The Pharisees, who were lovers of money, heard all these things, and they ridiculed him. And he said to them, “You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. For what is exalted among men is an abomination in the sight of God.
“The Law and the Prophets were until John; since then the good news of the kingdom of God is preached, and everyone forces his way into it. But it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one dot of the Law to become void. “Everyone who divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery, and he who marries a woman divorced from her husband commits adultery. (Luke 16:14-18 ESV)
Why is the verse about a person divorcing their wife and becoming an adulterer in the mix with Jesus informing the Pharisees that they justify themselves before men, but God knows the real content of their hearts? Maybe it is because it is really not about divorce but more than that…
You see these verses all fit together because it is about relationships. To divorce a woman in Jesus time was to through her to the streets with no support and would warrant her being stoned to death. She would not be accepted by her family and would have no means to survive. She was as good as dead. But the relationship that fabric that binds together the community would be ripped and cause issues and have rippling effects across many families and places…
So it is a bout living in and with others. Relationships are the key to all of this and the key element all of us need to remember is not to look out for #1 but to think of the other before we think of ourselves. It is about how we treat and care for the other, the last, the lost, the little, the least of these. We can not be as the pharisees and look out for ourselves at the cost of someone else. We have to take care of them first and we will be provided for. It is about living for the betterment of the community, rather than building ourselves up.
So what does divorce have to do with the pharisees amassing lots of money at the expense of others? It is about living in relationship and not getting what we want all the time, but looking our for the need of the other, the last, lost, least, little, those who society says have no voice and do not count. Those are the ones we need to help. We need to stop worrying about what society says about us and get to the work God has set before us!
aSacredRebel 