6 October 2024 Pentecost 20

Job 1.1; 2.1-10   Psalm 26   Hebrews 1.1-4; 2.5-12   Mark 10.2-16

For some people this morning, as soon as they heard that word ‘divorce’ in our Gospel, they may not have heard anything more; they especially may not have heard Jesus blessing the women and children there with him.  The problem is, the word divorce brings with it lots of baggage, lots of judgement and lots of pain.  Pain because divorce leaves all involved injured and hurting; judgement because of the condemnation it used to bring, and maybe still does, to one if not both parties involved and the unhelpful way we have used Scripture as ‘proof’ that those who were thinking of divorce were doing the wrong thing; and baggage because of all the complexities involved in divorce.  So let us stop all that ‘rabbit hole’ thinking and truly hear what Jesus is telling those who have asked this question ‘just to test him’.

It is interesting that Mark only tells one other story that relates to divorce, and that is about Philip and Herodias, as it relates  to John the Baptist’s tragic death because of his stated opposition to their marriage.  Is Mark hinting that the Pharisees ‘testing’ of Jesus may be an attempt to have him say something that will likewise irritate and anger Rome’s officials which will therefore cause Jesus to suffer a similar fate as John.

When the Pharisees pose the question, they shield it in the abstract ‘if a man…’, but Jesus responds with the suspicion that they are the ones wanting permission to divorce.  He makes it personal, ‘what did Moses say to you’.  And when they still respond in the abstract ‘allow him’, Jesus changes it from a hypothetical heart  to ‘your  heart’.  Because, the thing is, the crux of this passage is not about divorce, the Pharisees are asking about the ‘law’, ‘is it lawful….’.  And Jesus takes it further back than the Mosaic law, he takes it back to creation.  ‘God created them…’, and he makes it about relationship.  We were all created to be in relationship with God and with each other.  And Jesus goes further, he pushes the Pharisees to see that this law, in fact all law, was and is intended to protect the vulnerable.

Jesus is not speaking here just to individuals, he is making a statement about the kind of community we will be.  He is inviting us to imagine communities centered in and on real relationships; relationships founded on love and mutual dependence, fostered by respect and dignity, and pursued for the sake of the health of the community and the protection of the vulnerable.

Which takes us to Jesus’ reaction to how the disciples were responding to people bringing children to Jesus to bless.  Even though the disciples try to push them aside and stop the children getting close to Jesus, he intervenes and welcomes them.  And through this Jesus draws the older generations to ‘notice’ the little ones around them.  He tells the disciples that welcoming the kingdom pretty much means welcoming children, in other words, the vulnerable, those at risk, and those in need.

This whole passage is about community, but it is a different type of community to the one we are used to.  It is not a community of the strong, or the wealthy, or the powerful or independent.  This is a community of the broken, the vulnerable, of those at risk.  In other words, it is a community of those who know their need and seek to be in relationship with each other because they have learned that by being in honest and open relationship with each other they are in relationship with God, the one who created them for each other in the first place.

And that is what the church was originally about – a place for all who had been broken by life or rejected by the powerful, and who came to experience God through the crucified Jesus as the One who met them in their vulnerability, not so they could become impervious to harm, but so they could be open to the brokenness and need of those around them.

Sometimes divorce is the best option for a fractured and troublesome relationship, and it is clear that divorce has saved the lives of vulnerable people who otherwise may have become a ‘domestic violence’ statistic.  But it is important for us to not to build barriers against those who have suffered untold agony and found divorce to be their best solution.  Our role is to be supporters of the weak, supporters of the marginalised, supporters of the broken, and assist them to find the healing hands of Jesus in their lives.

Part of being human is to be insecure, to be aware of our need and to be embarrassed by our need.  Paul reminds us that being broken is not something to be ashamed of.  In fact, to be broken is to be human.  And to be human is to be loved by God and drawn together into relationship with all the others that God loves.  Which means that every time we gather, we are a local gathering of the broken and loved, of those who are hurting as well as healing; of those who are lost but have also been found. A gathering of those that know their need and seek not simply to have that need met but who also realise that in helping to meet the need of others their own need is met.

So, when we read this passage, can we see not so much instruction about divorce, but an invitation to see our communities as those places where God’s work to heal and restore the whole creation is ongoing, not by taking away our problems but by surrounding us with people who understand, and care, and help us to discover together our potential to reach out to others in love and compassion.  Yes, we are broken, but we are those broken ones who God loves and is healing and using to make all things new.  In short, we are communities of the broken and blessed.  And knowing that is life-giving, not only to those who know themselves to be broken, but also to those of us in denial, seeking endlessly to make it on our own, even if it kills us.  So let it be life-giving.