Today in the Spirit: Proper 22B
In Mark 10:2-16, the assigned Gospel reading for Proper 22B, Mark (and Matthew) has placed back-to-back Jesus’ teachings on marriage and divorce and receiving the kingdom of God like a child as the first teachings he delivers on the road to Jerusalem. In the region of Perea, east of the Jordan, we find Jesus responding to Pharisees testing him on the question of divorce when he states, So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate (8-9). Presumably, in the same place, Jesus is indignant when the disciples seek to impede children coming to him and commands,
“Let the children come to me; do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God. Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.”
Mark 10:14-15
The assigned OT reading from Genesis 2:18-24 contains the text Jesus cites in his teaching on marriage and divorce, as well as the back story in the creation narrative in which God, in his love for Adam, creates Eve:
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But for Adam, there was not found a helper fit for him. So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept, he took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man.
Genesis 2:20-22
With its emphasis on the glory of man given in creation, we will sing or say Psalm 8 in our worship to establish in our hearts that all the institutions of man established at creation, including marriage, carry on them the imprint of Creator God. So joined in marriage too, “You have made [man, woman] little lower than the angels, to crown him with glory and honor…O LORD, our Governor, how excellent is your Name in all the world!” (5,9, BCP New Coverdale).
From this point forward in the Pentecost season until Christ the King Sunday (the last Sunday after Pentecost), the church assigns a series of NT readings from the Letter to the Hebrews. Most chapters of this great epistle are covered in this series, though certain important selections are found elsewhere in the lectionary. We begin the series in Year B with Hebrews 2:[1-8]9-18. Picking up on the language of Psalm 8, the required section, vv. 9-18, begins:
But we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone.
Hebrews 2:9
The assigned Collect this week is a petition for the Church to be given the “godliness” and “protection” needed “to devoutly serve you in good works.” (Note: this is a return to the traditional wording of this Collect compared with the same prayer in the BCP 1979 which petitions for “steadfast faith and love, that through your grace we may proclaim your truth with boldness and minister your justice with compassion”).
The Collect
Keep, O Lord, your household the Church in continual godliness, that through your protection it may be free from all adversities, and devoutly serve you in good works, to the glory of your Name; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
I Will Make Him a Helper Fit for Him (Genesis 2:18-24)
18 Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.” 19 Now out of the ground the Lord God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. 20 The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him. 21 So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. 22 And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. 23 Then the man said,
“This at last is bone of my bones
and flesh of my flesh;
she shall be called Woman,
because she was taken out of Man.”24 Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.
Genesis 2:18-24
“It is not good that the man should be alone” (18). In this particular narrative, the reference to the man (Heb. h’adam) refers to the male Adam. However, as a theological principle, the word man and the statement as a whole should be taken more generally: so God is saying it is not good for people (men or women) to be alone. Yes, as to this instance, and perhaps in terms of the design of male and female relationships in general, the woman is the helper of the man, but surely our experience of marriage and the whole testimony of Scripture (see, for instance, Pr. 31:10-31) will tell us, the man and the woman are created as helpers to each other.
What man who has married the woman created by God for him cannot say, “She has made me twice the man I could ever be without her”? And would not the woman who has married well say the same? We are the helpers (Heb. azar, which, taken broadly, can also mean “supporter” and “rescuer”) to one another. God works his saving ministry on us through our spouses.(read 1 Cor. 7:14 from this perspective). The work of God to join husband and wife is him being Ebenezer (see 1 Sam. 7:12, from the same Heb. root as ezer) to us, and it provides the most profound picture we have on earth of Jesus Christ as our helper.
Today, in the Spirit, I thank you for my spouse who is my helper, and I pray for my children to find, if it is God’s will, their right companion too.
You Have Placed Everything Under Their Authority (Psalm 8)
BCP New Coverdale1 O Lord our Governor, how excellent is your Name in all the world; *
you have set your glory above the heavens!
2 Out of the mouth of babes and infants you have ordained strength, because of your enemies, * that you might still the enemy and the avenger.
3 When I consider your heavens, even the works of your fingers, *
the moon and the stars, which you have ordained,
4 What is man, that you are mindful of him, *
the son of man, that you visit him?
5 You made him little lower than the angels, *
to crown him with glory and honor.
6 You made him to have dominion over the works of your hands, *
and you have put all things in subjection under his feet:
7 All sheep and oxen, *
even the beasts of the field,
8 The birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, *
and whatsoever walks through the paths of the seas.
9 O Lord our Governor, *
how excellent is your Name in all the world!
Or, you appoint them to rule over your creation; you have placed everything under their authority (6, NET). I believe contemporary English translations like this one do us a great service in a case like this. Them instead of him here (whether you approve of the convention or not) gives us not only female inclusion but also a corporate dimension in the interpretation of this verse. Men, women, and children together have dominion by God’s design at creation.
On a Sunday in which we are thinking of the marriage union, this psalm compels us to look at our entire families, and especially our spouses, in wonder at the joint responsibility we have been given for participation in worship, prayer, and fellowship. Together, we are meant to seek God’s face for discernment in carrying out dominion over the tiny bits of territory we have been assigned as joint stewards. Husbands and wives, are you praying together daily? Have you set aside time for worship as a couple and, additionally, with your children? How can we not?
Today, in the Spirit, hearing in this psalm the fullness of divine intention for humans corporately to take leadership in the world, we who are believers in Christ plead forgiveness for the laxity in spiritual disciplines we have allowed to infect our married lives, asking you to draw spouses and families together in prayer and praise.
But We See [Jesus] (Hebrews 2:[1-8]9-18)
6 It has been testified somewhere,
“What is man, that you are mindful of him,
or the son of man, that you care for him?
7 You made him for a little while lower than the angels;
you have crowned him with glory and honor,
8 putting everything in subjection under his feet.”Now in putting everything in subjection to him, he left nothing outside his control. At present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to him.9 But we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels, namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might taste death for everyone. 10 For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering. 11 For he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one source. That is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers, 12 saying,
“I will tell of your name to my brothers;
in the midst of the congregation I will sing your praise.”
13 And again,
“I will put my trust in him.”
And again,
“Behold, I and the children God has given me.”14 Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, 15 and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery. 16 For surely it is not angels that he helps, but he helps the offspring of Abraham. 17 Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. 18 For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted.
Hebrews 2:6-18
Notice the repetition of the verb see in vv. 8-9. (They are two different words in Greek but not significantly different in meaning). The encouragement of the pastor and author of Hebrews is to train the “sight” of the readers of this passage in two directions–first, to the throne of the ascended Jesus (namely Jesus, crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, 9), then to the crucified Jesus (that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, 14). He says, At present, we do not yet see everything in subjection to him, and yet, we see him who for a little while was made lower than the angels (8-9). How can we both not see and see him? With physical eyes, we do not see him, the crucified and exalted One ruling, but with eyes of faith, we see he is there!
I confess to you, Lord, that I often do not see your reigning over all things with my eyes of faith. My physical eyes are dominant, such that in the press of the circumstances around me, I see little but adversity. With my limited vision, I wonder whether you are really in control. I need you to change the setting on my heart, much like I do on my camera phone, to blur the world in the background and see your face, Jesus, clearly, front and center.
Today, Holy Spirit, with the help of this text from Hebrews, train my spiritual sight with that double-sided vision of your crucifixion on one hand by which I know you understand me and have paid the price of my sin and your ascension on the other by which I perceive that, truly, everything is truly subject to you.
Whoever Divorces His Wife and Marries Another (Mark 10:2-16)
2 And Pharisees came up and in order to test him asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?” 3 He answered them, “What did Moses command you?” 4 They said, “Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of divorce and to send her away.” 5 And Jesus said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart he wrote you this commandment. 6 But from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.’ 7 ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, 8 and the two shall become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two but one flesh. 9 What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.”10 And in the house the disciples asked him again about this matter. 11 And he said to them, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her, 12 and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.”
Mark 10:2-12
The disciples find themselves once again in the house (10) with Jesus (see also 9:28,33). It is here that our Lord chooses to give further explanations of obscure teachings he has delivered in public and with harder words than the public could bear. In this case, instead of saying to them, “Well, the provision for a divorce certificate is acceptable under certain circumstances,” Jesus declares flatly, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her, and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery” (11-12). This statement, of course, does not carry the so-called Mathean exception (except for marital unfaithfulness, 5:32,19:9). Some commentators believe it would be implied by Jesus speaking to a Jewish audience with the presupposition that adulterers should be stoned. Okay, maybe, but could there be another reason why, in the revelation of the Gospels as a whole, we see this difference?
By way of devotional application, let me say a word to those believers (like me) who have been divorced or divorced and remarried. We can and should receive some comfort and justification from the Mathean exceptions and even from Paul in 1 Corinthians 7. But, alongside these passages, we need to hear the truth expressed plainly in Mark. Divorce is a sin, never the perfect will of God for us. It matters not where the fault lies; it doesn’t matter what reason we have for believing our our first marriages were a mistake: to have been involved in the break up of a marriage at any level is wrong. So, we need to feel the sting of condemnation from which our only release is the cross of Christ. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace (Eph. 1:7). Praise God!
Today, Holy Spirit, be with all of us who find ourselves in the house with Jesus on this matter, licking our wounds over his words in Mark spoken so plainly. Thank you for the cross, Lord, where I find the only lasting comfort, the forgiveness of sin, which no exceptions to the rule can ever provide.
Today in the Spirit
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