Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife?
“What did Moses command you?
Moses permitted us to write a notice of dismissal, and to put her away.
“By reason of the hardness of your heart he wrote you that commandment. But from the beginning of all creation God made them male and female. For this cause a man shall leave his father and mother, and cleave to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. Therefore now they are no longer two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let no man put asunder.”
As a person of free will that chose to become divorced, gospel readings like these have to be taken with a clear, open and present mind and with a heart full of and connected to Jesus. One realizes that mistakes, sins happen in our life because of our sinful and selfish nature. I can rationalize my divorce as just another sin yet being one of the Ten Commandments that is not easily done or should it be. The heart of the matter is my personal relationship with Jesus Christ, the Son of Man and God and my Personal Savior and God The Father and The Holy Spirit. Only through this relationship can any sin, especially divorce, be completely forgive with compassion, honesty and faith. Over time, God renews us white as snow to go on with our bright and hopeful lives as long as we do not intentionally sin and expect to be automatically forgiven without feeling remorse or pain. Let us rejoice in that we are human beings, imperfect in nature, yet made perfect each day anew in our faithful devotion to Christ, God and The Holy Spirit. Amen. Alleluia!
Yes, my heart did get hard. Yes, issues of my childhood like abandonment, isolation and despair did overtake me at that point in my life. I simply could not figure out why things were happening to me all the while forgetting they weren’t happening to me but rather were coming from me. With a hardened heart and a selfish mind one can quickly develop the wrong perspective of life and be convinced to go down the right path when it clearly isn’t the right path, but only the apparent less painful path. But life goes on and we learn from our mistakes and sins or at least hopefully we learn and live to not repeat them to any great extent.
“Why dost thou call me good? No one is good but only God.”
This is confusing to me. Isn’t God, Jesus and The Holy Spirit one God together? Maybe Jesus was just humbling himself to His Father, Our Father in Heaven who created all things and directed Jesus to come to life as a human being to show us the way. Only God is good, no one else, no other human being is as good as God, not to that extent of goodness.
Good Master, what shall I do to gain eternal life?
“One thing is lacking in thee; go, sell whatever thou hast, and give it to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come follow me.”
But his face fell at the saying, and he went away sad, for he had great possessions.
We all have our own individual cross or crosses to bear. Are we honest enough to recognize them through our human denial, justification, and rationalization? Can we grown in our relationship with Christ to trust Him enough to surrender and let go of these shortcomings. Can we begin anew in our hearts and minds each day?
Jesus predicted the passion for the third time to His disciples.
They did not fully comprehend and neither do we though we think we do. We are not God and cannot fully comprehend His mysteries of life and death and resurrection. We think we dominate and control the world collectively as human beings but we have no clue on how to change our hearts or the hearts of others. We are still killing each other savagely same as in the Old Testament times. Let’s start with ourselves, our neighbors and friends and family to be cleansed from as much sin as possible.
“Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and the Scribes; and they will condemn him to death, and will deliver him to the Gentiles; and they will mock him, and spit upon him, and scourge him, and put him to death, and on the third day he will rise again.”
But I am the best, the most faithful follower of Jesus!
“But it is not so among you (the disciples). On the contrary, whoever wishes to become great shall be your servant: and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be the slave to all; for the Son of Man also has not come to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
Rich and self-centered. Not a good place to be as one enters the final phases of his or her life.
Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the kingdom of our father David that comes! Hosanna in the highest!
King of the world on our terms or King of the Heavens on His terms?
Why on earth did Jesus kill the fig tree for no apparent reason? He knew it was out of His season.
But when he (Jesus) came up it (fig tree); he found nothing but leaves; for it was not the season for figs. Then he spoke to it saying, “May no one ever eat fruit of thee henceforward forever.”
Rabbi, behold, the fig tree that thou didst curse is withered up.
“Therefore I say to you, all things whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you shall receive, and they shall come to you.”
Did Jesus pray that the fig tree would bear fruit no more? Why?
“Is it not written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations’? But you have made it a den of thieves.”
And the chief priests and the Scribes heard it, and they sought a way to destroy him; for they were afraid of him, because all the crowd were astonished at his teaching.
New kid on the block with the future generations’ way of living by love, not mere laws.
And the chief priests and the Scribes heard it, and they sought a way to destroy him; for they were afraid of him, because all the crowd were astonished at his teaching.
By what authority dost thou do these things?
Who gave thee this authority to do these things?
“Was the baptism of John from heaven, or from men? Answer me?
If we say from heaven, he will say why then did you not believe him?
But if we say from men they feared the people; for all regarded John as really a prophet.
We do not know.
“Neither do I tell you by what authority I do these things.”
Wasn’t Jesus’ situation at His Crucifixion a repeat of John the Baptist except that we the people turned on Christ?
There is a sinful selfish nature in all of us.
There is love and peace and joy and freedom in accepting Jesus Christ as your Personal Savior, trusting, letting go and living life anew this very day!
Laws and Love, I Love Being a Lawful Follower of Christ…
Day 44: Reading The Bible with a TROML Perspective; Laws and Love, I Love Being a Lawful Follower of Christ…
Read and inspired by the New Testament, The Gospel of Saint Mark Chapters 10-11.
Bible Notes:
The Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Mark
Saint Mark, a convert of Saint Peter, was the son of a certain Mary, whose house in Jerusalem was a gathering place for Christians.
His Gospel, based on Saint Peter’s preaching, aims to prove to the Gentiles the divinity of Christ, be recounting His numerous miracles and examples of His power over devils.
Matthew Chapter 10: Beyond the Jordan; The question of divorce; Remarriage is adultery; Jesus blesses the children; The rich young man; The danger of riches; Reward for leaving all things; The third prediction of the passion; Ambition of James and John; Jesus inculcates humility; The blind Bartimeus.
The district of Judea beyond the Jordan
And as had been his custom, he began to teach them.
Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife?
“What did Moses command you?
Moses permitted us to write a notice of dismissal, and to put her away.
“By reason of the hardness of your heart he wrote you that commandment. But from the beginning of all creation God made them male and female. For this cause a man shall leave his father and mother, and cleave to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. Therefore now they are no longer two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let no man put asunder.”
Asunder—into separate parts; in or into pieces: Lightning split the old oak tree asunder; apart or widely separated: as wide asunder as the polar regions.
“Whoever puts away his wife and marries another, commits adultery against her and if the wife puts away her husband, and marries another she commits adultery.”
“Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for of such is the kingdom of God. Amen, I say to you, whoever does not accept the kingdom of God as a little child will not enter into it.”
Good Master, what shall I do to gain eternal life?
“Why dost thou call me good? No one is good but only God. Thou knowest the commandments:”
Good Master, what shall I do to gain eternal life?
Master, all these I have kept ever since I was a child.
“One thing is lacking in thee; go, sell whatever thou hast, and give it to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come follow me.”
But his face fell at the saying, and he went away sad, for he had great possessions.
“Children, with what difficulty will they who trust in riches enter the kingdom of God.”
“It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”
Who then can be saved?
“With men it is impossible, but not with God: for all things are possible with God.”
Behold, we have left all and followed thee, Peter said.
“Amen I say to you, there is no one who has left… for my sake and for the gospel’s sake, who shall not receive now in the present time a hundredfold as much… along with persecutions, and in the age to come life everlasting. But many who are first now will be last, and many who are last now will be first.”
They (the disciples) were in dismay, and those who followed were afraid…
The third prediction of the passion.
“Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests and the Scribes; and they will condemn him to death, and will deliver him to the Gentiles; and they will mock him, and spit upon him, and scourge him, and put him to death, and on the third day he will rise again.”
“But as for sitting at my right hand or at my left, that is not mine to give, but it belongs to those for whom it has been prepared.”
“But it is not so among you (the disciples). On the contrary, whoever wishes to become great shall be your servant: and whoever wishes to be first among you shall be the slave to all; for the Son of Man also has not come to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!
Take courage. Get up, he is calling thee.
“What wouldst thou have me do for thee?”
Rabboni, that I may see.
“Go thy way, thy faith has saved thee.”
Matthew Chapter 11: Jesus sends two disciples for a colt; Triumphal entry into Jerusalem; Jesus curses a fig tree; Cleansing of the Temple; Reaction of the chief priests and Scribes; The disciples see the withered fig tree; The authority of Jesus.
“You shall say that the Lord has need of it, and immediately he will send it here.”
Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the kingdom of our father David that comes! Hosanna in the highest!
But when he (Jesus) came up it (fig tree); he found nothing but leaves; for it was not the season for figs. Then he spoke to it saying, “May no one ever eat fruit of thee henceforward forever.”
Rabbi, behold, the fig tree that thou didst curse is withered up.
“Therefore I say to you, all things whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you shall receive, and they shall come to you.”
“Is it not written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations’? But you have made it a den of thieves.”
And the chief priests and the Scribes heard it, and they sought a way to destroy him; for they were afraid of him, because all the crowd were astonished at his teaching.
By what authority dost thou do these things?
Who gave thee this authority to do these things?
“Was the baptism of John from heaven, or from men? Answer me?
If we say from heaven, he will say why then did you not believe him?
But if we say from men they feared the people; for all regarded John as really a prophet.
We do not know.
“Neither do I tell you by what authority I do these things.”
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