Matthew 19:1-12 - Homiletics

The sanctity of marriage.

I. CONVERSATION WITH THE PHARISEES .

1 . Work in Peraea . The Lord hath now finally left Galilee; the restless hostility of the Pharisees had driven him from the province in which at first he had met with such great success, and which was regarded as his own country. Judaea, too, was now unsafe for him. His hour was almost come; he would work while it was day; but he would not expose himself to unnecessary danger before the time appointed. Peraea was for a short season open to him; it was less overspread by Pharisaic influence than Galilee or Judaea. He would work there while he might. Multitudes followed him, and he healed them there. The Lord is an example of patience and perseverance; he would not throw up his work in weariness and disgust, as men too often do when they meet with failure and opposition. He neglected no opening for work, no opportunity of preaching the blessed gospel. Oh that we might imitate him in this as in all things'!

2 . The question of the Pharisees . They found him, even in Peraea; they followed him everywhere during the latter part of his ministry with their ensnaring questions and malicious persecutions. And now they asked, "Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife forevery, cause?" It was common to consult great teachers on points of controversy; but this question was not asked honestly; they were tempting him, seeking to entangle him in his talk, to bring him into collision with one or other of the two great schools, or with Herod Antipas himself, the ruler of the country in which they were. The famous Hillel had taught that divorce was allowable for any cause; Shammai, that it was lawful only in the case of adultery. Herod was guilty of shameful violations of the law of marriage, and had murdered the holy Baptist, who rebuked him for his sin. The Lord had taught the strict view of marriage in his sermon on the mount; would he dare to maintain the same doctrine in the dominions of Herod? The Pharisees seemed to ask for information; they had malice and envy in their hearts. Controversy is full of danger to the soul; those who are called to engage in it ought to look most carefully into their own consciences to see that their motives are pure and good.

3 . The Lord ' s answer . He refers them to the Scriptures. "Have ye not read?" he says, as he had said before. He points to the study of the Scriptures as the source of religious knowledge. "Have ye not read?" We ought to be always reading, always learning lessons of Divine truth from the holy Word of God. He goes back to the original principle of marriage. "He which made them at the beginning made them male and female." They were created for one another. "They twain shall be one flesh .. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder." The wedded pair are one; the Lord does not say "those which," but "that which God hath joined." They are no longer two, but one flesh, one unity. Man may not dare to part that which God by matrimony hath made one. So true is the old saying that marriages are made in heaven. Marriage is an honourable estate, instituted by God in the time of man's innocency; declared by God himself, speaking through Adam of things which Adam could know only through Divine inspiration, to be more sacred and binding even than the love of parent and child, the holiest surely and deepest of all other forms of human love; ennobled in the New Testament by a yet holier consecration, so that it becomes the symbol, the representation, of the mystical union that is between Christ and his Church. Marriage is a very holy thing, not to be taken in hand lightly and wantonly; not to be dissolved for any cause, according to the views of these Pharisees of Hillel's school, but to be undertaken reverently and in the fear of God, as a bond which is to unite husband and wife in holy love unto their lives' end.

4 . The Mosaic rule . The Pharisees were not convinced; they quoted Deuteronomy against our Lord. Why did Moses, they said, command to give a bill of divorcement? The Lord first corrected their quotation. Moses did not command; he permitted. So eager controversialists misquote Scripture and bend it to their own purpose. Let us be careful to deal always truthfully and sincerely with the Word of God. It was true that Moses permitted divorce; but it had not been so from the beginning; it was permitted by the Law of Moses for temporary reasons, because of the hardness of the people's hearts. The Law of Moses was not final; it was adapted in large measure to the circumstances of the times—to the manners, capacity, spiritual condition of the Israelites. It was added because of transgressions; it was a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ. The high spiritual requirements of the gospel would not have been suited to the rude, uncultured natures of the ancient Israelites. There was need of a long preparation, a preliminary training. Such a training was furnished by the Law. The Law was very high above contemporary moral teaching; it was imperfect in comparison with the gospel which was to come, but very far in advance of the moral standard prevalent in Gentile countries. The permission of divorce was one of the points in which allowance had been made for the customs of the time, for the character of the Israelites. It had not been so from the beginning; it was not intended to remain so. The Lord distinctly forbids divorce, "except it be for fornication." He does not sanction remarriage even in that case.

II. THE DISCIPLES .

1 . Their inference . If it be so, if divorce is allowable only on that one ground, then, the disciples thought, it is not good to marry—the risk would be too great, the prospect of happiness too uncertain; better to remain unmarried than to enter upon a union which could not be dissolved. They spoke from the Jewish point of view, in accordance with their old associations and habits of thought. Their objection seems to us very strange. The fact of their making it shows the immense change which Christianity has produced in the estimate of marriage.

2 . The Lord ' s answer . "Not all can receive this saying." Some can serve God best in the married state; some in a single life. Some, like the holy apostle St. Paul, have chosen to live unmarried for the kingdom of heaven's sake, that they may have fewer hindrances, more time, more opportunities for the blessed work of preaching the gospel of Christ. But the Lord leaves it open for the Christian conscience to determine in each man's case whether the married or the single life will serve better to godliness.

LESSONS .

1 . Marriage is indissoluble; enter upon it discreetly, with serious thought and earnest prayer.

2 . Marriage is a holy thing; let the husband love his wife as Christ loved his spouse, the Church.

3 . The Lord raised woman to her proper place; Christians must aim at a high standard of purity.

4 . The Lord laid the foundation of the sanctity of Christian homes and Christian family relations; let us cherish his high and holy teaching.