As so often, Jesus here
gets into a confrontation with the Pharisees. He is speaking with the people, teaching
and preaching, when some Pharisees arrive with their awkward questions. The
implication is that this is not a genuine inquiry, but an attempt to wrongfoot
Jesus. The Pharisees, or most of them, were convinced that there was something
amiss with his teaching and they attempted to prove the point by asking
questions designed to make him say things that they could then critique in a
way that showed him to be adrift of what most people knew as the proper
religious teaching.
Here the specific issue is
that of marriage and divorce. The context is important. Marriages would be
arranged and within the context of a patriarchal society. Women had few rights
and would be treated as possessions. Jesus affirms marriage but does so as a
way of responding to the suggestion that a man can just get rid of his wife at
will. As Leith Fisher (Will you follow
me?) points out – “Jesus
refuses the nit-picking of legal debate. Instead, he points out how exclusive male
rights have skewed and distorted the original purpose of the creation of male
and female for each other, He argues that it is for no one to drive a wedge
into that God-willed unity and equality.”
What matters is that we
treat each other fairly. Marriage and relationships have gone through many
phases. However, the problem is always the matter of dealing with abusive
relationships. Jesus here emphasises the principles of mutuality and
inclusivity, and that is a good model. As society changes, the detail of the
questions mirrors the change, but the broad principles of equality and respect
remain vital.
It is those who depart from
that who are criticised by Jesus. Here, as in so many instances, Jesus brings a
Kingdom which, as Fisher describes it, is one – “in which the old relationships
of status and hierarchy, which disempower and exclude, are challenged and dethroned
by a revolution from below. A new community is being built which finds a
welcoming place for the excluded and a security for the poor and the powerless.”
I wonder in what ways this challenges our view of relationships, however we
define and describe them.
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