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In Christ, Mark
In Christ, Mark
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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy
word.
The disciples said to Him,
“If this is the situation between a husband and wife, it is better not to
marry.”
Jesus replied, “Not everyone can accept
this word, but only those to whom it has been given. For there are eunuchs who
were born that way, and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by
others—and there are those who choose to live like eunuchs for the sake of the
kingdom of heaven. The one who can accept this should accept it.”
Matthew 19:10-12
This ends
today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.
Living the Christian life isn’t easy
sometimes.
It’s true, isn’t it?
I say this because as Christ followers, we
are seemingly always at odds with the world we live in. As the old saying goes,
“We are in the world but not of it,” called to a higher plane of thinking and
conduct by the Savior we seek to emulate. We are to trust in a plan we don’t
know and in the One who does know. And we are asked to accept life as it comes
to us, not coveting our own desires for how we think it should be.
Did I mention the Christian life isn’t easy
sometimes?
For the last two days, we have seen Jesus
talking about the matter of marriage and divorce with a group of Pharisees who
came to Him while He was healing and teaching in the region of Judea. As we see
in today’s passage and the final devotion from this encounter, Jesus’ disciples
were present as well, taking in everything their Master was saying.
So what did Jesus say?
After making sure everyone was reminded
that marriage was instituted by God from the very beginning, a man and a woman
coming together to be one flesh, Jesus went on to share that the matter of
divorce was not something God created but rather man who had decided they
couldn’t accept God’s plan to remain united to one person through life. The
matter of divorce needing regulation, Moses developed guidance to make sure it
happened in a way that was guided by law but this was only because the
Israelites had hardened their hearts to what God really wanted and that was no
divorce at all.
And so Jesus, confronted by the Pharisees,
set down grounds for divorce and frankly we could say it was a ground (singular)
for divorce because He only established one viable reason for a man and woman
to end the bond God had brought together and that was adultery.
Why just that?
Because as we covered in yesterday’s
devotion, it was the only sin within a marriage that would break the one flesh
as either the man or woman in the marriage decided to share their flesh with a
third party.
Well, after hearing this, we see that at
least Jesus’ disciples grasped what he was getting at and the ramification it
would have on people becoming married in the first place. Look again at their
words to Jesus:
The
disciples said to Him, “If this is the situation between a husband and wife, it
is better not to marry.”
Bingo!
This was the point Jesus wanted to get
across, that marriage was not something to be taken lightly.
Not by a longshot.
If a man and a woman were not willing to
stay together for the long haul (think “until death do us part” kind of long
haul), then they should not get married. Period. People were not to get married
with the thought that if it didn’t work out they could easily just get a
certificate of divorce and end the marital relationship.
Sadly, this sort of sounds like where we
are today with marriage, right?
This is why Jesus’ teaching on this matter
is just as relevant today as it was more than 2,000 years ago.
Speaking of that teaching, we see in our
passage that Jesus had a little more to share with His followers:
“Not
everyone can accept this word, but only those to whom it has been given. For
there are eunuchs who were born that way, and there are eunuchs who have been
made eunuchs by others—and there are those who choose to live like eunuchs for
the sake of the kingdom of heaven. The one who can accept this should accept
it.”
Jesus knew how radical His teaching on the
matter of marriage and divorce would be. He acknowledged as much through His
own words.
You see, God has a plan for everyone. He
tells us in His word that He knows the plans He has for us:
“I
know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and
not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” Jeremiah 29:11
God knows the plans He has for us but here’s
the thing. We don’t know those plans. We don’t and that goes for the matter of
marriage as well as everything else.
I don’t know how many people I have
ministered to who were completely out of sorts with the fact that they didn’t
have a husband or wife. It was something they obsessed over incessantly to the
point where it consumed them. They could barely function because they thought
something was wrong with them and their place in the world they lived in.
The real problem was that they were too in
the world they lived in, so much so that the world’s offerings and desires
became their own. They allowed their wants to trump accepting and trusting what
God was already doing in their lives. And in the end translation, they were so
bent on what they wanted, what they thought they deserved from God, that they
were unable to simply accept their life situation, count their blessings, and
we grateful and satisfied.
You see, people bent on marriage fail to
appreciate the relationships God does bring their way, like family or friends
or even co-workers. Not having marriage doesn’t mean a person isn’t blessed
with people to spend time with, people to talk to and share life with, people
to love. And ultimately, as Christians, we have Jesus, a permanent, loving
relationship that will never perish. Ever.
What more could we ask for than sharing
life with the One who died to save us, the One who did it so He could live with
us forever and provide a way to God, His Father and ours?
And yet, so many still fall into the sinful
temptation of covetousness. They think something is wrong if they don’t have a
husband or wife. They aren’t satisfied with the relationships God has given and
so they decide to take their destinies into their own hands which means picking
out partners who God has not ordained them to be with, the God who is the only
one to ordain two to become one flesh. It’s no wonder so many people are
divorced today, why so many marriages don’t last. They weren’t part of God’s
plan.
Friends, the words of Jesus today are
calling us to accept God’s plan for our lives and not fall into the
transgressive trap of illicitly craving what we want or what we think the world
wants for us. Our Savior is trying to teach us to be satisfied with where we
are and count the blessings God has provided. If we do this, we can find
ourselves in a place of peace and contentment, a place of thanksgiving and
satisfaction for all God has done for us, and a place where we see hope for our
future, knowing God holds it in His hands.
Amen.
In Christ,
Mark
PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.
Send any prayer requests to OurChristianWalk@aol.com
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