Jesus' Teaching on Divorce - Part Four

The disciples said to him, “If such is the case of a man with his wife, it is better not to marry.” But he said to them, “Not everyone can receive this saying, but only those to whom it is given. For there are eunuchs who have been so from birth, and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by men, and there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. Let the one who is able to receive this receive it.”

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LESSON

There is one other interesting point to be considered. Mark also has a discussion of this issue (in Mark 10:1-12), but the exception clause that has been the cause of so much controversy does not appear in Mark. Matthew is the only gospel that has it. Why is that? Some liberal commentators (and even some conservative ones) argue that Mark’s version of this saying is the original one and that Matthew added the exception because of divorce problems in the church of his day. That is hardly satisfactory.

 

Isn’t it more reasonable to explain the addition, which Jesus certainly spoke, by noting that Matthew is also the only gospel to record the reaction of Joseph when he learned of Mary’s being pregnant. Matthew wrote, “And her husband Joseph, being a just man and unwilling to put her to shame, resolved to divorce her quietly.” (Matt. 1:19). Joseph and Mary were not married though they were formally engaged, which was nearly as binding, and Joseph wanted to annul the engagement, which was regarded as a divorce, when he learned that Mary was expecting a child. If someone read that, followed by Jesus’ statement in the nineteenth chapter that any divorce was wrong, the reader might conclude that Joseph was willing to break the law by what he planned to do. Matthew included the explanation to explain what had happened in the case of Jesus’ parents.¹

 

Chastity before marriage, fidelity after marriage, and a lifelong commitment of one married partner to the other with no thought of divorce! What a terribly high standard! No wonder the disciples reacted with the cynical comment I referred to at the beginning of this study: “If such is the case of a man with his wife, it is better not to marry.” (v. 10). We hear something very much like that today, young people often declaring, “I have never known a happily married couple; I am not going to get married.”

 

The obvious answer to such cynicism is to model happy marriages, which Christians can do in spite of the sin that mars even Christian marriages and the need for repeated forgiveness that any close relationship entails. But strikingly, this is not the answer Jesus gives. Instead of reassuring the disciples that it is possible to have a happy marriage and instructing them on how they might achieve it, Jesus responded by saying that it is in fact better for some not to marry, if this is what they are called to do by God. Jesus refers to those who are unable to marry because of a physical lack or deformity and to others who are called to renounce marriage “for the sake of the kingdom of heaven.” (v. 12).

 

This is what Paul said in 1 Corinthians 7, where he advised remaining single “in view of the present distress” (v. 26). He was thinking of difficult missionary work and was acknowledging that it might be better done by single people than by those who are encumbered by a family. Yet he added that there is nothing wrong with getting married (v. 28). Jesus spoke to the disciples as he did because they were being given the same high calling.

 

That is the essence of Christ’s teaching. It is consistent with the Bible’s teaching as a whole, and there is no legitimate way of getting around it.

 

¹The interpretation of verse 9 and its “exception clause" is discussed at length by some of the major commentaries. An example is D A. Carson, “Matthew” in The Expositor Bible Commentary, vol 8, Matthew, Mark, Luke (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1984), pp. 412-418. But fuller treatments can be found in books dealing with divorce and remarriage issues specifically, for example, J. Carl Laney, The Divorce Myth (Minneapolis: Bethany House, 198 l).

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