Part 2 - Matthew 19:1-12 - One exception and one requirement

All I can think of when I see this picture is Mr. Magoo!  It was a very windy day on the Blue Ridge Trail at 11,300 ft.  No elk to be seen but I'm not complaining.  You think you are the only one around and then you meet a fellow hiker coming down from Cascade Mountain.  A dusting of snow on the ground and the roofs this morning and a chill in the air has swept over Grand Lake.  Time to put the snow shovel back on the deck for what is to come.

Part 2 of this passage allowed me to focus in on the one exception that Jesus gives and also the one requirement held over from the Old Testament to the New Testament.  The one exception that is permitted but not commanded is that of marital unfaithfulness to the one-ness relationship created by God when He created them male and female and the man leaves his father and mother to cleave or join to his wife and they become one flesh.  The one requirement that is carried over from the Old to the New is to marry within the faith.  If you watch the video below, I end this sermon with a human re-enactment illustration of this passage.  Some of the words and conversations that I play out are not just made up but real life situations I have been in when dealing with the one exception and one requirement.  

Of course this is not the only passage that deals with divorce, the creation of biological sex and marriage, remarriage and singleness but that is why there will be a part 3 next week.  I will be going to 1 Corinthians 7 to find how Paul handles the "what if" or "what about" situations that have arisen since the creation of the church.  New scenarios have popped up with those coming to faith in Jesus Christ who are already married and there is also a reinforcement of those marrying or remarrying to be "in the Lord."  

The Israelite people that God had created starting with Abraham who was a man who had faith in God got themselves in a whole lot of trouble by not obeying God's instruction to not marry outside of the faith.  Being unequally religiously yoked led to divorces and the celebration of these divorces as something God approved of.  The standard was so out of whack and Jesus addresses it just like the flipping over the moneychangers' tables in the temple.  It had become a den of thieves instead of a house of prayer.  Marriage had become something man decided how it would be rather than God's creation and great witness of His love as the groom for His bride the church.  

We have gotten ourselves as the church in a whole lot of trouble also by not following the one requirement.  We have allowed attraction to be the #1 reason for getting married to whomever rather than the #1 requirement of being of the same faith.  It shouldn't be a guessing game about if the other person truly is a Christian.  You should hear it and see it and if you don't then move on.  I didn't say it Sunday but if you find someone who is truly a Christian and living out that life then they will become attractive to you because you are not looking on the outside but the inside.  I imagine this is the only thing that got me a chance with my beautiful wife of 40 years.  Refer to the picture above and my reference to Mr. Magoo.

Raising the bar on marriage requires us to go back to the beginning.  The Pharisees were debating about the passage in Deuteronomy 24 but Jesus wants to go back to Genesis 1 and 2.  He wants to focus on the creation of male and female and the reason for the two sexes.  He wants us to see the creation of a new one-ness unit when a man leaves his father and mother and joins to his wife.  He doesn't want us to focus on the exceptions that permit divorce but rather focus on the picture within the picture of the husband to his wife and Christ to His church.  I think Hosea and Gomer are a great example of this.  Hosea represents God and Gomer represents the people of God.  Hosea marries Gomer and they have 3 children but Gomer abandons Hosea for her old gods.  Hosea buys Gomer back per the Lord's instruction.  He would have been permitted to divorce her per Deuteronomy 24:1 but his heart was not hard to love beyond the offense.  God's heart for His people is not hard even though they wander to other gods and He paid the ultimate price, the price of His one and only Son to die on a cross and rise from the grave to buy us back.  

As the old wedding vows say, the groom pledges his life to his bride and the bride gives her life to her groom.  Jesus pledges His life to the church and the church gives her life in repentance and obedience to her Jesus.  The groom is the giver of a gift to the bride, a ring eternally round and precious.  Jesus our groom gives the gift of salvation which includes eternal life to His bride the church.  That gift is freely given and needs to be received by faith.  Seeing the picture within the picture of marriage is the only way for us to raise the bar and reverse the course of our modern day which is mirroring what was happening in the days of Jesus and before.  

Raising this bar and sharing it with those who want to get married has limited the amount of marriages I perform.  I want to keep the definitions clear and not violate what God has done and said.  Even if I don't perform the marriage ceremony, I am thankful to proclaim God's standard to the world and take them back to the beginning.

Adam