Exceptions?

July 5th

Read: Mark 10:1-12

Exceptions?

A friend who is a lawyer (and married to a judge) once told me, “extreme cases make poor law”. We have a tendency to want to push the envelope as human being, and seek out the “exception to every rule”. This is the unregenerate heart of man. The human institutions around us are more than happy to “make exceptions”… to try to justify actions by pointing to the most obscure and rare of “extenuating circumstances”. We see this played out in the Pharisees and their questioning of Jesus.

These people came “in order to test him”. (v.2) They wanted to press Jesus into a corner… into a situation that they thought would compromise his position. They asked Jesus about the law that came through Moses regarding divorce. Look at Jesus’ response:

“Because of your hardness of heart he wrote you this commandment. But from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.’ Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.” (v.5-9)

Jesus demonstrates that - at best - what Moses made was a concession that came about because of “hard hearts”. Who knows what arguments or circumstances had to come to make Moses react the way he did, but the take away is the same: We want to ask Jesus questions about when it is “OK” to do things that God simply does not intend for us to do. Even if we think these things are “acceptable” it does not mean they are beneficial. (cf. 1 Cor. 6:12)

This principle stretches beyond the topics of divorce and remarriage into so much of everyday life. As the culture around us “normalizes” so much deviant behavior, we are faced with the same conundrum: how will we respond when we are given “human permission” to do something that is contrary to God’s original design and plan? Are we living life on the look out for ways that we can make “exceptions” into the norm? Or are we willing to let the words of Jesus remind us of God’s design. More and more each day, the world is seeking to “test” Jesus… to press back against God’s law… this is the true definition of “hard hearts”. May God give us “soft hearts” that are willing to listen to his word and live by his design. Love you guys. - JDP