Recently we celebrated two monumentous anniversaries. At the end of December, we celebrated Harold and Geneva’s 70^th wedding anniversary. And just a couple of weeks ago, we congratulated as best we could during this time, Chuck and Barb’s 64^th wedding anniversary. That means that for the majority of most of the lives of the members of this congregation, these two couples have been married. These are monumentous anniversaries, in large part, due to the high divorce rates we have seen over the past few decades. Last year, the divorce rate stood at 40%. 4 of every 10 marriages ended in divorce. The average length of first marriages is currently 8 years. 60% of second marriages ended in divorce, and 73% of third marriages ended in divorce. We have a marriage problem in our society. What is this problem owing to? There are several factors, but the chief of all factors is the cheapening of marriage. The idea that marriage is simply a social construct that is created by the government. It is simply a piece of paper. If you want to trace the moral decay in the country, a major milestone you must mark is that, in 1977, 8 states adopted no fault divorce. By 1983, 48 states had adopted the practice. This led to split families and latch key children.

I know that some are now very uncomfortable. So why are we talking about this today? This is not in order to condemn or pour guilt on those who have been divorced. One advantage of systematically working through a book of the Bible together is that it provides very readily for us the next topic. Whatever is next in the book is what we cover next. This also provides the opportunity to discuss hard topics without someone thinking they are being singled out. Why are we discussing this today? For two reasons: (1) It is the topic of the next section in Mark. (2) It is a very important topic that is vital for all to understand today.

We live in a society that thinks nothing of marriage and divorce. When you fall in love with someone, you might get married to them. And when you fall out of love with them, then you simply end it and divorce them. But as people of the Book, we must always ask the question: Does God allow this? Does God allow divorce? In God’s providence, He provides for us the answer in this text, as the Pharisees ask that very question.

Mark 10:1-12 – And he left there and went to the region of Judea and beyond the Jordan, and crowds gathered to him again. And again, as was his custom, he taught them. ² And Pharisees came up and in order to test him 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 divorce and to send her away.” ⁵ And Jesus said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart he wrote you this commandment. ⁶ But from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.’ ⁷ ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife,^{[a] 8} and the two shall become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two but one flesh. ⁹ What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.” ¹⁰ And in the house the disciples asked him again about this matter. ¹¹ And 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.”

As we work through this text, we will cover the issue by asking and answering 4 questions: What does the Bible say? What is God’s plan? Does God really mean this? And where do we go from here? Through these questions we will see that God’s plan from creation was life-long, flourishing marriage. As a result, we will call each other to commit to and be content with where God has you. This text will take us a couple of weeks to get through as this is a dense and important topic.