardness of heart he (Moses) wrote you this commandment” (Mark 10:5 ESV). The law concerning the certificate of divorce was given because of the sinfulness of men’s hearts. The fall of Adam and Eve contaminated the entire human race with sin. Even the people of Israel, chosen by God and set apart as His people, could not stop sinning and satisfying their own selfish desires.
In just a few short sentences, Jesus dropped the hammer on the Jewish concept of divorce. In Genesis, when God made Eve from the rib of Adam, He said, “Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh” (Genesis 2:24 ESV). God intended that a man and woman would be joined together for life; there had been no provision for divorce.
In his commentary on the Gospel of Mark, C. E. B. Cranfield clarifies that the Deuteronomy passage “is a divine provision to deal with situations brought about by men’s sklerokardia [hardness of heart] and to protect from its worst effects those who would suffer as a result of it.” (C. E. B. Cranfield, The Gospel According to Saint Mark).
In other words, this was a concession, not a divine sanctioning of divorce. It was intended to keep men from following up one sin with another. The certificate of divorce was a legal document based on one thing and one thing only: proof of “indecency” by the wife. The Hebrew word in the Deuteronomy passage referred to actions related to indecency, shamefulness, or dishonor. A man couldn’t just grow tired of his wife and send her packing. He couldn’t “fall out of love” with her and produce a piece of paper to get rid of her; he needed moral justification for the divorce. And if he divorced her, he had to deal with the moral ramifications of his decision.
Jesus makes it clear that, unless the man’s wife was guilty of unfaithfulness in the form of sexual immorality, he had no right to divorce her. To do so would cause her to commit adultery with the next man she married because, in God’s eyes, she and her first husband were still one. If she did remarry and was given divorce papers a second time, the first husband could not remarry her without being guilty of adultery as well. Any husband who divorced his wife and married a woman who had also been divorced without proper cause would be guilty of adultery.
Jesus belabored this point because the real issue was faithfulness. It all goes back to a perception/reality problem. For the Jews, their perception of divorce was that it was permissible under certain conditions; you just had to follow the rules. But the religious leaders had redefined the rules so that divorce had become an accepted norm. Jesus was out to deal with reality and blatantly countered that divorce results in adultery. Marriage was intended to be a covenant, a binding relationship between two people sealed before God Almighty. And Jesus clarified the significance of that reality when He said, “What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate” (Mark 10:9 ESV).
God never intended divorce for mankind. Marriage was designed to be a permanent union, creating a divine bond between two individuals. Divorce broke the marriage covenant and was an act of unfaithfulness. God had stated that divorce was the only legitimate ground for divorce. Yet He was not prescribing divorce as the solution to unfaithfulness. Jesus made it clear that there was only one reason God made a provision for divorce: “Because of your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so” (Matthew 19:8 ESV).
One thing God has always looked for in His people is faithfulness. He expected His chosen people to remain faithful to Him. However, He often accused them of spiritual adultery.
“Have you seen what she did, that faithless one, Israel, how she went up on every high hill and under every green tree, and there played the whore? And I thought, ‘After she has done all this she will return to me,’ but she did not return, and her treacherous sister Judah saw it. She saw that for all the adulteries of that faithless one, Israel, I had sent her away with a decree of divorce. Yet her treacherous sister Judah did not fear, but she too went and played the whore. Because she took her whoredom lightly, she polluted the land, committing adultery with stone and tree. Yet for all this her treacherous sister Judah did not return to me with her whole heart, but in pretense, declares the Lord.” – Jeremiah 3:6-10 ESV
Israel had a track record of unfaithfulness to God; they couldn’t keep from wandering after other “lovers.” The whole point Jesus seems to be making is that horizontal unfaithfulness reflects vertical unfaithfulness. How are we to remain faithful to God if we can’t remain faithful to our spouse? Our lack of commitment reveals a heart problem, not a compatibility issue. The union of one man and one woman was never intended to be easy or problem-free. Marriage was never intended to be an idyllic institution free from conflict or controversy because it involves two fallen people with selfish desires and sinful dispositions. For marriage to succeed, both partners must be faithful and remain committed to the covenant they have made. In his letter to the church in Ephesus, Paul speaks much about the sanctity of marriage, even comparing it to Christ's union with the Church.
As the Scriptures say, “A man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one.” This is a great mystery, but it is an illustration of the way Christ and the church are one. – Ephesians 5:31-32 NLT
Jesus, the faithful bridegroom, would never divorce His bride, the church. In fact, Paul states that Jesus was willing to lay down His life for His bride.
For husbands, this means love your wives, just as Christ loved the church. He gave up his life for her to make her holy and clean, washed by the cleansing of God’s word. He did this to present her to himself as a glorious church without a spot or wrinkle or any other blemish. Instead, she will be holy and without fault. In the same way, husbands ought to love their wives as they love their own bodies. – Ephesians 5:25-28 NLT
Faithfulness in the face of unfaithfulness. Commitment in response to infidelity. Jesus didn’t seek a divorce certificate or an easy way out of His covenant commitment; He gave up His life.
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