For Jesus, the problem of the day was hardheartedness. So, does that mean Jesus is offering the cure?
Today’s reading seems oddly divided. It begins with divorce and ends with children.
As we saw in yesterday’s post, divorce could be symbolic language referring to the bond between Israel and God.
Whereas Moses had permitted divorce due to the people’s hardheartedness, the ideal was that marriage symbolized a bond between two people which could not be broken.
This is why marriage was a symbol of God’s covenant with Israel. God’s word was a bond that couldn’t be broken.
Yet, people’s hard hearts led them astray from God.
Jesus’s solution?
Through his death and resurrection, he’ll draw all nations to God. Through the giving of the Holy Spirit, God is being faithful to his word and the bond between God and his creation remains as strong as it ever was.
And the children?
Well, in divorce, it’s usually the children who have no say. It’s the children who end up suffering.
It’s the same when people abandon God. People suffer and the children are prevented from finding God.
But, through Jesus, God’s family is extended to all nations and the children are able to draw near. All because God was faithful to his word.
The Reading
And he says to them, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her; And if she, having divorced her husband, marries another, she commits adultery.”
And they brought small children to him that he might touch them; but the disciples scolded them. But seeing this Jesus was deeply annoyed and said to them, “Let the little children come to me, do not prevent them; for of such is the Kingdom of God. Amen, I tell you, whoever does not receive the Kingdom of God like a little child certainly may not enter into it.” And, enfolding them in his arms and laying hands upon them, he blesses them. (Mark 10:11-16)
With God all things are possible.