God loves His children.

 

Sermon for Pentecost 20, October 6, 2024

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.  Amen.

Mark 10:2-16  ²Some Pharisees came to test him and asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?”  ³He replied, “What did Moses command you?”  ⁴They said, “Moses permitted a man to write a certificate of divorce and send her away.”  ⁵But Jesus told them, “He wrote this command for you because of your hard hearts.  ⁶But from the beginning of creation, God made them male and female.  ⁷For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, ⁸and the two will become one flesh.  So they are no longer two but one flesh.  ⁹Therefore, what God has joined together, let no one separate.”  ¹⁰In the house his disciples asked him about this again.  ¹¹He said to them, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her.  ¹²If she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.”  ¹³Some people began bringing little children to Jesus so that he would touch them.  But the disciples rebuked them.  ¹⁴When Jesus saw this, he was indignant.  He said, “Let the little children come to me!  Do not hinder them, because the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.  ¹⁵Amen I tell you: Whoever will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.”  ¹⁶And he took the little children in his arms, laid his hands on them, and blessed them. (EHV)

God loves His children.

Dearly beloved of the Father,

            I sometimes wish that I could be as good a teacher as Jesus, but mostly, I wish I would be as good a student as Jesus would have me be.  The Pharisees came to trap Jesus with a question about divorce.  I would have been tempted to reject them with a simple no, but Jesus deftly stepped around their trap and spoke directly to the heart of their condition; they didn’t love like they should. 

It was similar with the disciples of our text.  People were bringing little children to Jesus, yet the disciples thought those children weren’t important enough to bother their Teacher, so they tried to stop those caring parents.  I would find it hard to hold my temper with such self-centered gatekeepers, but though Jesus was angered, He didn’t punish anyone.  Rather, He taught them that His love is for all people.  What you and I should learn is that no matter the age, God loves His children.

Some Pharisees came to test him and asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?"  Because there were already several conflicting opinions among the Rabbis concerning this question, the Pharisees thought they could trap Jesus regardless of how he answered.  If He said, “Yes,” they would accuse Him of violating the Law, or if He said “No,” they could accuse Him of denying what Moses allowed.  One group held that divorce was permissible if a woman displeased her husband, perhaps with something mildly risqué such as going out in public without a veil covering her face.  Their main opposition, on the other hand, contended that a wife could be sent away for the slightest offense, or for none at all.  Both opinions were wrong.  Jesus sidestepped their trap by showing that their main problem was their failure to love. 

Jesus replied, “What did Moses command you?”  They said, “Moses permitted a man to write a certificate of divorce and send her away.”  But Jesus told them, “He wrote this command for you because of your hard hearts.  But from the beginning of creation, God made them male and female.  For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.  So they are no longer two but one flesh.  Therefore, what God has joined together, let no one separate.”

Divorce was never part of God’s plan, but as part of the civil law of Israel, Moses had allowed divorce when one of the partners was guilty of indecency.  Moses meant infidelity.  However, this statement of the Mosaic Law had been twisted by the teachers to permit men to disown their wives, for almost any reason, without repercussion. 

Jesus recognized that it was their lack of love that drove divorce.  In His answer, He returned them to the very beginning of time when God instituted marriage, explaining that God intended every marriage to be between one man and one woman, bound together physically, emotionally, willingly, and faithfully until death should part them.  When a man marries a woman, God joins the two into one unit.  Therefore, no one should separate them except God alone.  However, as Jesus points out, the hardness of hearts gets in the way.  Since sin entered the world, self-centeredness so very often controls our actions.  Instead of being united for the mutual good, our corrupted nature leads us to focus primarily on ourselves.

Thus, the same marriage troubles that afflicted their world trouble us still today.  Many act as if married but refuse the commitment of marriage.  We allow “No fault” divorce as if that is even possible.  The attitude seems to be that we marry only for as long as my partner pleases me.  At the same time, those of us who have never been divorced shouldn’t feel smug either.  Many of us have had some thoughts of divorcing a spouse.  We have, perhaps, thought of what it might be like to marry someone else.  At the very least, there have been days when selfishness made loving our partner seem extremely difficult.  So, we all must confess our guilt before the Lord.

Jesus further instructed His disciples, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her.  If she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.”  This may sound harsh to our modern, permissive ears.  However, because God loves His children of every age, He wants our marriages filled with blessings, with mutual love and respect; where each person is perfectly committed to the partner in a union that is mutually beneficial and a blessing every day; where outside relationships always take second place, and divorce has no place at all.

Now, one of the main reasons God instituted marriage was to bring children into the world and give them a beneficial place to grow.  Just as He loves grownups, God loves His children.  Mark recorded this incident:

Some people began bringing little children to Jesus so that he would touch them.  But the disciples rebuked them.  When Jesus saw this, he was indignant.  He said, “Let the little children come to me!  Do not hinder them, because the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.  Amen I tell you: Whoever will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.”  And he took the little children in his arms, laid his hands on them, and blessed them.

This is really what God’s love is all about.  In His perfect knowledge, God knew man would sin and would need a Savior.  Consequently, God intended marriage to be a picture of the relationship between the Savior and His Bride, the Church.  Jesus tells us that no one comes to the Father except through Him.  Therefore, God wants us to enjoy good, solid marriages so that they picture the great blessings that He gives us as the Bride of Christ. 

As part of that picture, in addition to wanting each of us truly to love our spouse, Jesus tells us to bring the children to Him, because that is the only way anyone is forgiven and saved from eternal punishment.  Christ’s kingdom and redemption are for all people—there is no age restriction.

The disciples were guilty of the same failings as some modern teachers in that they didn’t want Jesus bothered by these little ones.  However, no one is saved without the gift of faith that comes only by the work of God.  Our decisions don’t save us.  Intellectual learning isn’t our ticket to heaven.  Only God-given faith, which He can give at any age, brings with it the forgiveness of sins that Jesus won for us all on the cross.

Like the disciples that long ago day, you and I are sinners.  We all have failed to love as we should.  We have even often hindered our children, perhaps by our own frailties and neglect of God’s Word, maybe by putting too much emphasis on the things of this world, perhaps by simple neglect to teach as we rise up and when we lie down, as we sit at home and while we walk down the road—as Moses taught.  We each have been guilty of hindering the children instead of leading them daily to Jesus.

Yet, like those little ones in our text, it is given to us to know Jesus by faith.  God drew us into His loving arms as His Holy Spirit brought us to believe in Jesus.  As Jesus picked up those little children and blessed them, they met Jesus face to face, and thereafter, they knew Him as Lord and Savior.  Those infants weren’t caught up in the adult schemes that ultimately led Jesus to His cross at Golgotha.  They met Jesus as Lord, and that was enough.

That really is our story too.  When you were sprinkled with the water and Word of Baptism, Jesus was there, holding you as a dear child for whom He died, and He blessed you there with faith in Him.  As you hear God’s Word preached to you Sunday after Sunday, Jesus is here holding you in His strong arms, assuring you again and again that in your repentance you are forgiven for all your sins were nailed with Him to the cross.

For all the times you have sinned against God with your wicked thoughts of divorce, lust for another, apathy toward your spouse, or neglect of the children’s spiritual needs, Jesus continued loving you all as His one and only bride, the Church.  By bringing us to recognize our guilt and repent of our sin, He loves us with an everlasting love that doesn’t change.  Jesus lived that perfect love as our substitute while here on earth, and He loved us perfectly as He gave up His life on the cross to pay for our selfishness or lack of true love.

Dear friends, Old Testament Israel behaved many times like an adulterous wife, yet time after time in forgiveness, God took her back as His bride.  Today, He invites all people to enjoy His great love, and those who believe in Jesus are counted righteous as the Son’s dear bride.  Through the faith Christ gives in Word and Sacrament, we will be His beloved forever.

God loves His children.  He loves you so much that He wants your marriages to be a thing of blessing all the days you both shall live.  More than that, God wants to bless you with eternal face to face time with Jesus.  Because of the selfless love Jesus showed to His Church while He lived here on earth and the sacrifice He made on your behalf, He will continue to hold you in His loving arms and carry you home to His eternal heaven.  There, our neglect and self-centeredness will be put away, finally a thing of the past, and we will be loved by our Groom forever.  No more will we fail to love.  No more will anything trouble our relationships, for we all will put on immortality and peace.  In heaven, we will love as God has loved us, and we will rejoice in His saving love forevermore.  Amen.

The peace of God which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus unto life everlasting.  Amen.