In the context of Jesus’ teaching about preserving relationships and engaging in healthy conflict, Matthew places Jesus’ teaching on marriage and divorce. In Matthew’s mind this is the perfect application and clarification for the very principles that Jesus has been addressing. The Pharisees wanted Jesus to enter into a debate currently raging among two schools of Pharisaic thought. The debate was not over the lawfulness of divorce but the grounds for divorce. The allowance for divorce is given in Deuteronomy 24. There were many who believed that this law gave license for a man to divorce his wife for any reason. Jesus responds to the Pharisees’ question by effectively pointing out that both sides of the argument miss the point. God doesn’t want us to focus on what we can get away with. He wants his priorities to become our priorities. God’s priority is always for the building and preservation of loving relationships. This is where Jesus puts the emphasis, and he wants us to focus on this. But it takes two to make a relationship work. If one person sabotages that relationship beyond repair then God wants the other person to be released from the marriage covenant so that they can move on toward restoration and into a healthy relationship. The law is not given for the sake of the law. It is given to protect people. God is always committed to restoration. If your relationships have failed, however much at fault you may have been, God still wants to restore you and enable you to have healthy relationships in the future.
Reflect on your priorities and whether you rate relationships above everything else in importance.
Read Matthew 19:1-12
