April 20 - Teach Us, Rabbi

April 20 - Teach Us, Rabbi - Mark 10:1-31

This teaching on divorce has come up over and over in the last couple of weeks, surprisingly enough. It's hard for us to understand what Jesus is teaching us when we think of the people we care so much about who have escaped awful marriages. How could Jesus not allow them to free of that marriage to find happiness?

Easy divorce is not an acceptable 'out' for us. But, though Jesus despised the idea of divorce, He never once told people they couldn't approach Him if they had been divorced. The issues that He was dealing with in that era were men that were getting certificates of divorce over and over again. Within the Jewish culture, a woman was termed an adulteress if her husband divorced her for no good reason and she remarried. Jesus was telling these men to 'man up!' If you marry a woman, you are responsible for her for her lifetime and if you divorce her, you are destroying who she is within the community. Women could be stoned for adultery. He went on to speak to them about ensuring that the choices they made would be for a lifetime and not on a whim. Remember, though, that Jesus was working within the Jewish community, which was extremely patriarchal. The women in His time were still practically considered property. This teaching was all about treating them with more respect than they had ever received.

And please don't forget that Jesus is speaking to Levitical law. The moral of this is that divorce is not to be used as an easy way to extricate yourself from an inconvenient marriage, but it is not an unforgivable sin. (Mark 10:1-12)

Jesus would have trouble with me ... children tend to annoy me. I would be the one who would rather see Him teaching profound truths to the adults in the room. But, the greatest truth that He teaches is the simplicity of love and faith. That is found in a child's faith. I would miss that, were it not for friends that remind me to pay attention. (Mark 10:13-16)

The final story in today's passage is that of a very earnest, wealthy, young man. He had a lot of respect for Jesus, but was a little concerned about his own future in eternity. The rest of this story just goes to show that desiring eternal life with God isn't enough until you are ready to commit to it.

This young man though he had, though. When Jesus asked about his commitment to the commandments, he was certain that would be enough to get him into heaven. Then, Jesus went straight to the heart of this young man - his wallet. Jesus knew that every fiber of this prince was wrapped up in his wealth. Could he give it up to ensure eternity in heaven?

No. It is harder for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. Wealth and power are nearly impossible to set aside. Even for us that sometimes only have enough to scrape by, we become so enamored with money that we forget ourselves. But, the wealthy and powerful have a hard time becoming a servant. Jesus would be more than glad to accept the rich man into heaven, but very few will ever approach the throneroom if it means sacrificing all that they have worked so hard to attain.

The disciples followed this through to its logical conclusion and realized that no one could be saved. They were right ... man can not save himself. Only God can offer salvation.

Good old Peter ... he wades right into it. "Well, WE have given up everything to follow you." In other words, what are we going to get out of this?

In this age, you might face persecution ... but in the age to come, eternal life. And Jesus finishes the teaching with the reminder - those who are first will be last and the last first. (Mark 10:17-31)