Jesus on Divorce – Matthew 5:31-32

Jesus’ teaching in Matthew 5:31-32 confronts the easy divorce culture of his day, and our own, that oppresses women and weaponizes divorce. The announcement of his coming Kingdom is always good news for those who have been wounded by divorce.

The Four Challenges of Matthew 5:31-32

1. Scripture appears to be inconsistent

2. The meaning of the word used for sexual immorality is unclear

3. Our cultural understanding of love, marriage, and therefore divorce is not the same as the biblical understanding of these concepts. 

4. Divorce and remarriage questions are about real people. 

We are living in an easy divorce culture. 

Sermon on the Mount Series Reminders

1. The Sermon on the Mount is not an isolated speech. Rather the sermon is an exemplification or personification of Jesus’ life. 

2. The whole sermon is Christ describing what life in the kingdom and allegiance to Him looks like.

3. Obedience to the Sermon on the Mount is a practice of imagination. 

“It was also said, ‘Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.’ – Matthew 5:31

1 If a man marries a woman who becomes displeasing to him because he finds something indecent about her, and he writes her a certificate of divorce, gives it to her and sends her from his house, 2 and if after she leaves his house she becomes the wife of another man, 3 and her second husband dislikes her and writes her a certificate of divorce, gives it to her and sends her from his house, or if he dies, 4 then her first husband, who divorced her, is not allowed to marry her again after she has been defiled. That would be detestable in the eyes of the Lord. Do not bring sin upon the land the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance. – Deuteronomy 24:1-4

Firstly, we need to understand this is legislation, not a command. 

Secondly,  Moses is actually putting together a set of laws or rules to govern divorce in the protection of marginalized women. 

“But I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except on the grounds of sexual immorality, makes her commit adultery, and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.”  – Matthew 5:32

Two Schools of Thought: 

1. School of Shammai: You can divorce on the basis of moral grounds being violated

2. School of Hillel: You can divorce for any reason at all

Options for 1st divorced woman: 

1. Live with a relative

2. Remarry 

3. Prostitution 

And Jesus firmly sides with the school of Shammai, the side of the weak and marginalized woman in the same spirit as Moses, coming not to abolish the law but to fulfill it. 

Three Forms of Response: 

1. For those of you who have embraced an easy divorce culture, it is time to rethink your view and understanding of marriage and divorce. 

2. For those of you in this room who have been divorced and/or remarried, Jesus sides with the marginalized and is also quick to forgive. 

3. For those of you who maybe grew up in church, we must rethink or repent for the assumptions, indifference, or harshness we’ve displayed toward divorced individuals.