Part 33 – Rules and God’s Purposes for Humanity – Matthew 19:1-12
February 16, 2020Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Speaker: Jerry Cisar
Imagine a distant relative leaves you in her will a beautiful, very valuable grandfather clock from the early 19th century. You want to display it, but it doesn’t work. You could get three different appraisals, hoping for one that will fix its broken-ness. But appraisals only fix the value of the clock. If you bring it to a master clock repair shop, he already knows the value (he won’t fix the value); he will make it whole again.
It is in this sense that Jesus approaches the subject of divorce and remarriage in this week’s text. The Pharisees were testing Jesus (the Repairman, humanity’s Healer) with questions about the proper time for a certificate of divorce. A certificate of divorce won’t restore people to wholeness. It is evidence of brokenness. It is like sticking a digital clock with sticky tape onto the face of the grandfather clock so it “tells time” again. It works, as far as it goes, but it has nothing to do with what stands in front of you… a valuable grandfather clock.
Divorce is exhibit A for human brokenness in our text. All divorce is caused by sin. Someone’s sin. There can be “innocent” parties in divorce, but all involved are left broken by the sin that caused it. Divorced people are not lepers; they are like valuable grandfather clocks that are broken and need the healing power of Jesus to make them able to flourish according to God’s original design and purpose. (Doesn’t that describe all of us?) Therefore, Jesus goes back to creation wholeness. Jesus doesn’t just fix people; He intends to make us whole again and He invites us to participate in the process.
Join us as we take a fresh look at Matthew 19:1-12 in worship.