On Divorce
Jesus and His disciples then traveled to the coasts of Judea beyond the Jordan River. He was followed by great multitudes and He healed those who wanted to be healed [Matthew 19:1-2].
After this, the Pharisees tempted Jesus to make an inaccurate statement about divorce. They wanted to know if a man could put away a woman for any cause.
Jesus explained that God made male and female and said that when a man should leave his father and mother to be married, they would be considered one flesh - united. What God joined together, man should not split apart.
To defend themselves they questioned why Moses then provided the ability to divorce. Jesus replied that it was the hardness of people's hearts rather than the will of God that this was made possible. There are few scriptural reasons for divorce. Fornication / adultery is one. Having an unbelieving spouse that departs is another [1 Corinthians 7:12-15].
Divorce is prevalent in society today. Families with a single parent are common. Most times, the reason still boils down to hardness of heart and lack of forgiveness. For comments on forgiveness, see the last chapter's comments. Hardness of heart is something each must deal with. In any divorce, there is truth seen by the husband, truth seen by the wife, and the real truth which is usually either a combination of parts of both or just somewhere in between. Where truth lies, only God knows for sure. Someday, He'll point it out to both parties, I'll suspect.
The advice I give is first and foremost, seek God's will about who you marry. That one thing would drastically reduce the number of divorces. It won't eliminate them, because people do change over time. As kids enter into the marriage, there are more stress and time commitments that can harm the bond between husband and wife. But God is able to see you through anything if you are willing to trust in Him and pray for changes to both your and your partner's hearts.
As lives change there will undoubtedly be some friction. It's up to you to each forgive as the other makes mistakes or doesn't follow the path you want them to follow. It is a very rare divorce situation where mistakes are only made by one party (although the other party may not see their acts or words as mistakes).
If divorce does happen because one party decides they've had enough, try to stay amicable at least if there are children involved. If you married a Christian, there shouldn't have been outright conflict at any time in the marriage. But sometimes that isn't enough. One just wants something new and can't forgive problems they see in their partner. The children are not at fault and shouldn't have to deal with the problems of the parents. As much as is in your power, and most things are, figure out how to each be a good parent to their children in God's eyes. His are the ones that count.
On Marriage
Jesus' comments on marriage worried the disciples. They began to think that it wasn't good to marry at all. In Matthew 19:10-12 Jesus responds by saying that some men are eunuchs from birth, some were made eunuchs by man, and some have chosen to forgo sex and marriage to give themselves to the kingdom of God. If you are able to take this path, then it is good.
But this shouldn't be taken to the extreme. One of the points of division between Roman Catholics and Eastern Orthodoxy was whether priests must remain celibate. I'd say that history has ruled that not every one is able to receive that calling to celibacy and that it has been a mistake for the Roman Catholic church to enforce it. But that's just my .80 cent opinion.
On Blessings
Some people then brought children to Jesus for blessing [Matthew 19:13-15]. The disciples rebuked them. I'm not sure why considering the teaching about little children that He had previously given. I'd suspect that it had something to do with the fact that they thought they were getting some important teaching about practical things like divorce, to say nothing of having the Pharisees put in their place, and didn't want any interruptions.
Jesus reminded them that little children were important to God and perhaps made up a large percentage of the kingdom of heaven. At any rate, He performed the requested blessing.
Let us always be guided by the Holy Spirit. How often does some gate keeper prevent someone from coming to the pastor, missionary, bishop, pope? It is true that everyone is busy today. Christ was busy in His day, and there was little time left for Him to minister. He dealt with multitudes on at least a weekly basis, depending on travel time. In that, He healed people again and again. He cast out demons. And He found time to teach. A Christian's time today isn't any more valuable than Jesus time was then.
He took time out of His busy schedule for children and for parents wanting the best for their children. Help us to find the love to do likewise.
On Riches
Matthew 19:16-26 turns to a young man who comes to Jesus wanting to know what good thing he could do to have eternal life. Clearly, merit doesn't allow you to make it into heaven. As our pastor is fond of saying, if being good could get you into heaven, there was no reason for Christ to come.
Regardless, Jesus tells the young man that the Father in heaven is the only truly good one. Christ wasn't someone that should be called good, regardless of His life and position. He tells the man that he should keep God's commandments to ensure he would end up in heaven, since they were then under the Jewish system. The young man is curious as to which, and Jesus lists several of the big ones - basically all which don't directly relate to God.
The youth declares that he has been faithful in all these things, and Jesus doesn't contradict him in that statement. But Jesus does go on to point out one thing that he was lacking. Jesus tells him that to be perfect he should sell his possessions, give to the poor, and would thus gain treasure in heaven. Then he should follow Jesus as a disciple.
The man went away sad, because he was rich. Being rich in itself isn't a sin. Perhaps how you accumulated the wealth is, but Jesus doesn't fault the man on how he acquired his possessions. But evidently the things the man had became more important to him than Christ. He wasn't willing to part with them (at least immediately - the story doesn't talk about the young man's future actions, only his present countenance).
Jesus comments to the disciples after the man goes away that it is hard for the rich to enter the kingdom of heaven. The disciples had heard the man testify to his keeping of the law and wondered aloud who could be saved if not this man?
Jesus replied that with men it was impossible, but with God all things were possible. God has done great things for man through both the rich and the poor. It isn't impossible for a rich man to be saved. But there are many things that make it difficult. Sin is an equal opportunity destroyer. It doesn't matter what your net worth is... sin is present. But the rich have more time, money, and opportunity to fail than most who aren't well off. And, as noted earlier, their path to riches may have had many steps that were slippery at best.
The thought that the well off are automatically headed to heaven since it is assumed they wouldn't have gotten there without God's helping hand is firmly rooted in history. It probably can't be shaken today. Even in the church we tend to look to the patriarchs of the Old Testament and see God's hand of blessing going along with their prosperity.
But there are many who are rich today, completely outside of the hand of God. They, or their ancestors, have fought, bled, schemed, guessed right more often than wrong, and gotten to a position where they are completely outside of God. Look at the kings and princes of Islamic countries as an example. Their lands had oil wealth and they exploited it. They continued to exploit foreign workers and anyone else in their country who wasn't in the direct bloodline. Truly, riches aren't any sort of real absolute indicator of a person's relationship with God.
On Future Blessings
Peter then asked what they had to look forward to since they had forsaken everything to follow Christ [Matthew 19:27-30]. Jesus told them that eventually, when Jesus had taken up His own rightful place, they would each receive thrones, and would judge the twelve tribes of Israel. Everyone who has given up something - possessions or family - for the sake of Jesus and enlarging Jesus kingdom would be given a compensation that was 100 fold and eternal life.
But He also warned that many who were first would be last and last first. This is hard to interpret, but my personal opinion is that we are all going to be judged by what we have done for God and the resulting harvest. Just being among the disciples and early Christians wouldn't automatically make you better than those who came later. Think of the field owner who sent out workers over several times of the day, but at the end gave each person equal wages that is in the next chapter. Those who had labored all day grumbled when they didn't get more than those who had only worked a short time. But the field owner demurred saying they got what they had agreed to work for.
Results are what matter to God. He will judge the reasons we do things along with the results. Many who achieve great results may have done it for poor reasons - glory, elevation in the church, power... But in the end God will weigh what has been done in secret or at least quietly and His judgments will be fair and impartial.