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Sound & Season is a daily audio devotional designed to connect the routine moments of life to the rhythms of the Church seasons.
This is Sound and Season. It's Tuesday, 24th day of Lent. Our passage today comes from the gospel of Mark chapter 10 verses 1 through 16. And Jesus left there and went to the region of Judea and beyond the Jordan and the crowds gathered to him again and again, as was his custom, he taught them. And Pharisees came up in order to test him and asked, is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?
Jeffrey Heine:He answered them, what did Moses command you? They said, Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of divorce and to send her away. And Jesus said to them, because of your hardness of heart he wrote you this commandment, but from the beginning of creation, God made them male and female. Therefore, a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife and the 2 shall become 1 flesh, so they are no longer 2, but 1 flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate.
Jeffrey Heine:And in the house, the disciples asked him again about this matter and he said to them, whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her, and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery. And they were bringing children to him that he might touch them and the disciples rebuked them. But when Jesus saw it, he was indignant and said to them, let the children come to me, do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God. Truly I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it and he took them in his arms and blessed them laying his hands on them. This is the word of the Lord.
Jeffrey Heine:Thanks be to God. The church fathers saw this passage as instruction for matters related to marriage and divorce, but many of them also read a more profound truth. It is the truth at the very core of the Christian marriage. It is the enjoining work of God binding together Christ and his bride, the church. If a chief aim of Christian marriage is to portray the greatness of Christ and his bride, then divorce is an insult to this image.
Jeffrey Heine:Because what God has joined together is Christ and his bride, whom he will never separate from. Because what God has joined together, Christ and his bride, will never be separated. This is why the Apostle Paul is able to declare so boldly to the Roman Christians, for I am convinced that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Lord, hear our prayer, and let our cry come to you. Let us pray.
Jeffrey Heine:Lord God, whose son our savior, Jesus Christ, triumphed over the powers of death and prepares for us a place in his kingdom, grant that we who have this day given thanks for his life, death, and resurrection, May we praise you in your kingdom forever. Oh, lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, have mercy on us. Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginning, is now and will be forever. Amen.