Read Mark 10:1-16
Jesus has now arrived in the region of Judea, “and crowds gathered to him again; and again, as his custom was, he taught them.” Apparently, some of His teaching caused questions in the minds of the Pharisees. This is not surprising. Since Jesus is teaching about matters of discipline, they challenge Him on the matter of marriage and divorce. “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?” they ask. They are not interested in the Word, rather they want affirmation of the traditions that have accompanied the interpretations given by the Jewish scholars and scribes. But Jesus returns to the Word. He knows, and wants everyone to understand that Thy Word is Truth.
We all want the Word to be accommodating to our preferred understanding and our fleshly desires. But Jesus is telling us that the disciplined spiritual life is founded firmly in the Word of God. Marriage and divorce is a good example. Jesus is clear that divorce was never part of God’s plan for His people. In reply to the Pharisee’s comment that Moses allowed for divorce, He states plainly, “For your hardness of heart he wrote you this commandment.But from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.’‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife,and the two shall become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two but one flesh.What therefore God has joined together, let not man put asunder.” There is no accommodation in Mark’s Gospel for divorce, as there is in Matthew’s (5:32). Thy Word is Truth. A disciplined spiritual life will be lived in accordance with the Word, not our will.
Jesus uses the occasion also to teach the disciples about the nature of true trust. The people were bringing children to Him for a blessing. He says, “I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.” We can trust the Word of God to be true. A humble trust is a childlike trust.
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