Oh no, it's the divorce text

Matthew 5.27-37  NIV  thank you to http://www.biblegateway.com/ for this copy of the scripture

Adultery

    ²⁷ “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ ²⁸ But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. ²⁹ If your right eye causes you to stumble, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. ³⁰ And if your right hand causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell.
        ³¹ “It has been said, ‘Anyone who divorces his wife must give her a certificate of divorce.’ ³² But I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, makes her the victim of adultery, and anyone who marries a divorced woman commits adultery.
       ³³ “Again, you have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘Do not break your oath, but fulfill to the Lord the vows you have made.’ ³⁴ But I tell you, do not swear an oath at all: either by heaven, for it is God’s throne; ³⁵ or by the earth, for it is his footstool; or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the Great King. ³⁶ And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make even one hair white or black. ³⁷ All you need to say is simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything beyond this comes from the evil one.


Oh dear............this scripture generally causes upset.
No one wants to hear that they are broken.  No one wants to hear that somehow in the living of their lives they have gotten it wrong.  No one wants to carry a share of blame for something in which they see themselves as the victim.  In America, failure is a source of shame, not a pathway to repentance and growth. 

Yet all of us know the following things:  We are not perfect.   We have learned more from our failures than from our successes.  Regardless of our desire or hard work, things go wrong and we have caused some of those things.  We have been hurt and we have hurt other people.

I start the discussion here because this particular passage of scripture has amazing power to strike deep within us, and  we respond in anger.  I am not speaking about the passage on making oaths, or even on the passage about adultery.  It is the passage on divorce that claims its victims every time it is read.

A little background.  In the nation of Israel, a husband could simply send a wife away.  Reject her, refuse her entry into his tent - which left her without any family to protect her and any means of support.  Her family was not always able or willing to take her back in.  Moses insisted that the men write out a certificate of divorce which legally frees the woman.  This certificate of divorce was seen as an improvement in the system, and a kind of protection for the woman.

Jesus acknowledges that this ruling by Moses was intended to improve what was an unjust system which rejected both the woman and the responsibility that had been taken on in the marriage contract. This was a bandaid fix to a portion of human relations that had failed.  But it was never what God intended for the world.

God's kingdom turns the kingdom we know upside down.  Folks are committed to one another both in intimate relationships and in broader social ones.  You don't need to swear an oath, just do what you promised to do.  Your sexual desires are appropriate only within a commitment  not to bring hurt to others (both the wife and the lover).

 Remember how in Genesis 1 God was busy creating the world continually bringing order to the chaos that exists.  God separated the night from the day.  God separated the water from the dry land.  Again and again, God creates right order; that 'God established' order is maintained by everything /everyone staying in its right place.  This 'right order' perspective affects many areas in the life of Israel including its moral code.

We have to admit that adultery and divorce fracture the orderly system of marriage and family.  Many of us know it because we have experienced it.  It is that experience that makes this passage so painful for some - because divorce is painful.    So, yes, Jesus is saying that divorce is not a part of God's plan, and those who divorce are broken people.  In the same manner, those who speak harshly to others, those who repeat gossip, those who cheat on their taxes, those who don't pay their workers a fair wage.....all of these behaviors and activities are signs of our brokenness.

Which is why Jesus is here among us and teaching us a better way.  We will never accomplish perfection on our own; Jesus has come to lead us - even carry us - to a place where God's glory will cover our brokenness, make us whole.
Not everyone wants to live in that place of wholeness.  Some folks perfer the darkness to the light.  Jesus is just pointing out that there is a better place, a better way in him.

A last note on this week's text: my opinion.  When we look around in our society, I believe the teaching on adultery is more important.  Our societal casualness about our sexual lives and their consequences eat at the foundation of intimacy that glues a marriage together, creates family where none was intended, and devalues the gift that each individual is.  It is sad and too many children are paying a high price for our sexual freedom. 

Blessings.