Hardened Hearts in Holy Hands - Wild Heart: Mark’s Portraits of a Radical Messiah

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We’re continuing our series Wild Heart: Mark’s Portrait of a Radical Messiah this morning.
The last time we looked at how in trying to maintain purity we can actually sow the seeds of our own destruction. Not that purity is wrong or the pursuit of personal purity is worthless. But if we settle for external rules and regulations to maintain purity we’re going to discover that we miss the mark and end up farther away than when we started by having a form of godliness but no real power to change our heart.
Now in some ways the first verses of chapter 10 are a continuation of this idea.
So let’s read Mark 10:1-16….
Now after reading these verses, especially vs. 1-12, does anyone want to come up and take over for me and teach on this? It seems to me that the only people who would volunteer for that duty are ultra conservative or ultra liberal in their theology. Let me ask “Why do you think this passage is such a hot potato?”
If you’ve ever been divorced and remarried you’d have to admit that this passage causes you some discomfort. You can’t ignore such a direct statement can you? We all, at the very least, know someone who is divorced and remarried and when this topic comes up it can make us swallow a little harder than usual. Am I right?
Let’s start off by looking at the purpose of this passage. Jesus didn’t sit down on a hillside and start teaching on divorce and remarriage. The Pharisee’s decided to test Jesus on this topic because He had taught about it way back in the Sermon on the Mount. At that time Jesus had said that divorce was not allowed except for the cause of adultery yet the Law of Moses clearly said that divorce was permissible for cause.
The Pharisees reasoned that if Jesus affirmed this teaching then they could accuse Him of despising the Moses and if He backed away from His original teaching they would accuse Him of being inconsistent and not worthy of being followed. Which means that Jesus saw through this situation and saw the hardness of their hearts. They weren’t interested in the truth about marriage and divorce they wanted to use this heart rending issue to create division.
That doesn’t mean that Jesus was ducking the issue. He means what He says it is God’s intention that marriage is forever. But it’s also God’s intention that people not steal, covet, take the Lord’s name in vain, etc. The fact that other people do it doesn’t excuse the sin, but it does point out that….
Because of the hardness of our hearts we will sin and we need the grace and love of a savior who has made a way for even the worst of our sins to be forgiven, even the sin of divorce.
Divorce isn’t the unpardonable sin and because someone remarries it doesn’t make them a perpetual adulterer. I’ll also admit that I don’t have all of the answers but here’s how I council those who come to me considering divorce. Unless your spouse has been unfaithful, deceptive (like saying they were single when they were actually married), or abusive (that doesn’t mean they’re cranky, stubborn) then you have an obligation to do whatever it takes to work out your differences and make your marriage work because God hates divorce. It violates His desire for a man and a woman to live as one.
I’ve been around long enough to know that just because one spouse wants to reconcile it doesn’t mean that both do. It may end up that no matter how hard you try it just won’t work out, but as a follower of Jesus you are obligated to patiently wait for them to come around. Yes, it’s the harder way, but Jesus told us that His way is a like a difficult, narrow road with limited options.
Following Jesus means that we go the extra mile to work things out with others especially our spouse.
However, in the event that things don’t improve and divorce happens, then remarriage needs to be pursued with the same prayerful consideration. It may be that your former spouse may have an encounter with God that changes their heart making reconciliation possible. If you rushed into a new marriage it would only make matters worse.
I realize that I haven’t covered every possible angle here and I’ve probably raised a few more questions but this isn’t an episode of ‘Divorce Court’ so some things will have to be dealt with at another time.
Then we come to vs. 13-16 and Jesus reveals another type of hardness. The disciples were getting in the way of children who were coming to Jesus. This happened after Jesus had already taken a child up in His arms as an example, one that the disciples obviously didn’t get. Parents wanted their children to be blessed by Jesus and He gave no indication that they weren’t welcome but the disciples were so engrained in their own past that they assumed children were not welcome in the presence of such a great teacher.
Jesus once again points right to the hardness of their hearts. He was angry at them and tells them not to get in the way, and that their hearts had to become like a little child’s in order to enter the kingdom of God. A child’s heart is soft and vulnerable toward others, especially toward God.
The real issue is always our heart…
Is our heart soft and pliable toward God and others or hard and bitter causing division and pain? The reason for divorce and for causing children to stumble is hardened hearts. There’s only one cure for a hard heart.
Ezekiel 11:19 "Then I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within them, and take the stony heart out of their flesh, and give them a heart of flesh”
The fact is simple we can’t change our own hearts; we can’t make things all better. The best we can do is throw ourselves on God’s mercy and ask Him to change our hearts.