Hello, and welcome to Friday’s podcast. Our Bible reading today is Mark 10:1-16.

REFLECTION:

This section of Mark’s Gospel is a challenging one, and I am not even going to suggest that this short podcast is sufficient enough time to tackle the painful and difficult topic of divorce. I know that there are people reading or listening to this that are divorced or separated themselves, or who have grown up with this in their family. There will also be people who feel let down or condemned by the church on this issue.

Whatever our backgrounds, experiences or feelings about divorce, my prayer is that today each one of us would hear God speaking a new, life-giving word through this passage, and that this would impact our lives and our relationships.

Right at the outset, we need to remember that God is for marriage. He is for single people too. Jesus was single. But in the context of this passage, and against the tide of our culture, we need to remember that marriage is good and marriage is Godly, marriage is important and marriage is a responsibility. We need to stand up for marriage.

In Jesus’ time, the value of marriage had been eroded, and divorce on the most trivial grounds, for example a wife spoiling a dish of food, or spinning around in the street, had become acceptable. Indeed there is evidence that no-fault divorce is not a new, modern concept, but a sad reality from 2000 years ago.

Fast forward to 2019, and we see a younger generation fearful of making a lifelong commitment, and lacking the relational skills needed to make a long-haul relationship work. It is perhaps hardly surprising, as approximately 50% of children in the UK grow up witnessing their parents getting divorced. Marriage rates are at their lowest level ever, as millennials replace marriage with co-habitation. Check out the BBC article published 2 weeks ago, describing a young woman’s experience of being ‘marriage shamed’ because she got engaged aged 22. The value or importance of marriage has all but gone.

As Christians we believe the Bible is the word of God, and that it speaks truth into our culture and context at all times and in all seasons. So what does Jesus have to say on this topic?

In the passage today, Jesus does not say that there is anything specifically wrong with the legal provision that Moses created to enable divorce. However, in verses 6-8, Jesus also makes it clear that he has not come to change or alter God’s original plan – that marriage between a man and a woman is a lifelong, permanent, covenant relationship, where the two become one.

The key here is verse 5, where Jesus says, “It was because your hearts were hard that Moses wrote you this law.”

Tom Wright defines hardheartedness as “the inability to have one’s heart in tune with God’s best intention and plan.”

No person on their wedding day sets out with the intention of getting a divorce. But, as in so many areas of our lives, despite our best intentions, it is the failure or weakness of the human heart that means we fall short of God’s ideal for us.

What should our response to this be?

Firstly, as a Christian community, we should be doing everything that we possibly can to support and encourage those who are thinking about marriage and those who are engaged.

If Jesus says that our hearts can become hard, then we need to be giving couples support, input, teaching and encouragement to keep their hearts soft, in tune with one another and in tune with God.

It has been fantastic to be involved with the Marriage Prep course here at STC for many years. Today I would encourage all of us to pray for the team who lead it – that their own marriages would be strong and healthy and that God would bless them as they serve in this way. Let’s also pray for the couples who are taking part – that this course would build firm foundations in their relationship,