The Wisdom of Jesus on Display

In the tenth chapter of Mark we read about the Pharisees’ plot to catch the Lord in a war of wits. Their trap came in the form of a question. “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?”  It’s  important to note that the word translated ‘divorce’ in Mark 10:2 ought to be translated ‘put away’; a practice that is unknown in our Western culture. 

The Lord’s parlay; “What did Moses say about it?”

Brilliant!  Why? Because the Pharisees were disciples of Moses.  Jesus was saying, in essence, it doesn’t matter what I think, what does your own authority figure say on the subject? 

Because they were so skilled at quoting the law – they trapped themselves in the pit they intended for Jesus to fall in.

Verse 4, “Moses permitted a man to write a certificate of divorce and send her away.”

At this point my imagination has Jesus’ head tilt to one side.  His eyes get wide, brows raise, and the palms of both hands turn upward in that full body gesture that says “and there you have it. Clear as day.”

Only trouble was, they didn’t get it. 

What did they miss? 

That Moses commanded a two-fold process, both legal and emotional.  The Pharisees had so accepted the cultural norms that they were blind to the obvious.  It was culturally acceptable for men to apolyo (put away) their wives because their hearts were hard and calloused.  To apolyo a wife meant she was nothing to you.  Like rubbish.  Men having more than one wife at a time was culturally acceptable.  The real kicker wasn’t the polygamy it was their refusal to sign the necessary documentation releasing the put away woman so she could legally remarry.  When hard-hearted men refused to provide their discarded wives with a certificate of divorce, they were sadistically forcing the women into lives of poverty or, if they were to remarry without the certificate of divorce they would legally be classified as adulterers.  The adultery Jesus speaks of was a legal issue that hard hearted men were forcing upon the women they had abandoned.

The trap they set for Jesus to fall in trapped them instead by revealing the wickedness of their hard-hearted, evil intentioned practices.  He also made it clear in verse 12 that women discarding men were equally guilty.  A backdoor way of elevating women in a culture that had relegated them to a status so much lower than God’s intended design.   

Even though our culture doesn’t have a recognized equivalent to the ancient practice of putting away ending a marriage is two-fold.  Apolyo AND grapho biblion apostasion.  One speaks to emotional ties, the other to legal matters.  One is handled in a county courtroom, the other in the courtroom of Heaven.  The ruling in one courtroom does not satisfy the needs of the other.  One determines the separation (forgiving) of tangible things, the other will deal with the separation (forgiving) of heart things.