Today, I am reading and commenting on Mark 10-11.

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When Jesus is asked about divorce in this passage His answer addresses many more things than just divorce.  Most people see that He also addresses the nature of marriage.  He tells us that marriage is between a man and a woman and that the two of them become one flesh.  This rules out both same sex marriage and polygamy.  I think the same sex marriage part is obvious, but perhaps some people do not see why a person could not marry more than one person of the opposite sex.  I think that is rather straightforward.  The passage says that a man and a woman become one flesh.  That is a individual man and an individual woman become one flesh.  How then can  either of them become one flesh with another?

Jesus also addresses how we see the Law given by Moses. When the Pharisees told Jesus that Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of divorce and send his wife away the passage they quote was not actually a command about divorce, but rather a command about remarriage after divorce.  The passage starts by saying, “if a man writes her a certificate of divorce.”(I am paraphrasing here)  So, Moses did not tell them, “You can divorce your wife by giving her a certificate of divorce.”  Rather, Moses said, “Some of you are going to divorce your wives, when you do…”  Jesus pointed this out to the Pharisees, and to us.  We need to be careful not to read a command from God into places where God tells us what to do when we have gone against His desire.  Moses gave this command here because people were going to get divorced.  Rather than tell them that when they did so they were irreconcilably alienated from God, he gave them instructions to limit the damage they had done, both to themselves and their wife (the same principle applies in other situations and to women who divorce their husbands).

Now a little bit about the account of the rich young man.  The passage makes clear that we cannot enter into the kingdom of God on the strength of our own actions.  After Jesus says that it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God, His disciples wondered how, if that is the case, anyone could do so?  Jesus answered them that it is not possible for man, but not with God.  God makes it possible for those who accept His gift.  When Peter asked, “What about us?”  Jesus told them that everyone who has left something in order to follow Jesus will receive it back a hundredfold.  Anything you have left behind, God will give you back a hundredfold.  I don’t think Jesus meant that as literally one hundred times the houses, brothers, parents, or other things He mentions.  Rather I think He means that you will value what God gives you a hundred (or more) times what you left.  As we leave things behind to follow Jesus, our values change and we discover that what God gives us is worth much more than anything we gave up.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.