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Please join me in prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
This past week I was explaining to someone how our church services follow a lectionary, a systematic series of readings like those systematic series of readings dating back to Old Testament times. Such a lectionary has several goals, including keeping us centered on the life and teaching of Jesus Christ and keeping us from being subjected to the whims of the preacher. Although, even a preacher who has written a 350-page Master’s Treatise titled “Marriage and Divorce in Light of Law and Gospel” might want to avoid preaching on the topic, especially less than one year into a new parish. But, live by the lectionary, die by the lectionary. At least today is the only time in its three‑year cycle that the lectionary we are following presents us Jesus’s teaching on marriage and divorce. So, we duly consider that teaching on marriage and divorce, coupled as it is in the Gospel Reading as a whole with Jesus’s rebuke of the disciples for their hindering children coming to Him, and we consider that Gospel Reading as a whole under the theme “Commands and the Kingdom”.
“Commands and the Kingdom” are a uniting theme of the Gospel Reading as a whole. The Gospel Reading begins with Pharisees’ asking Jesus whether it is lawful for a man to divorce his wife, which question Jesus answers both by asking them what Moses commanded and, after quoting part of today’s Old Testament Reading, by Himself giving them a command to stop separating what God has joined together. Then, Jesus gives His disciples two commands about the children: let them come and do not hinder them, for, Jesus says, whoever does not receive the Kingdom like a child shall not enter it.
We may tend to under-appreciate the second part of the Gospel Reading about the children because we fixate too much on the first part of the Gospel Reading about divorce and remarriage. In the first part, Jesus explains to the Pharisees that, despite their misunderstanding of Holy Scripture and their prevailing customs of the time, marriage is sacred and the new one‑flesh union between one man and one woman that God creates in marriage does not end, which is why whoever divorces his or her spouse and marries another commits adultery. Whoever—a man divorcing his wife (as the Pharisees had asked), or a woman divorcing her husband—whoever divorces and marries another commits adultery—period: no debatable exception, in either St. Mark’s or St. Luke’s clear, divinely‑inspired accounts.
Let today’s Gospel Reading make clear to you that, despite our misunderstandings of Holy Scripture and the increasingly permissive prevailing customs and even civil laws of our time, marriage is still sacred and the new one‑flesh union between one man and one woman that God creates in marriage still does not end, which is why whoever divorces his or her spouse and marries another still commits adultery. But, lest any one of us who are not divorced and remarried (or even married at all) think too much of ourselves, let us examine ourselves. Even if those of you who are married do not commit adultery in that way, who among you fears and loves God so that you perfectly love and honor your spouse? Who among those of us who are single fears and loves God so that we lead a perfectly chaste and decent life in word and deed? Premarital sex and internet and other pornography tempt, our lustful eyes wander, and our sinful members give in. Aside from the Sixth Commandment, who among any and all of us fears and loves God so that we perfectly keep the other nine commandments? If we are guilty of breaking any one Commandment, we are guilty of breaking them all. And, we dare not forget that our sin is more than what we think, say, or do, for we are sinful and unclean by nature. There is no room here or elsewhere for any self-righteousness—not my self‑righteousness, not your self‑righteousness, not the disciples’ self‑righteousness, and not the Pharisees’ self‑righteousness—if that is why the Pharisees asked (we do not know why they asked, despite the English Standard Version’s and others’ translating that it was “to test” Jesus).
In the Gospel Reading, Jesus tells the Pharisees that God through Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of divorce and to send his wife away because of their hardness of heart: because of their hard and evil heart, because of their obstinate rejection of God’s will, because of their impenitence, because of their lack of faith, unbelief, and stubborn refusal to believe. Whether evidenced by divorce and remarriage or by anything else, such hardness of heart is a serious and eternally deadly matter for anyone, including for you and for me. Jesus’s words in the Gospel Reading call us to repent: to turn in sorrow from our sin, to trust God to forgive our sin, and to want to do better. When we so repent—of our sins against the Sixth Commandment, of our sins against the other nine Commandments, or of our sinful natures themselves—when we so repent, then God forgives our sin. Our being forgiven, our entering “the Kingdom” is not a matter of “commands”. Through faith, God forgives our sin by grace on account of His Son Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection for us. Today’s Epistle Reading describes well His suffering and death for us, His fellow brothers and sisters as God’s children.
An H-B-O documentary broadcast last month gave more than two‑dozen children, from five to ten years old, the opportunity to explain to parents (in interviews, drawings, handwritten rules, and photos) how to make a divorce easier on their children. Divorce is usually hardest on the children—some researchers suggest that the parents’ divorce is harder on children than the death of one of the parents. Some Bible commentators think that divorce’s impact on children is why the second part of today’s Gospel Reading about the children follows the first part of today’s Gospel Reading about divorce and remarriage, but there seems to be more to their sequence than that. In the first part, the Pharisees asked what was lawful and got a question about a command and a command in reply. In the second part, the disciples, who despite the teaching of the last two weeks’ Gospel Readings still did not understand about children and the Kingdom, themselves got two commands. As Jesus makes clear with the whole of the Gospel Reading, our entering the Kingdom is not a matter of commands but of receiving it in faith—like the trust a child places in a parent. The Kingdom of God belongs to us who have such faith or trust in Jesus Christ—Jesus Christ, Who kept all the commands we fail to keep and Who lived, died, and rose again to save us from our sinful natures and from our failures to keep them.
Like marriage, salvation is not a matter of law but of God’s Gospel gift. As God says through St. Paul writing to the Ephesians, human marriage is intended to reflect the relationship between Christ and the Church. Christ loved the Church and gave Himself up for her, that He might sanctify her (that is, make her holy), having cleansed her by the washing of water and the word (that is, by Holy Baptism), so that He might present the church to Himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. Christ cherishes and nourishes the Church: He cherishes and nourishes us, not only in Holy Baptism but also in the preaching of His Gospel, in Holy Absolution, and in Holy Communion. As today’s Epistle Reading quotes from Isaiah, behold the children God has given Jesus. He takes us all in His arms and blesses us—He blesses us through Word, with Word and water, with words from the pastor and the laying on of his hands, and with Word and bread and wine that give His body and blood for the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation. As God says through Ezekiel, He removes our heart hard on account of our sinful nature and gives us a new heart and a new spirit.
We see some of the fruits of such new hearts and new spirits in the work of the Lutheran Women’s Missionary League. The L‑W‑M‑L is the official women’s auxiliary of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod, and we praise God that, for more than 65 years, the L‑W‑M‑L has nurtured women in the Lord and channeled their support to mission efforts worldwide through its collection of mites. These Lutheran women in mission are not only helpful in our church, but they are also helpful in their homes. Today’s Old Testament Reading reminds us how women are helpers fit for men. As the Lord forgives the sins of husbands and wives, they forgive one another and live together in that forgiveness of sins. Married or single, we all live each day with repentance over our sin and faith that God forgives our sin for Jesus’s sake. We do not ignore His commands, but we let them norm our lives, even as we receive the Kingdom like children, with faith, trust, in Jesus Christ.
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
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