Mark 10: 2-16 (NRSV)
Read Mark 10: 2-16 on biblegateway.com
Verse 2Some Pharisees came, and to test him they asked, "Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?" Verse 3He answered them, "What did Moses command you?" Verse 4They said, "Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of dismissal and to divorce her." Verse 5But Jesus said to them, "Because of your hardness of heart he wrote this commandment for you. Verse 6But from the beginning of creation, 'God made them male and female.' Verse 7'For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, Verse 8and the two shall become one flesh.' So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Verse 9Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate."
Verse 10Then in the house the disciples asked him again about this matter. Verse 11He said to them, "Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her; Verse 12and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery."
Verse 13People were bringing little children to him in order that he might touch them; and the disciples spoke sternly to them. Verse 14But when Jesus saw this, he was indignant and said to them, "Let the little children come to me; do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs. Verse 15Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it." Verse 16And he took them up in his arms, laid his hands on them, and blessed them.
Devotion
I have watched women and men cry in church at the reading of this text. My mother was one of them. When pain is real and raw, what do we say? What does Jesus say? It is so easy to be convicted by the law, to lay awake at night, broken by our inadequacies. It is easier still to convict others and pass simple judgment. But God is not in the business of conviction or of simple judgment. God is, instead, in the business of redemption. The cross takes pain and sin seriously, lays it low, and meets us all in the dawn of an empty tomb.
This is our faith—on the other side of death, any death, is new life—and on both sides, is God's love.
Prayer
Faithful God, you love me as I am, even in my frailty. Take hold of me today and where it is needed in my life, add your grace. Amen