One of the religion scholars came up. Hearing the lively exchanges of question and answer and seeing how sharp Jesus was in his answers, he put in his question: “Which is most important of all the commandments?” Mark 12:28 MSG
Theology…at best a way of trying to help us make sense of God and God’s mysterious ways, giving us a common understanding and language to talk about these things.
Until our human tendency towards bias and personal interpretation get’s in the way… at worst leading to division, confusion and preventing people from even considering becoming a follower of Jesus.
I wonder if you remember from my first post that I embarked on this study of the Gospels in order to simplify my life from the cultural and theological baggage gathered over a life-time of following Jesus. I have much sympathy for the question-asker in this story.
Being a scholar of religion meant that he was studying theology and had looked at its most intricate details. He was probably frequently caught up in debates and disputes over relatively minor issues of interpretation and personal preference. I sense a weariness and a desire to simplify (maybe I’m biased!).
In Mark’s telling of the story of Jesus this encounter happens in the week before Jesus’ crucifixion, and in the context of a lively question and answer session between Jesus and various religious leaders and teachers (Mark chapters 11 and 12). All the main Jewish theological factions (Pharisees, Sadducees and teachers of religion) are represented in the questioning of Jesus, for an equally varied set of motives. The scholar’s observation of how Jesus has handled the debate leads him to believe that Jesus may have a solution to his seeking heart and the theological wrangles that have brought him to this place and time. He’s tired of nit-picking arguments over minor issues and wants Jesus to give him the bigger picture.
Jesus answer demonstrates his deep knowledge of Torah. He puts together part of the ‘Shema Israel’ (roughly translated Listen, understand and obey O Israel) from Deuteronomy 4:6-9) that would have been familiar to everyone and a part of a less well-known verse from Leviticus 19:18 – “Don’t seek revenge or carry a grudge against any of your people. “Love your neighbour as yourself. I am God.”
Love God with all your passion and prayer and intelligence and energy, and love others in the same way that you love yourself. For the teacher of religion the curtain opens and he sees beyond the rules, offerings and sacrifices of the Torah to what lies behind them…he knows “A wonderful answer!” when he sees it, and Jesus recognises and commends his insight.
It might seem naïve, but when I reflect on the struggles within churches, denominations, and between believers, I can’t help but wonder—if we truly lived by Jesus’ greatest commandment, wouldn’t we find ourselves much closer to God’s kingdom?
Love isn’t selective. We don’t get to measure who is worthy or decide how much love they receive. Jesus’ parable of the Good Samaritan makes it clear—our neighbour includes the overlooked, the despised, and the forgotten. To love as Jesus commands is to extend that same grace to all, just as we would want for ourselves.
“…a man leaves father and mother and is firmly bonded to his wife, becoming one flesh—no longer two bodies but one. Because God created this organic union of the two sexes, no one should desecrate his art by cutting them apart.” Matthew 19:4-6 MSG
Matthew tells this story after he records Jesus teaching about forgiveness, using the story of the Unforgiving Servant (Matthew 18:21-35), so clearly he saw the connection between unforgiveness and hard-heartedness.
The Pharisees seem to have had a very transactional relationship with God…we keep the rules, God looks after us. So for them unthinkingly keeping the rules became more important than thinking about why God gave the rules in the first place…for their good and for the protection of the weak…foreigners, women and the poor. It wasn’t to limit their freedom but to protect it.
The divorce Laws provide a great example of this. In a world where women were often treated as second class citizens and a commodity, the divorce Laws provided a level of protection against women being used and abused.
Jesus calls out the exceptions that have been added because of hard-heartedness, but reiterates it was not how God intended things.
This is not a matter of theory to me. Anyone who has followed this blog for any time may remember my telling of my own experience of divorce and remarriage: “A Short History of Divorce”.
I want to say that whatever reason a marriage breaks down, it is often like being ripped apart, and many I have known have struggled to feel whole again after the experience. Too often the judgementalism of those who should know better, especially in the church, only adds to the sadness and burden. Jesus is encouraging not hard-hearts, but softened, forgiving hearts, much like the heart of the Father towards people like us who have effectively separated from God and gone our own way.
Jesus makes the point that God intends marriage to be for life, but recognises that there are some actions that so destroy the marriage spiritually and emotionally that actual separation is the only way towards wholeness.
Jesus said, “Moses provided for divorce as a concession to your hard heartedness, but it is not part of God’s original plan. I’m holding you to the original plan, and holding you liable for adultery if you divorce your faithful wife and then marry someone else. I make an exception in cases where the spouse has committed adultery.” Matthew 19:8-9 MSG
“Where the spouse has committed adultery”, or in some versions “has been unfaithful”. Unfaithfulness comes in many forms, not just the obvious one of extra-marital affairs. Ephesians 5:28 talks about “loving your spouse as you love your own body”, which I guess makes abusive relationships, domestic violence and controlling behaviour reasons for divorce too.
This is another passage of scripture that has been read and applied literally and legalistically by so many down through the years, especially in some church and social settings where women are still considered second class. This can only serve to increase the pain and sense of loss that divorcees are often feeling. All of which flies in the face of grace, forgiveness and tender-heartedness like that of the Father.
Jesus summary of the Law of Moses beautifully sums it up…”Love God and love your neighbour”. The apostle John takes it one step further…”Loving God includes loving people. You’ve got to love both!”…difficult to argue that you’re loving God by hating the ‘bad people’…
Can I encourege you to think deeply about forgiveness and tender-heartedness in the area of divorce and remarriage, in the way that Jesus was trying to encourage his listeners to do, especially if you hold deeply ingrained, inherited beliefs rather than those you’ve come to having listened well to all the evidence and humbly trying to find a godly attitude for yourself. You may find you disagree with my conclusions, but at least you can hold your view with integrity.
We turned up to our regular beach to walk the other day but found there was no beach to walk the dog on. We knew it was near high tide time but had failed to register that we were close to the Spring equinox. We haven’t lived in the area for long, so we’d never seen just how high a Spring tide could be on this coast. We opted for a walk in the dunes instead.
On Sunday we drove into a nearby small town. Our church meets in a building close to the sea, and as we walked there, we were treated to not only the sight of a really high tide, but on a still, almost windless day the rocks, the breakwater and the beach was being pounded by some enormous waves in a sea that boiled and crashed in a most intimidating way. I was glad to be on dry land and prayed there’d be no call out for the local lifeboat crew.
During the service we sat near the window with a grandstand view of the sea in all its fury and glory. It was a fitting reminder of God’s power and glory, in the words of C S Lewis, “of course he isn’t safe, but he’s good”. (The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe).
Those waves made me think of some words from a familiar psalm:
I hear the tumult of the raging seas as your waves and surging tides sweep over me. But each day the LORD pours his unfailing love upon me, and through each night I sing his songs, praying to God who gives me life.
Psalm 42:7-8 NLT
I’ve always identified with these words and found them to be deeply encouraging. Many commentators believe that this is a psalm (and Psalms 42 and 43 seem to actually be one extended psalm) about depression, after all a song is a great way to express just how you feel. This song reminds us that even in deep depression we can bring how we feel into God’s presence, without fear that he will be embarrassed or turn us away.
It’s a song of lament that asks the question , “Why, God?” – Why do I feel this way? Why do you seem to be so far away? Why do I feel so downcast and disturbed? Why have you forgotten me? Why are you allowing people to taunt me? Why have you rejected me? When will this end? It’s a song about the tension between faith and circumstances, a song that tries to understand why God “allows” us to suffer.
In this instant this depression is affecting the individuals ability to find joy in worship, which must have been doubly difficult for one of the sons of Korah, a member of the Levitical choir in the Temple…think Worship Leader! The fact is that “True believers do go through times of deep emotional suffering. They need our loving prayer and support, not our criticism and suspicion” Alan Palmer in “Discovering Psalms 1-72.
I am one such believer, suffering from depression at a number of times in my life. A number of years ago my wife, who is a qualified mental health therapist, put together a booklet which was sponsored by the charity “See Me” in Scotland. The booklet was a collection of stories from people with lived experience of mental health. I contributed a piece sadly written from my own perspective as a Christian in leadership.
“The man was depressed, really clinically depressed. The church of which he was part could not cope with depression. He was dropped from the leadership and from teaching in the church without discussion. One of the senior leaders from the church came to visit.
“Of course,” he said seriously, “we could tell just by looking that you had a problem. We knew something was wrong in your life.” He paused.
“It’s the fact that you always wear black,” he said, without even the hint of a smile, “and that means you must be depressed (and in the leader’s view, depressed people are second-class Christians).
Years later he’s reading a frequented blog. There is a discussion about the wearing of black. The blogger posts…“Sometimes I wear grey to show my unbridled joy!”
The man, who has long since recovered, laughs out loud remembering the absurdity of the leader whose outlook was so “black”. But he is grieved at the ignorance and misunderstanding experienced by those suffering with mental illness, and he is angry at the church leader’s lack of resemblance to the One he claimed to follow.”
“Please Remove the Label”, compiled and edited by Wendy Ward
When we are depressed, when we are struggling to make sense of our lives and asking why God has allowed us to get to this state, the last thing we need is to be told that we are less than acceptable to the church and therefore, by extension, to God. It is at these times that we need every encouragement to continue to be people who have hope because they have Jesus; we need help to continue to stay close to him as we work through our questions.
If we look closely at the psalm we can learn a lot about how this son of Korah had become depressed and how he was working it through. He seems to experience six stages as he goes through his time of depression:
Separation 42:4 and 42:6. He was probably geographically away from the Temple and Jerusalem, and it was a painful place to be. To put it more generally, sometimes we’re just not in the place we want to be, whether that’s geographical, vocational or emotional.
Attack 42:3 and 42:9-10. He was being attacked, both for his lack of faith and for continuing to have faith when his circumstances were so dire. People who criticise, even Christians who criticise, can have such double standards.
Grief 42:3, 42:5, 42:7 and 43:2. He expresses an overwhelming sense of loss. Loss of companionship, loss of worship, loss of relationship with God. His heart is sick and broken.
However, even while he still struggles to feel ‘right’ again, his continuing faith propels him to co-operate with God’s spirit in the work of recovery, healing and restoration.
Survival 42:1-2. Like a deer in the desert seeking out water, the source of life, the man is longing for God, for the spiritual refreshment and life that comes from his presence. Even though he is struggling to find God in his circumstances he hasn’t stopped looking!
Cure 42:4, 42:5, 42:11 and 43:3. The man doesn’t just wait passively for God to sort him out, he has a strategy for recovery. He looks back, and remembers all that God has done in the past and looks forward expectantly to God doing it again…”I will yet praise him” (42:5 and 11; 43:5
Recovery 43:4-5. Above all, the man has not lost hope – “Put your hope in God” is his constant refrain.
The NIV translation of 42:7 is “Deep calls to deep in the roar of your waterfalls; all your waves and breakers have swept over me.” I have often wondered if the first part of the verse speaks of the discovery of God’s Spirit in the spirit of the man, a deep relationship that is not broken and offers hope even as “the waves and breakers have swept over” him.
Even in our times of darkest depression the Spirit of God calls out to us in the depths of our being that we are loved by God and there is hope – “ send me your light and your faithful care, let them lead me to your holy mountain, to the place where you dwell” 43:3.
Pilgrim Traveller 