Our Word and Our Hearts

And Pharisees came up and in order to test him asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?” He answered them, “What did Moses command you?” They said, “Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of divorce and to send her away.” And Jesus said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart he wrote you this commandment.” –Mark 10:2-4

Divorce was a problem in first century Judea because of the competing interpretations of the Mosaic Law by two schools within Judaism. In this case it involved Deut. 24:1, which says a man may write his wife a certificate of divorce if “he has found some indecency in her.” The school of Shammai believed this referred to unchastity or adultery on the part of the wife. The school of Hillel, to which the Pharisee’s adhered, had a broader interpretation. They believed it permitted divorce for even mundane reasons, like a husband’s dissatisfaction with his dinner. Jewish society was deeply divided between these schools, and the Pharisees hoped that Jesus’ answer would split his followers along partisan lines.

However, rather than taking a side (at least overtly), he teaches the true meaning of the Law. Sides divide according to human standards, but truth divides right from wrong. Jesus’ questions divide men according to their eternal destinies. Jesus asks the Pharisee’s what Moses (the Law) says. The Law is not the problem. Divorce is permissible under certain, God ordained, circumstances. Jesus then explains to them the reason for such a law.

“Because of the hardness of heart he wrote you this commandment.” Jesus is saying divorce is permissible, but that it should be a disgrace to use it. Any man who would seek it would be free, but would also be declaring openly he had a “hard heart.” This does not seem very serious to us today, but if we consider it more deeply, we see that such a man is declaring he is morally bankrupt. He has entered into a contract and is now refusing to uphold his end of the agreement. He is refusing to uphold commitments he has made to provide material, physical, and psychological necessities to one who can expect such things from no one else. How can such a man be permitted to remain in any society?

Obviously there is not space here to give this text full consideration (let it not be forgotten, however, that the Grace of Jesus Christ is capable of bringing the hardest of hearts to repentance and restoring them to the Church). However, all of us must be mindful of the duties we have sworn to perform. Jesus’ teaching on divorce should make us look at how we perform these duties; we must be aware the hardening of the heart is directly tied to failing to keep our word.