Tuesday 3 March 2009
Mark 10
Marriage, Divorce and Law – 1-12
It is permissible under Jewish law to divorce. This passage makes this clear. However, divorce is very much second to the original point of marriage – which is God’s plan – let’s just have a quick look at law;-
There are many instances in the Bible where God has to create laws or consequences because we are unable to make decisions to keep to His way without his patient and loving direction. In some cases, God’s hand is forced – someone in the Bible sins against God and man, and because of that, God is forced to discipline them (David’s seduction of Bathsheba, arranged killing of Uriah and the subsequent death of the baby that is conceived for instance) – it states in Prov 3:11-12 that God disciplines those that He loves – and that’s because God is forced to, because let’s face it – we’re often idiots. As good men of God, we should expect that, be ready for it and deal with it properly. (Heb 12:5-8)
His first law was to Adam and Eve – that they not eat of the tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil. Many people feel a bit grumpy about this – why did God leave it in the middle of the garden? Why not leave it in a totally inaccessible place? Why not leave cherubim surrounding it to protect it?
The answer to this is one of the big ones of our faith – Free Will. God has given us the choice to follow him or to not do so. But for us to have that choice, then we must have the option to not follow God – or else it’s simply God controlling us.
So God’s laws are provided to us not so that we spend our time working out how to get around them, or how to use them for our own selfish benefit, but so that we can look at them and work out something about God, and how we can learn to live the way He wants us to. Laws are like signposts pointing to God and to the right way to live – people who spend their time arguing over the exact wording of the laws miss the very purpose of them. God allowed divorce because He knows that we are not perfect, that we are sinners and that we make mistakes – and for that reason it was necessary that God demonstrated his grace toward us by providing a way out – if it was truly necessary. Today, that idea has been perverted so that marriage and people are devalued so that they become disposable in the minds of those who believe it to be right to do so.
13-16
Children are often far more simple than adults – their views are often more black and white, their thought patterns less cluttered – this simplicity is quite beautiful – it’s partly why good people love children so much – their perspectives are uncluttered, they see the future as a bright and shiny thing and they hope. This is wonderful, and Jesus wants all of us to think like this. Often we become too distracted, too complicated, and jaded. We are not to be.
17-29
Jesus speaks to a rich young man. Once again, Mark is making a point as to this man’s status – a little like the Syro-Pheonician woman who was a Greek.
The man comes to Jesus and tells him that he is a very good religious man. Jesus responds in a way that shocks the man and others. He basically says ‘yes, you’re good – but am I first in your life?’. When the man hears this question he responds negatively, because he cannot think of Jesus as being number one in his life. Challenged with the thought of having to surrender all physical belongings, the man decides that poverty is too great a burden for him and that Jesus will have to remain second to money.
In some ways, this is a stronghold – something in our lives that gets between us and God. Jesus looks at this man and sees something in his life that is just too big a hurdle – as this man has grown up, he has lost the childlike faith that says ‘actually, whatever happens is fine, because I have God’. There is a reason that this episode is tacked in next to the children one – and that’s because this man has lost his original connection with God and by compromising in himself he has decided that religion is all he needs to get to God. If we have strongholds in our life like this, then we need to sort them!
32-34
Jesus is again gearing up toward calvary – He is informing the disciples on a regular basis that He is the Messiah and that He will be crucified soon. When it happens, there is no reason for them to be surprised – Jesus has provided all the information that they require – the issue will later become not one of a lack of knowledge, but one of a lack of faith.
35 – 45
Pride is natural for people. This is because we are sinners and we have inherited some bad habits from those who have gone before us. We all desire to be important and loved by people – and that’s one of the biggest clashes of Jesus’ ministry on Earth – he could have spent his time being adored, yet didn’t. He could have spent his time being popular by saying things people wanted to hear – instead He spent his time telling them what they wanted to hear. He could have blasted Caiaphas, Pilate and everyone else who mocked him and sentenced him to death, yet instead he let them do what they would. This humility is shocking that the disciples simply didn’t understand it – they wanted Jesus to smite his enemies and conquer the world – and even with all this talk of dying, they probably explained this away as a metaphor. When it actually happened, they freaked because their idea of what was going to happen very much didn’t.
James and Johns’ clawing after position is something that Jesus sees as a problem and addresses by explaining that actually what God sees and man sees are very different things – what you or I would honour and reward is the opposite of what God would – we need to change our perspectives and try to think like God would.
46-52
Receiving sight at this point is perhaps not as out-of-place as it appears, because throughout this chapter, we have looked at various aspects of people needing to change their view of life, God, value and reward. This man knows who Jesus is, knows where He is and that He can heal him – this faith, this stepping out and shouting across a crowded area that he wanted to see and that Jesus was the one who could do it – this childlikeness, this willingness to look like a fool surrounded by strangers, this humility and lack of aloofness, this is the faith that Jesus loves and it is this faith that gives this man his sight.