They trap Him over the issue of “divorce.” Divorce can seem like a delicate issue, but
in today’s passage Jesus makes the concept of marriage and divorce very plain. In fact, here’s how plain it is.
1. In marriage, God sees each married couple as “one”. I realize we, as humas, see ourselves as two
individuals striving to get along. But, God sees each marriage as a single
unit. When a husband and wife decide to
tie the knot, they have (on their own volition) become one in God’s sight.
2. When a
couple decides to get married, God sees it as Him joining them together. Notice
what Jesus said in verse 6 – “Since they are no longer two but one, let no
one split apart what God has joined together.”
3. Woe to the person
who gets involved in a marriage relationship and has an affair with one of
them! Jesus clearly says, “let no one split apart what God has joined together.” If you’re involved with a married person,
watch out! You are fighting against God’s
will. You will find yourself on the need
for discipline from God. Your life will
be filled with struggle and frustrations. You can’t fight against God and
win!!!
4. Divorce was
granted by Moses ONLY because of the hardness and wickedness of man’s
heart. It was a concession Moses
made. This is NOT what God originally
intended for marriage!
5. Marriage
(vs.6-7) was designed by God to be a lifetime mutual connection. In the book of Jeremiah, God tells us He “hates
divorce.” God’s original intention is
for marriage to be a permanent relationship. It’s only because of our selfish
desires that we either a person who’s NOT right for us, NOT a believer, or our
willingness to jump out of a marriage. I
realize there are a number of issues that make my previous statement very
simplistic, but this is what Jesus was saying.
6. Divorce and
remarriage is (in God’s sight) adultery…unless the divorce was due to infidelity
from one of the partners.
Throughout the rest of Chapter 19, we learn a remarkable
lesson! A rich man is wanting assurance
that he has eternal life when he dies.
So, he asks Jesus what he must do to inherit eternal life. After a brief discussion, Jesus tells him to
sell ALL that he has (probably millions of dollars worth of assets in today’s
dollars) and to follow Him. Unfortunately,
the young man wasn’t willing to go that far with Jesus!
Few people are willing to give up everything for Jesus. Remember, we just read a couple of days ago
that the Kingdom of Heaven was like a “treasure hidden in a field” or a “pearl
of great price” whereby the men who found these things sold out everything they
had to obtain the field of treasure and the pearl of great price! Jesus is that field of treasure and pearl of
great price. Salvation in Jesus Christ means giving up everything to follow
Him!
Are you willing to give up every last dollar or asset for
Him? If not….where is your heart? Are you really ALL IN or straddling the fence
like this young man?
In Chapter 20, we learn 4 great lessons as well:
1. Jesus shows His mercy! In 20:1-16, we see the amazing story of the
mercy and goodness of God. The parable is designed to tell us a couple of
things:
-
Whether you’ve been a Christian for 50 years or only a few minutes
before you die, we ALL get to receive God’s greatest gift – eternal life!!!
- We often protest the way God
works because of our pride and sinfulness.
But, we should ALL be glad of His mercy and grace. He can do with us
whatever He wants to do – we are His! And we don’t have any right to complain.
God is a gracious and loving and merciful God.
2. Jesus
clearly tells His disciples that very soon He’ll be taken by the Roman army and
crucified, but that 3 days later He will rise from the grave. Jesus could NOT have been any clearer.
However, as we will read in future chapters, this message was clearly forgotten
until after His resurrection.
How many times do we hear a message from a preacher about
God’s truth, but forget it? Then we go
on living without remember God’s truth.
3. Jesus
taught that the greatest among ALL believers will be the ones who are humble
and serve Him with all of their might.
4. In 20:34, I
love how the Bible teaches “Jesus felt sorry for them.” This was in regard to two blind men who
begged Him to heal them. Listen…Jesus
understands our pain and feels deeply our hurts and frustrations! He wants to heal us! Are you going to Him for that and trusting
Him to do so?
Again, Jesus goes on in chapter 21 with more great lessons
on life.
For example, He confronts the religious leaders with a
powerful parable. In verses 33-42, Jesus tells the story of a landowner who
leases out the farm to some ranch hands.
These ranch hands had full control. But they were wicked and greedy
ranch hands. Whenever the land owner
sent out one of his assistants to review how they were doing, these ranch hands
would beat them up. So, finally, the landowner sends his only son thinking they
would respect his son. But they killed him!
The religious leaders realized this parable was told about
them, and got furious! Jesus was trying
to tell them, “Hey, this world and the good news of my salvation is mine, and I
entrusted you with it. However, when I
sent my prophets, you beat them up and cast them out! Now, that I’ve sent my only Son (Jesus), you
kill him!” I’m sure this sealed the deal
for the religious leaders to find some way to kill Jesus. They couldn’t stand
up to His wisdom and power!
There are so many lessons, but we’ll have to stop here. What was the most powerful lesson you
received from today’s study of the scriptures?
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