Our Hearts Are Hard: Mark 10:1-9
God knows our hearts are hard, that’s why Jesus went to the cross. Above all, He is a loving God. His forgiveness stems from that love. We cannot be perfect, but we can be repentant when we are not perfect.
The Pharisees come to Jesus to test Him as He was surrounded by the crowds. Their boldness increases. Jesus’ time is drawing closed. The Pharisees are willing to challenge Him in front of the crowd because they believe their case against Him is growing stronger.
Note the topic of conversation: divorce. This is one of the reasons the Pharisees are willing to challenge Jesus at this point. Divorce was a huge issue in Jesus’ day, much like it is now. People had all kinds of reasons for divorce – everything from simply growing tired of each other to finding someone else more interesting to genuinely being the victim of an unfaithful spouse. There would be no way to please the entire crowd while standing upon the truth. Jesus could give a shallow platitude to please the whole crowd but say nothing or make a claim about truth an alienate some of the crowd. Either way, the religious elite could use it to help their case.
Jesus doesn’t give a platitude. Jesus is willing to make a truth claim and risk alienating people because of the truth. There’s no surprise that Jesus would stand on the truth, but it is worth noting. In the right circumstance, risking alienation of people has merit in God’s plan.
The claim Jesus stands upon is that divorce is never a part of God’s grand plan. God designed marriage to be forever. When God does an act – such as uniting two people together in marriage – that act is never wrong. When God’s hand works, it works through His blessing and the effects of His hands are always good.
Unfortunately, we are human; the work of our hands is not always good. Just because God intended something for good doesn’t mean we use it as such. God planned Eden for good, we turned it into the origination of our curse. Because God gives us free will, sin happens. We take relationship with God and break it. We take His goodness and break it. Our hearts are hard; we sin.
Fortunately, God also had a plan to deal with our sin. Jesus is marching directly towards that solution in this confrontation with the religious elite. Because of the cross, sin can be overcome. Sin does not need to be a set of shackles that ties us down. We can be forgiven.
In answering thusly, Jesus shows us truth about marriage and our relationship with God in general. Yes, divorce is sin and as such is evidence of how we break what God intended for good. But like all sin, it can be overcome once it is named and after we repent of it. God knows our hearts are hard, that’s why Jesus went to the cross.
