Matthew 19, 1-12. As I read this, I remind you that this is the Word of God, and I charge you to listen accordingly. Matthew 19, 1-12. Now, it came to pass, when Jesus had finished these sayings, that He departed from Galilee and came to the region of Judea, beyond the Jordan. And great multitudes followed Him, and He healed them there. The Pharisees also came to him, testing him, and saying to him, Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for just any reason? And he answered and said to them, Have you not read that he who made them at the beginning made them male and female? And said, For this reason a man shall leave his wife, leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. So then, they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore, what God has joined together, let no man separate. They said to him, why then did Moses command to give a certificate of divorce and to put her away? And he said to them, Moses, because of the hardness of your hearts permitted you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife except for sexual immorality and marries another, commits adultery, and whoever marries her who is divorced commits adultery. His disciples said to him, if such is the case of the man with his wife, it is better not to marry. But he said to them, all cannot accept this saying, but only those to whom it has been given. For there are eunuchs who were born thus from their mother's womb, and there are eunuchs who were made eunuchs by men, and there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's sake. he was able to accept it, let him accept it." The reading of God's Word, and we pray that he would bless it to our hearts in the form that I said after I corrected it, not as I originally said it, of course. Maybe some of you had the same experience, but especially when I was in college, one of the great events that happened in college was, first of all, 9-11. I was a sophomore in college. But shortly thereafter, the war in Iraq began, the second war in Iraq. And automatically, almost as soon as the war started, there were two factions on campus. There were people who agreed with the war, and there were people who were against it. made their voices known that they were against it. And this was a pressing issue to the people of Johns Hopkins University. It divided, you know, roommate from roommate. It divided, it even divided our Christian community because people as Christians weren't sure how to react to this. And I remember leading a Bible study. I was, it was kind of more just a facilitator at that point. I was asking questions, and one of the people asked me, kind of out of the blue, not having anything to do with the passage we were studying, said, so what do you think about the war in Iraq? Now, this wasn't some abstract question. What happens to be your views on war or something like that? Nor was it something that was unimportant to the people who were asking the question. So, I knew that as soon as I answered that question, I would be on one side of a divided group. Those types of questions are the most annoying types of questions, aren't they? They make you pick a side, and they make you join people who are warring with one another, and you don't really want to be in that war. You know there's more to it than what we know, and perhaps a little circumspection might be the order of the day, but you know, as soon as you answer that question, People are going to claim you and say this person is on my side and against you and maybe perhaps you didn't want to put it that way. I don't remember what I said, but I remember the feeling of being in that particular situation. It was not a good one. The choice of having to be on one side or another without any chance of nuancing or explaining your position. Interestingly here, I think Jesus finds himself in a similar position here. He's asked by the Pharisees, is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for just any reason? Now, you can't see it from here, but this reflects a huge debate among the Pharisees of the time, different factions of the Pharisees, as to when it was lawful for someone to divorce their wife. And so, Jesus finds himself in the mix, right in the middle of this debate. And how he responds to this debate, and we'll get to the debate a little bit later as to what was going on, but how he responds to this debate gives us teaching on his views and therefore our views as his disciples of marriage, divorce, and celibacy. And so we're going to go over Jesus' response to the Pharisees here in the hope of understanding and applying Jesus' views on marriage, divorce and celibacy. That's what we're going to do this morning. We're going to divide the sermon into three parts, and they won't be marriage, divorce, and celibacy. They'll be more following the text. They will be, first, Jesus receives a difficult question, verses 1-3. Second, we'll see Jesus' response to the Pharisees' question, verses 4-9. And thirdly, we'll look at the disciples and a follow-up question in Jesus' response to that in verses 10 through 12. Beginning with Jesus receiving a difficult question, verses 1 through 3. Now we see here in verse 1 that Jesus had come down from Galilee. Remember, Galilee is in the north of Palestine area. It's in the north region. Jesus had been up there for several, I don't know how long exactly, but for several chapters. He'd been up there and the disciples were there with him. And you remember that Jesus, or Peter, made his confession of Christ in that northern region. And Jesus had healed in Gentile territory on the other side of the sea, of the lake, literally, of Galilee, which is up there in the north as well, but this time on the eastern part of it. So Jesus had been up there and doing what some people called his retirement, or his, that's not a good word these days because it has a different connotation, his rest. ministry up there. I don't think he was really resting, I think it was just he happened to be up there, that's where he lived, and that's what he was doing up there. But anyway, he comes down to the region of Judea, and he's probably on here the east side of the Jordan, the other side of the Jordan from where Jerusalem is. And there he is met with crowds. You know, wherever Jesus goes, crowds follow him. And some of the crowds are there to hear his teachings, some of them are for healing, some believe, some don't, but no matter Where he is, there is always a crowd, except perhaps in the Garden of Gethsemane, but that is a different story. So there are crowds there. One is healing. There are crowds there, probably listening to what he was saying, and Jesus heals them, as we learn in verse 2. Then, while Jesus was healing them, some Pharisees come. Now remember, Jesus has been in interaction with the Pharisees many times before. They are the religious leaders, they are Jewish people, and they are the ones who are the de facto, if not in theory, leaders of the people of Israel, or the people in that region, the Palestinian region. And so, the Pharisees come. Obviously, since Jesus is teaching, Obviously, at points, as we saw in Matthew chapter 15, he's disagreeing with Pharisees. They're going to be both suspicious of Jesus and wanting to hear what he says. Now, we don't know which of these attitudes is in focus here in verse 3. We don't know whether the Pharisees, they say they're testing Jesus, but that word can be negative, tempting, or just positive, seeing what he has to say. We don't know. But they come up to Jesus and they ask him, is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any reason? or for just any reason, as it's translated here. Now this question would be one of those hot-button, sort of time bomb type of questions that would be asked today. If it were asked back then, you would know by Jesus' response which side he would be on. And let me explain that. There were two divisions, main divisions of Pharisees in Jesus' day. There were the Very, very strict school of Shemai, he's called. Very strict. And if you read the debates between the rabbis, these are the ones that take very strict positions on, for instance, food laws. And not even just food laws. Table fellowship is what it's called. They wouldn't even eat with Gentiles for fear of becoming defiled. It isn't simply that they would only eat kosher food. They wouldn't even eat with Gentiles. Now, they were also very rigid when it came to ritual purity. Stuff that you read about in the book of Leviticus and stuff that was added on to clarify about that. They were also very strict about the Sabbath day and what you can walk and what you can do on it. Very, very strict sect. And this is within the Pharisees. Now there was another group of the Pharisees called the Hillelites. Hillelites, led by a man by the name of Rabbi Hillel, obviously. Hillel had some interesting comments about their interpretation of scripture, but he was also known for his more, shall we say, liberal views, not in the modern political sense of the word, but just more lax views of things. He didn't have as much, he wasn't as strict as the school of Shammai was. He was more into moral purity rather than ritual purity. He was, it was his school that actually won the day after the destruction of the temple, and a very, very important figure in the Judaism of Jesus' time, Rabbi Hillel. Now, they had a huge debate at this time, these two schools, over when it was lawful to divorce your wife. The school of Shammai said, the strict people said, only for adultery. Okay? The school of Hillel said, anything that brings shame on the family. Bad cooking, they're gone. I'm not actually exaggerating. This is kind of, there are actual examples of these kinds of things. Making too much noise and having the neighbors hear you. That could be grounds for divorce. just causing arguments. These are grounds for divorce. And it's important to remember here that divorce then isn't like divorce is now, where it can be expected that the women especially can have certain rights and protection. Back then, if you were a divorced woman, you can go back to your father's household in shame, or you can be poor. But there really wasn't much you could do, because your livelihood surrounded the family. And so it was difficult for a woman to make her way after the divorce. And of course, that would bring shame, too. It wasn't a nice thing. It's not a nice thing today, of course, too. But it was even worse back then. So these laws about divorce, these were very practical types of ideas. And the School of Shammai said, only adultery. And the School of Hillel said, almost for anything that you Now, the whole problem hinged on the translation or the interpretation of a phrase in Deuteronomy 24, which we read. We read it here. Let me read it to you again. It's verse 1. When a man takes a wife and marries her, and it happens that she finds no favor in his eyes, because he has found some uncleanness in her. The phrase, some uncleanness. What exactly does that mean? In Hebrew, it literally means a thing of nudity. Interestingly enough. And what does that mean? Well, in the Hebrew Bible, nudity is not so much connected with lust as we might consider it today, it's connected with shame. So, what exactly would it mean? A shameful thing, as some people translated the Deuteronomy passage. So, what does that mean? Is it something that's the ultimate shame, that is adultery, as the school of Shammai interpreted it? Or is it something, anything, that brings shame on the family? And that's the husband's call as to what that is. So, that's where the crux of interpretation was between these two schools. And Jesus, now, is brought into this debate. Now, we have no idea what the Pharisees or what their beliefs were, who they were, when they came up to Jesus, but we do know these two schools and their teachings on marriage and divorce. And, of course, the influence of these schools were great. Of course, this would have been something that people would want to know Jesus' views on. And Jesus himself, of course, also could not have been ignorant of it. So, Jesus here is asked the question, like I was, what are your views on the war on Iraq, where as soon as Jesus answers this question, unless he's skillful in answering it, he's going to be taken by one side as a hero and another side as someone to ridicule. Okay, so how does Jesus answer the question? Moving on to the second part of the question. verses four through nine, and I'll read them for you here before we explain them. And he answered and said to them, Have you not read that he who made them at the beginning made them male and female? And said, For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. So then they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate. They said to him, why then did Moses command to give a certificate of divorce and to put her away? He said to them, because of the hardness of your hearts, Moses permitted you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife except for sexual immorality and marries another commits adultery. And whoever marries her who is divorced commits adultery. strong words, and if you notice here, Jesus would side himself if he had to choose with the school of Shammai, but he doesn't do that at first. Notice what he does at first. He goes back to an earlier writing of the same Moses in Genesis. He quotes both Genesis 1.27, he made them male and female, and Genesis 2.24, man shall leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and shows that the most original intention of marriage is for the couple, male and female, to be united. And therefore, divorce, though it will happen, is not certainly even close to God's ideal. The ideal is for a man and a woman to be together. Adam and Eve were created as counterparts to one another, male and female, and that's from Genesis 127. And therefore, they are to be joined together as male and female, and they are to be one flesh. Moreover, Jesus says that it is God who puts them together. In other words, it was God who ordained marriage back there in the garden. And therefore, if God is putting people together, Who are we as human beings to separate from what has God put together? Jesus here is speaking about marriage as a lifelong commitment. Now, as Jesus quotes here, Genesis 2.24, the focus on what he's saying is from the last part of it. The two shall become one flesh. There is a unity there that is not actually apparent in any other relationship on human beings have with one another. There's a union between husband and wife. No other relationships are called one flesh. Now, your children, in a sense, are of the same flesh as you. They are your likeness, but they are the fruit of the union of a male and a woman together as one flesh. They are more the proof of one flesh rather than being one flesh with their parents. Only male and female in marriage are considered one flesh. And therefore, the divorce, for any reason at all, as the Hillelites just about claimed, is not at all God's intention. In fact, it is opposed to it. Marriage is a lifelong commitment and it is something to be taken very seriously because God has ordained it. Implicit in this using of Genesis 2.24 is Jesus is putting Adam and Eve as a paradigm or an example for all those who wish or desire to become married. And this is something that the church has certainly in its marriage ceremonies, the church has picked up on. Think of the English ceremony. It was, you know, again, a pride and prejudice. It was ordained at a time of man's innocence, and God had did it. Or the Greek Orthodox service, what did they do? They put crowns on the male and the female. And this is, of course, an echo back to the Garden of Eden, where the human beings were given dominion. And here's another new family having dominion under God. It's kind of a new type of Adam. Not in the ultimate sense, but following the same paradigm or example as Adam and Eve. And so, let me conclude on what Jesus teaches about marriage. It's between one man and one woman, clearly male and female, lifelong union, that is the intent, that is God's ideal, and that is what God commands. It is not to be separated because God has brought it together. Now let me apply that here. For those of you who are not married, it's important to realize then that marriage is a lifelong commitment and therefore to choose wisely. You're married to someone for the rest of your life, that is what God commands, therefore choose wisely. But I think it's even more important than choosing wisely, and I think choosing wisely means, at the heart, choosing in the faith. That's what Paul says, you have to choose in the faith because that is the most important aspect of humanity is who you believe. But I think even more important than choosing wisely is understanding that marriage is not like the movies portray it. Marriage is a commitment. Marriage is very difficult. It's a wonderful thing, but it's very difficult. And you can't come into marriage with all these high expectations, all these romance movie expectations of how things will be, all about what I can get from it, all about how he or she completes me. That is not biblical at all, and I think it sets people up over and over again for being disappointed in marriage. Even in the Christian culture, in our Christian culture, because of the rampant sexual immorality, I think Marriage is rightly seen as something that is to be desired by young people. But there is such a romantic view of what marriage is, finding your soulmate, and this kind of nonsense. That people go into marriage, and when they start having arguments, and they start realizing that this person's not perfect, and neither am I, they say, what's going on here? What did I get myself into? When you get married, I heard one person say, a Christian say, you're always going to get married to the wrong person. Why? Because that person is a sinner, and so are you. That means it's going to be difficult, it's going to be tough, but the scriptures say clearly it is a lifelong commitment. It's a beautiful thing when it works according to God's plan, but it is not the romantic stuff you see in the movies. It is very different. It's a lifelong commitment. And yes, Christians are right to fight against so-called gay marriage, because that is implied. It's one man and one woman clearly here. Polygamy is certainly condemned here, one man and one woman. But for us, the focus must be on lifelong commitments and not having this silly romantic notion. of what marriage is. Okay, that's through verse 7. Now, in verses 8 and 9, or actually that's through verse 6, in verses 7 through 9, the Pharisees get to the heart of their question. They say, well, we don't really care what Moses said there. What did Moses say in Deuteronomy 24? What is your interpretation of that? The thing of shamefulness or however you want to translate that. How do you interpret that then? If marriage is this ideal back in Genesis 2.24, why is it that Moses is giving certificates of divorce and what's the idea here? So, Jesus essentially says in verse 8 that Moses gave that law as a concession. because of the hardness of heart. In other words, Moses understands, and of course God understands, that the ideal is what Moses wrote back in Genesis 2.24. The ideal is that a man leaves his... I'm very careful now how I say this. A man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife. That's the ideal. However, because of the hardness of their hearts, because of the sinfulness, there are all these stipulations about certificates of divorce. And, by the way, they're not commanding anyone to get divorced here, or even allowing it. They're conceding that it will happen, and then, in Deuteronomy 24-4, we learn how we should respond to this. That's where the onus of the command is. The divorce part is just a concession because of the hardness of heart. And so Jesus said it wasn't like that from the beginning. In other words, the more ideal situation, the more godly situation of what marriage should be like was given to us in Genesis 2.24. Yes, Moses had these commands. They were more of a concession and not a command. They were because of the sinfulness of the people. But what really matters is what God said back in Genesis 2.24. So, in a sense, Jesus agrees with the Shemai, I don't know how to say it, the school of Shemai, the more hard line. It says that only for marital unfaithfulness, as it's called here, should one be permitted to divorce. And sexual immorality is how it's translated. I think in the context, though, it's a very broad word. The word in Greek is from which you get the word pornography from it, actually. It's a very broad word that can mean all kinds of sexual deviousness, but I think in the context here, it clearly means adultery. I think the word, when it's used between husbands and wives, when it's used between marriage relationships, the word will mean adultery. That is what sexual immorality means here. And adultery means simply adultery. I've heard I want to be careful here because I know there are very difficult situations that people go through when they're married, but I think we need to be clear that this word here means adultery, and that's physical, actual adultery. Some people say, well, there's spiritual adultery when they leave the faith. That sadly happens, but that's not what Jesus means here by adultery. Emotional adultery where they, you know, go and they don't talk to their wife or husband or anything like that. That's sad, and it's not good, but that's not what Jesus here means by adultery. Sexual immorality here means physical adultery, and that is the only legitimate grounds for divorce given here in Matthew. And the reason why is quite simply this. Divorce is putting asunder what God has put together. It's ripping apart what God has joined together. And when someone commits adultery, they are essentially doing that. And so the divorce then is lawful, not because the divorce will rip it apart, because the person who committed the adultery before that already has done that. Now, divorce is not compulsory, it's not a necessity, but it is lawful in this case. And Jesus adds as a caveat at the end there, verse 9, not only is one who commits adultery guilty of adultery, obviously, but whoever marries someone who commits adultery is also guilty of adultery. Let me read the verse here in verse 9, "...and marries another commits adultery, and whoever marries her who is divorced commits adultery." That is unlawfully divorced. I think that's how we should take that. Divorced in the sense of committing adultery with one another or just divorcing your husband or wife for no biblical reason. And the reason why is because God put them together. And while they say they're divorced, and while perhaps in the state's eyes they're divorced, if it's not a legitimate grounds for divorce, they are in some sense still married. And to marry someone who is in a sense, or in essence, still married to another is adultery. So these are pretty strict rules here, pretty, in Jesus' own day and in ours, these would be considered rather strict. But they're there for a purpose and a reason. God created them male and female from the beginning. This is a lifelong relationship where two become one. This is sacred. This is something that God intends in order to create a godly and holy seed. So marriage to divorce is not simply something that's going to affect you or your partner. it's going to affect your children and all those around you. It's something that is the deepest union that human beings can have with one another, and therefore it must be taken seriously. It cannot be just simply thrown away. And when a culture throws this away, all kinds of crazy things begin to happen, and I do not need to convince you of that. So, that's Jesus' view on marriage and divorce. Finally, we come to verses 10 through 12, and this is more about celibacy, it's a different situation, but still pertaining to marriage. Let me read them again to you to refresh your memory. His disciples said to him, if such is the case of the man with his wife, it is better not to marry. But he said to them, All cannot accept this saying, but only those to whom it has been given. For there are eunuchs who were born thus from their mother's womb, and there are eunuchs who were made eunuchs by men, and there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's sake. He who is able to accept it, let him accept it." Now the disciples, this is in a different situation, there's no Pharisees around, perhaps the disciples are just there by themselves with Jesus. They're probably followers of the school of Hillel, or perhaps they're asking here in quite just a sarcastic manner. They ask, it's probably better then if we don't get married at all, if we can't get divorced. I don't know what is going through their minds when they ask that question, but it is, obviously marriage is difficult, and you're stuck, is what Jesus says. If you're in a very difficult marriage, you're stuck. You can't just divorce just like that. So perhaps, they say, it's better not to get married at all. And Jesus responds with, all cannot accept this saying, but only to those to whom it has been given. Now, briefly, there are different interpretations on what this means, this saying. Some say this saying refers back to what Jesus said in verses four through nine. That's the normal Protestant position. I don't think it's true here, although I do think marriage is certainly an honorable estate and people who are celibate aren't to be higher than those who are married. who are married, but I don't think just the flow of the argument here actually works that way. There are some who say that it refers to what Jesus will say in verse 12, but I think that's not true either because the word for there implies, the word for at the beginning of verse 12 implies that what Jesus is saying explains rather than dictates the saying. In other words, it gives the reason for the saying and not the saying itself. What I think is the correct option is that what the disciples say in verse 10 is the saying Jesus is speaking of. If such is the case of the man with his wife, it is better not to marry. Now the disciples may have said this in a sort of sarcastic way, but Jesus takes it, qualifies it, and actually says that it's true in certain circumstances, but only to those who have been given it. Jesus and Paul later will say that celibacy, that the ability to remain unmarried and serve the church, is a gift. It's something which is given, and not all should do it. Paul makes that very clear in 1 Corinthians 7, where he wishes that everyone were like him, that is, without being married, but everyone has different gifts, Paul says. So he acknowledges that this is a gift, and certain people will have this gift. And Jesus explains that in verse 12. Now, if you don't know what a eunuch is, ask your parents. Jesus says some are born eunuchs, that is, by some congenital defect they are eunuchs. Some are made eunuchs by men, that is, Oftentimes when people were brought into the court as slaves, they were made eunuchs, especially those attending royal women. The males attending royal women were made eunuchs for obvious reasons. And some are eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's sake. That is, some remain celibate for the kingdom of heaven or the kingdom of God. Now, I do not think this is to be taken literally. I think most people in church history have taken this figuratively, not literally make yourself a eunuch, and that is clearly, I think, what Jesus is saying here. There are some groups that have taken this literally. I have not had much of a following. But I think throughout church history it's clear that this is to be taken in a figurative way. And I think the idea of a eunuch makes more sense here as an illustration of what we might think at first. Eunuchs, like I said earlier, are often in royal service. They often serve the king and the queen. And here Jesus is saying that these people who make themselves eunuchs, that is these people who choose by the gift of the grace of God to remain single, are in service of the King, Jesus Christ. They are to serve Him, so that they can do it in a more directed way, a way that doesn't have other things to distract them. This is what Paul says, again, in 1 Corinthians 7. So celibacy, then, is not for everybody, clearly. It's only to those to whom it's been given. It's a gift of God. But it's also a very good thing to do if you have been given that gift. And I think it's important for us who are Protestants, who rightly emphasize the goodness of marriage and the rightfulness or the rectitude of marriage for everyone, including clergy, for us to also take this into account as well. Because I think because of where we are, again, fighting on one side, the pure sexual immorality, and the other side, clerical celibacy, we tend to exalt marriage. Again, a good thing. But that leaves people who are not married in a situation thinking at times that I need to be married or else I can't really be a real person. I can't be complete. I can't really serve God. I can't do the things I want to do because I'm not married. And this verse and others absolutely reject that way of thinking. It is qualifiedly true that those who will be married and those whom God has planned for them to be married are made complete by their spouse in the sense that they've become one, but that's all. But it is rubbish to think that you need another person a husband or a wife to complete you, and therefore you're basically waiting for someone to come and take you in order for you to be married, in order to be useful in the Kingdom of God, in order to have a fulfilled life! That is not true at all. Let me give you some examples of famous celibate people in the Scriptures. Jesus, Paul, I don't need to enumerate any more, Those people were not married and they were, I would say, pretty useful for the Kingdom of God. Don't fall into the lie. Don't think that just because you're not married that you can't really do anything and that you're just sitting there waiting for your life to begin. That's a lie. It's not true. If you desire to get married, seek it by all means. It's a good thing. But don't think you are useless. to God's kingdom or to even the common good of those around us when you're not married. That is not true. Jesus here says, he who is able to accept it, let him accept it. It's a good thing. Both are good things. And we need to take that into account. So let's just summarize briefly here. Jesus teaches that divorce is only lawful when there is a case of adultery or sexual immorality. and that those who can accept celibacy should, if it's given to them, and that they do so in the service of the King, the Lord Jesus Christ. Let's pray. Father in heaven, we thank you for these words that are difficult in some ways, but also words that we know have the ring of your truthfulness in them. We thank you for the institution of marriage. We thank you for the children, that produces. We thank you for the good times it produces. And Father, we pray that our marriages would reflect as they should reflect your relationship with us and that we would therefore be assigned through our marriages to a world that has disregarded both marriage and you. That you indeed are the king of all and that we are to be good patterns and paradigms for the world around us. We pray that you would bless those here who are seeking to be married or who are married now, and we pray that you would be merciful to them and strengthen their marriages, and we pray that you provide spouses for those who desire them, Father. But we also pray that we would be aware and that you would bless those who are not married, that it is not a state or a situation that is to be despised as subhuman, but something that you, Lord Jesus, many of your servants have done throughout their lives, and we pray that you would bless us with your mercy and your grace. In this we pray in Jesus' name, amen.