What Jesus Taught about Marriage and Divorce
It's common to see headlines in the tabloids about the divorce of celebrities and other, high profile public figures. If there were tabloids in Jesus' time, a headline might read like this: “Royal Marriage Scandal: King Herod to Wed Herodius, the Divorced Wife of His Brother. John the Baptist Ouraged!" With this divorce scandal on everybody's minds , the Pharisees approach Jesus with a question: "Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?" (Mark 10:2). In response, Jesus offers a lengthy teaching- a teaching that focusses, not so much on divorce itself, but marriage. The unspoken question that Jesus poses is this: What is God's ultimate will for marriage? What do the scriptures say? The response to this question ultimately informs Jesus' teachings on divorce.

Join us as we take a closer look at Mark 10:1-12

Mark 10:1-12 (NRSV)
10 He left that place and went to the region of Judea and[a] beyond the Jordan. And crowds again gathered around him; and, as was his custom, he again taught them.

2 Some Pharisees came, and to test him they asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?” 3 He answered them, “What did Moses command you?” 4 They said, “Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of dismissal and to divorce her.” 5 But Jesus said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart he wrote this commandment for you. 6 But from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.’ 7 ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife,[b] 8 and the two shall become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two, but one flesh. 9 Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.”

10 Then in the house the disciples asked him again about this matter. 11 He said to them, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her; 12 and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.”