Friday 7th March 2025
The Pharisees, who were lovers of money, heard all this, and they ridiculed him. So Jesus said to them, ‘You are those who justify yourselves in the sight of others; but God knows your hearts; for what is prized by human beings is an abomination in the sight of God. ‘The law and the prophets were in effect until John came; since then the good news of the kingdom of God is proclaimed, and everyone tries to enter it by force. But it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away, than for one stroke of a letter in the law to be dropped.‘ Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery, and whoever marries a woman divorced from her husband commits adultery.
Reflection
Susan Durber, yesterday, reminded us that we are used to reading the Bible in the way we do in the Daily Devotions and in church – a section at a time. This means we miss the broad sweep of the editors’ intentions by putting various stories together. So this week we’ve had the Prodigal Son and a dodgy manager and now, before we go to the Rich Man and Lazarus, we have this little section. We learn the Pharisees would have been disturbed by Jesus’ teaching on extravagant generosity – they, of course, got his point quickly – and Jesus is at great pains to show that his teaching on money and generosity comes from the Law.
Then we have this difficult teaching on divorce. Admittedly in Luke and Matthew it’s a little easier than in Mark where Jesus seems not to condone divorce at all. Of course Jesus would have been concerned to protect women who were cast off by men and left with nowhere to go, often having to sell themselves to survive or make another unsuitable marriage. Divorce for adultery would have been more merciful than stoning but these are difficult words to read in a culture where women and men, in theory, are equal and where divorce allows the unhappily wed a chance of starting again.
Interestingly Jesus is pulling something of a fast one here. His words about the Law not changing are rather undermined by his words on divorce. The Law allowed men to divorce their wives fairly easily and not just for adultery – physical and financial neglect of the wife for her husband were also grounds. Of course women couldn’t divorce their husbands. So even as Jesus defends the Law he redefines it. Something we should remember when tempted to take a fundamentalist or uncritical view of a text! Maybe his teaching on divorce is also an outworking of his generosity – in this case generosity to women who would not be abandoned.
Prayer
Help us, Loving God,
to read beyond the letter of the Law,
to see its intention and spirit,
and to be ever more generous in both our lives
and our interpretations.
Amen.