Mark 10

When Jesus came to save, he taught. This, we are told, was His custom. The best posture for anyone to take in the presence of a teacher from God, is that of a student, not the kind of student who listens only in order to get a good grade, but the kind of student who is actually a true follower of the teacher.

Of course, when the Son of God came teaching, not everyone wanted to hear Him and obey Him. Some listened to His teaching in order to be critics, to test Him, even to trap Him. We are told that the Pharisees were testing Him, and that is why they were asking about divorce. Remember that John the Baptist had recently been executed because of his teaching on divorce. While the Pharisees may have this in mind, they may have also wanted to justify themselves in some way on this issue, so they pointed to a passage from the Law of Moses in order to try to make a biblical case for a more casual approach to divorce.

In the passage they referred to, Deuteronomy 24:1-4, Moses was actually regulating the practice of a person remarrying someone who he had previously divorced. Moses never commanded divorce, but He did regulate certain aspects of divorce and remarriage. Jesus said that Moses did this because of the hardness of our hearts. God's plan for marriage from the beginning is very plain. It is to involve one man and one woman, and it is to be a binding covenant and a display of the love of God for His people, and our happy honoring of Him as our Husband.

Sin brings all kinds of problems into the marriage relationship. Marriage is a new creation by God, a partnership of love and service in an environment of mutual sacrifice, where the two have been made one by God in some way that we cannot entirely understand. God brings two people together as a special gift to one another. As Moses had in Deuteronomy 24, Jesus teaches that the practice of divorce and remarriage cannot happen without violating the prohibition against adultery in the Ten Commandments. This does not answer every question we might have on this topic, and each situation has its complexities that require wisdom and caution in speech and action, but this much is clear: The plan of God is for marriage, a life-long commitment of a man and a women, a relationship of blessing and fruitfulness for His glory and our good.

This marital relationship is also to be an environment of stability for the raising of children. Jesus has much to say about children. First, no one should hinder them in coming to Him, even if they are so young that they have to be carried to Him by a parent. Children can be blessed by Him, and we should not think of this as meaningless. "To such," He said, "belongs the kingdom of God." We should consider how natural it is, by the grace of God, for a child, particularly the child of a parent who wants to see the little one blessed by Jesus, to be blessed by Him, and to be kept for heaven. The child that receives the kingdom of God with humility, is an example to every adult who has reached the strange conclusion that he is too smart for the kingdom that our all-wise God has established, or that he has won the kingdom through his own greatness.

Adults often assume that the way into the kingdom is through their merit. We flatter ourselves with the thought that we have met the requirements of the Law, and we deliberately forget about the debt that is ours as we come into this world, the debt that comes from Adam's sin. Particularly those who have much in this world, easily imagine that they have much to recommend themselves with for the life to come. All the while they are seduced by the temptation to cling to their present possessions, even when God commands that we use all that we have for His glory. Even the closest disciples of Jesus spent much emotional energy on the question of what they had to offer, and what they had given up for the kingdom, and how this would translate to what they would get in the kingdom. While much can be said on these points, the most important thing for each of us is to turn our eyes away from self, and toward Jesus.

The most important facts for entrance into the kingdom will never be about what we have done, but about what Christ has done in our name. In our name, He went up to Jerusalem, He would be delivered over to the chief priests and the scribes, they would condemn Him to death, and deliver Him over to the Gentiles. In our name, our Savior would be mocked, spit on, flogged, and killed. In our name, He would rise from the dead. These are the central facts of our redemption: A sinless Substitute died and rose again for us.

The way for the child-like citizen of heaven, is the way of the penniless beggar who cries out for mercy from the Son of David. Our case was never built upon our own greatness, whether real or imagined. Our case for heavenly is built on the greatness of the One who came to be the slave of all, the One who gave His life as a ransom for many. If we will not see this, than no matter how worthy or rich we imagine ourselves to be, we are still blind concerning the Kingdom of God. This is what Jesus taught His disciples, and this is what those who are willing to be His true students have come to believe and to follow.