josephholubsermons
October 4, 2009 -
Pentecost 18
Mark 10:2-16
A Passage of Liberation
This passage from Mark is one of those biblical passages that has all
too often been used to inflict pain and
judgment upon others especially at vulnerable times in their
lives. Over the years, I
have counseled numerous people going through the profound emotional
trauma of divorce whose distress has only been intensified by oppressive
and critical expressions of religion.
This passage from Mark hits a sensitive nerve for many of us. The
ending of a marriage is something that has likely touched almost every
one of us here today, either first hand or through family and friends.
It is not only obviously
grievous and painful for the people involved, but also for the community
around them, the people who love them and are in relationship with them
and want the best for them.
Just the mention of it may bring to the surface embedded feelings of
pain and pathos.
At first glance Jesus’ words seem to be rigid and immovable.
They come off as judgmental
and seem to offer little appreciation of the unique circumstances of
people's lives, and tragically that is exactly how these words
have sometimes been applied. Some have been so deeply wounded
by a harsh application of scripture and doctrine that it has
precipitated a very real crises of faith.
Looking to their faith community for support, understanding,
compassion and healing, many have incurred just the opposite.
In my view when scripture and doctrine are applied to real people in
real life situations in such harsh and condescending ways it is nothing
short of religiously
legitimated violence - perhaps a softer form of violence than
terrorism or something, but it is violence nonetheless – and it feels
like violence to those upon whom it is directed.
And, it is not only the divorced who have been victims of such religious
violence, but included are hosts of others who also have been
dehumanized and minimized by judgmental religion.
The bible has been used as a weapon in many places, times and
circumstances: to justify slavery, to subordinate women, to rationalize
domestic violence, to condemn gays and lesbians, to denounce Jews, to
exploit the environment, to commit murder, to legitimize wars.
John Esposito, a professor of religion and sociology at Georgetown
University who specializes in the relationship between religion and
violence says, "Religious
texts and doctrines often provide a fertile source of legitimacy and
mass mobilization of causes against others."
One of the things you have and will continue to hear from me is
“context, context, context!” You can make the Bible say just about
anything you want it to say if you lift verses and
passages out of context. I call it biblical "cherry-picking."
It takes little skill to pick verses off the biblical
tree and shape them into a club and beat people up with them; to use
them as a source of legitimacy for personal pathology and prejudice.
That reminds me - of a time - when I encountered - a man - in a health
club locker room - who was doing a rant against homosexuality.
He quoted me a verse from the Old Testament book of Leviticus,
chapter 18, verse 22 to be exact. I
noticed that the man had a tattoo of a huge cross on his back, covering
the entire span of his back – neck to bottom, shoulder to shoulder -
along with some other smaller tattoos.
What he unknowingly had done was provide me with the perfect
opening. God forgive me, I
could not resist. I said to
him, "Since you seem to be
well versed biblically, are you familiar with Leviticus 19:22, exactly
one chapter later?
His puzzled look told he was clueless as to the reference - and I knew
I had him. He had
unwittingly stepped into my snare. I then said, Leviticus 19:22 says,
"You shall not… tattoo any
marks upon your body. I am the Lord."
With a look of disdain and shock he walked away.
Context - context - context!
To even begin to understand this passage from Mark or any ancient
biblical passage for that matter, an understanding of context is
crucial. This stuff wasn't written for us, it was written for them
- so context is crucial if we are going to apply it to us.
In the immediate decades after Jesus when Mark’s faith came together and
this gospel developed, there was a great deal of debate in Jewish
circles about divorce and the grounds for divorce.
Mark begins this passage with
“Some Pharisees came to
Jesus…” That’s a
clue that tips us off to the context, for it was among the
Pharisees that this debate raged with greatest intensity.
Two things
we need to know:
One, only men
could issue a certificate of divorce - women could not - women had no
such rights and, in fact, women were rendered a status in society
not much higher than cattle. It
was a culture tilted drastically and hierarchically patriarchal.
Second,
as I said, the Pharisees were in disagreement about grounds for divorce.
One group of Pharisees said a man could issue a certificate of
divorce against his wife for practically anything - minor things.
Another group of Pharisees were more strict saying a certificate
of divorce could only be issued in the case of sexual unfaithfulness.
Many scholars agree that at the time of Jesus and Mark's emerging
faith community men issuing certificates of divorce for very little
cause was becoming more and more prevalent, which led to increased
abuse of,
exploitation of,
and oppression of
women.
Another contextual piece
is that in the Greek/Roman world, and in the way Mosaic Law was being
applied in Judaism,
adultery was defined in terms of the woman’s unfaithfulness, not
the man’s. Remember the
story in the gospel of John, chapter 8, where the Pharisees dragged a
woman before Jesus - a woman they had spied on and caught in the
act of adultery. Last time
I checked it takes two for there to be an act of adultery.
There is no mention of a man in the passage which illustrates my
point.
So, knowing just that much (or that little) about the context
opens up this passage to new dimensions of understanding!
You see, we already know what Mark's main theme is in his gospel
- we know because I have been talking about it for months.
Mark's Jesus comes announcing and embodying the Kingdom of God,
God's vision for the world
and calling us to be radical disciples of that vision - to
live out that vision in everyday life - to embody that
vision in our own lives and community life as we follow Jesus.
And we have seen in instance after instance, page after page,
story after story, passage after passage that God's vision is to set
people free from oppressive religious and political domination systems
that dehumanized, marginalized, minimized and segregated people
socially, religiously and economically.
So notice what Mark's Jesus does in this passage -
three things - the
implications of which were stunning, staggering, scandalous, radical and
far-reaching not only for their culture but even yet for us - reaching
into our world with the power to transform us.
The first thing:
Jesus leveled the playing field between women and men - and he
leveled it in the most sacred and core cultural place.
By declaring that a woman had the right to leave her husband
contradicted Mosaic Law in which only the man could initiate
such proceedings. What
Jesus did was elevate women to the equal status of men in the
most core place of their culture.
Jesus was empowering women who up until that point had little
power; giving women equal status who up until that point had little or
no status. In following
Jesus, Mark's community perceived a call to live
counter-culturally, to liberate women as equals even and especially in
their societies' core relationship.
The second thing:
Jesus affirmed marriage
commitment. Jesus reminded
them that the Mosaic Law, that a
man could write a certificate of divorce against his wife, was really a
law of accommodation. Mosaic Law only contained that
command, said Jesus, because the Israelites had such a lousy attitude
about marriage in the first place (“hardness of heart,” Jesus called
it). Mosaic Law was unfortunately shaped by the character of those
for whom it was written. In so many words, Jesus was saying it was a
lousy law.
So Jesus shifts
the entire conversation trumping law with love; (which is what
Mark's Jesus had been doing all along anyway with the unclean, Sabbath
Laws, inclusive table fellowship); shifts the conversation away from
basing marriage upon laws and technicalities that give men leverage
over women to God’s
vision: that it be
structured not by law, but
empowered by God’s blessing;
empowered by a
sense of sacred partnership of relative equality not
domination of one over another;
empowered
by committed love, the kind of love that flows from the heart of God and
is embodied in the life of Jesus; the kind of love that builds intimacy
and trust; the kind of love that affirms and encourages mutual growth
and sets the other free to fulfill their humanity; the kind of love that
celebrates the sacred life of the other!
When I counsel people anticipating the marriage commitment, I insist
that they write their own promises of commitment. We talk about
the difference between promises of love and promises of law. We
talk about how promises of
love are always empowering and affirming of one another, and how
promises of law are
always ultimately oppressive and condescending.
I read recently of a couple who signed a prenuptial agreement
that if either one of them gained more than 12 pounds the other could
claim it as grounds for divorce. Now usually it's a little more
subtle than that, but that is an extreme example of a
relationship based on law and technicality - not love and grace - not
mutual partnership - not growing together through all circumstances of
life - not fulfilling one's identity and humanity through growing in a
committed relationship.
The third thing:
Mark's Jesus acknowledged the reality of divorce; that life gets
broken; that relationships can get fractured and dysfunctional beyond
repair; that sometimes things cannot be worked out.
Anyone who has gone through it knows that it is a
death-like experience,
even worse than death in some ways.
It can devastate trust and self-esteem and tumble a life into a
dark place of hopelessness and despair.
A lament I have heard more times than I can remember is
"Pastor, will the sun ever
rise again on my life?
Will I ever be able to trust again?
Will I ever be able to know joy again?
Will I ever be set free from the quagmire that it feels like I am
in today?"
At those moments I never give trivial answers.
What I do first is offer affirming love; to embody the
love of God, for I trust that is what we are always called to
do and be for each
other; that is what it means to live in Christian community.
I also remind them that our faith is about death and new life.
With God in Jesus there is always a new day; new possibilities;
new beginnings, new hope.
The early Christian community experienced Jesus as a living and
liberating dynamic presence.
The cross and resurrection for them wasn't a doctrine to believe
but an experience of the living and liberating dynamic Jesus who
led them through all of their various experiences of death;
whether it be experiences of oppression, the pain of persecution,
fractured intimate relationships or even death - they followed the
living presence of Jesus to new life - new purpose - new hope - new love
- new personhood - new community.
Something that I have come to deeply respect as we have journeyed
through Mark's gospel together this liturgical year is that Mark's
community of faith must have been a truly remarkable community.
It was a community that would not live by the dictates of
oppressive religious and political domination.
They followed a Jesus who boldly
trumped law with love, especially when religious law had become
oppressive and condescending - and they embodied that Jesus in the
community life. That is the
Jesus they knew - that is the Jesus they followed - that is
the Jesus that shaped their life
together and empowered them to witness to God's liberating love.
I pray we will follow that Jesus too!