Assuredly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will by no means enter it

 

 Then He arose from there and came to the region of Judea by the other side of the Jordan.  And multitudes gathered to Him again, and as He was accustomed, He taught them again.  The Pharisees came and asked Him, "Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?" testing Him.  And He answered and said to them, "What did Moses command you?"  They said, "Moses permitted a man to write a certificate of divorce, and to dismiss her."  And Jesus answered and said to them, "Because of the hardness of your heart he wrote you this precept.  But from the beginning of the creation, God 'made them male and female.'  'For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, 'and the two shall become one flesh'; so then they are no longer two, but one flesh.  Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate."  In the house His disciples also asked Him again about the same matter.  So He said to them, "Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her.  And if a woman divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery."  

Then they brought little children to Him, that He might touch them; but the disciples rebuked those who brought them.  But when Jesus saw it, He was greatly displeased and said to them, "Let the little children come to Me, and do not forbid them; for of such is the kingdom of God.  Assuredly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will by no means enter it."  And He took them up in His arms, laid His hands on them, and blessed them.

 

- Mark 10:1–16 

 

In Monday's reading, we were told that Jesus and the disciples departed from the area of the Mount of Transfiguration and passed through Galilee, and He did not want anyone to know it.  For He taught His disciples and said to them, "The Son of Man is being betrayed into the hands of men, and they will kill Him.  And after He is killed, He will rise the third day."  But they did not understand this saying, and were afraid to ask Him.  Then He came to Capernaum.  And when He was in the house He asked them "What was it you disputed among yourselves on the road?"  But they kept silent, for on the road they had disputed among themselves who would be the greatest.  And He sat down, called the twelve, and said to them, "If anyone desires to be first, he shall be last of all and servant of all."  Then He took a little child and set him in the midst of them.  And when He had taken him in His arms, He said to them, "Whoever receives one of these little children in My name receives Me; and whoever receives Me, receives not Me but Him who sent Me."   Now John answered Him, saying, "Teacher, we saw someone who does not follow us casting out demons in Your name, and we forbade him because he does not follow us."  But Jesus said, "Do not forbid him, for no one who works a miracle in My name can soon afterward speak evil of Me.  For he who is not against us is on our side.  For whoever gives you a cup of water to drink in My name, because you belong to Christ, assuredly, I say to you, he will by no means lose his reward. But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were thrown into the sea.  If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off.  It is better for you to enter into life maimed, rather than having two hands, to go to hell, into the fire that shall never be quenched -- where 'their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.' And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off.  It is better for you to enter life lame, rather than having two feet,  to be cast into hell, into the fire that shall never be quenched -- where 'their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.' And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out.  It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye, rather than having two eyes, to be cast into hell fire -- where 'their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.' For everyone will be seasoned with fire, and every sacrifice will be seasoned with salt.  Salt is good, but if the salt loses its flavor, how will you season it?  Have salt in yourselves, and have peace with one another."   

 Then He arose from there and came to the region of Judea by the other side of the Jordan.  And multitudes gathered to Him again, and as He was accustomed, He taught them again.  The Pharisees came and asked Him, "Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?" testing Him.  And He answered and said to them, "What did Moses command you?"  They said, "Moses permitted a man to write a certificate of divorce, and to dismiss her."  And Jesus answered and said to them, "Because of the hardness of your heart he wrote you this precept.  But from the beginning of the creation, God 'made them male and female.'  'For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, 'and the two shall become one flesh'; so then they are no longer two, but one flesh.  Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate."  In the house His disciples also asked Him again about the same matter.  So He said to them, "Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her.  And if a woman divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery."   My study Bible comments that, in contrast to the easy access to divorce under the Mosaic Law, and also because of the misuse of divorce in His time, Jesus repeatedly condemns divorce (see also Matthew 5:31-32; 19:8-9), and here emphasizes the eternal nature of marriage.  In Matthew's Gospel, Jesus makes an exception for divorce on the grounds of sexual immorality, which my study Bible says shows us that marriage can be destroyed by sin.  In the tradition of the Orthodox Church, divorce is recognized as a serious sin (in the sense of "missing the mark" of perfection), but allows divorce and a second marriage as a concession to human weakness and corrective measure of compassion when a marriage has been broken.  Under specific circumstances, tradition holds that a third marriage is permissible.  But we should note Christ's strong words here, and that God's condescension or allowance for human weakness does not override the original principle of permanent monogamous marriage as revealed in Genesis 1; 2.  Regarding Jesus' quotations see Genesis 1:27; 2:24; 5:2.  Let us note also how the disciples ask Jesus in private about the same matter.  It is not the first time nor the last that private explanations, even personal admonition, is given to the disciples. To be a follower of Christ it is not necessary to first have all the answers right, but to desire to follow in faith.

Then they brought little children to Him, that He might touch them; but the disciples rebuked those who brought them.  But when Jesus saw it, He was greatly displeased and said to them, "Let the little children come to Me, and do not forbid them; for of such is the kingdom of God.  Assuredly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will by no means enter it."  And He took them up in His arms, laid His hands on them, and blessed them.  According to Theophylact, the disciples rebuked the mothers for bringing little children to Christ both because their manner was "unruly" and because they thought children "diminished His dignity as Teacher and Master."  But Christ rejects their thinking, and sets little children as an example of those who inherit the kingdom of heaven.   Children are therefore invited -- even as an example to adults -- to participate in the Kingdom through prayer, worship, baptism, chrismation, and Communion.  Elsewhere, in a commentary on Luke 18:15-17, my study Bible quotes Theophylact as saying, "A little child is not arrogant, he does not despise anyone, he is innocent and guileless.  He does not inflate himself in the presence of important people, nor withdraw from those in sorrows.  Instead, he lives in complete simplicity." 

It's interesting to note the details in today's reading.  As written above, this isn't the first time that Jesus has taught privately to His disciples, on basically the same or very similar issue, after speaking in public.  But in the first case, His public teaching is a scathing kind of criticism.  In private to the disciples, they may have similar objections or at least doubts regarding the subject -- and yet they are worthy of His private teaching as well as their status as disciples and apostles.  We'll see something similar in tomorrow's reading, regarding wealth and salvation.  In today's reading, the disciples ask in private about divorce, while in public Jesus says something harsh to the Pharisees, who come only to test Him ("Because of the hardness of your heart he wrote you this precept").  In fact, in Matthew's reporting of this, the disciples are so stunned by His teaching in private that they say, "If such is the case of the man with his wife, it is better not to marry" (see Matthew 19:8-10).  We read a similar pattern in the recent case wherein Jesus returned from the Mount of Transfiguration to meet a crowd which included scribes who were disputing with the disciples.  This was because they could not cast out an unclean spirit.  In public, Jesus chastised the suffering boy's father for his lack of faith.  But in private, He told His disciples, teaching them about building their own faith, "This kind can come out by nothing but prayer and fasting."  (See Saturday's reading.)  In each of these cases, we may observe that although the disciples themselves are not completely clear on the concept that Jesus is teaching, or perhaps also have their doubts, Christ has taken them out of the crowds for discipleship and a future with the Church, while the Pharisees, scribes, and others remain in this sense outsiders.  We have to ask ourselves why, when there is such a great emphasis on faith, He has chosen one set for instruction and teaching, nurturing in discipleship, and the others remain outside, a part of the public, even criticized harshly by Jesus.  This is important, not only because it seems to occur repeatedly in the Gospels, but also because we must pause to ask what Christ means by having faith.  Does faith mean we ascribe to a set of beliefs or teachings?  A moral code?  Or is it something more than that?  If even the disciples lack faith, if even they have doubts or uncertainties about what Jesus is actually teaching -- such as on divorce -- what are we to make of our own understanding of what faith is?  We need to recall that the word for faith in the Greek of the Gospels means "trust" at its heart and root.  Our faith in Christ is the same thing that happens in a deep relationship between two people when they trust one another.  Sometimes we will have an automatic reaction to a person, we just feel in our hearts we can trust them.    Such experiences can truly be "few and far between," as the saying goes.  But if we have ever experienced that, a kind of meeting of hearts, we know how rare and precious it is, and what it means, then, to have faith in this sense.  Faith does not mean we automatically know everything, or think everything correctly, or have all the answers at our disposal.  If the disciples are anything to go by, it must be something else.  And we might imagine that this trust goes two ways:  Jesus has chosen them for a reason, because He recognized something in them.  That is, not something on the surface, not some proof about something, not a test, but rather a reading of the heart.  Yet even Jesus will say (speaking of Judas who would betray Him), "Did I not choose you, the twelve, and one of you is a devil?" (John 6:70).  Faith does not mean we have all the moral answers and it cannot be boiled down to a set of ethics and abstractions.  This is not what the Gospels teach us.  The disciples make plenty of mistakes, they argue among themselves, they are full of human flaws.  In Monday's reading, they disputed among themselves who would be greatest, when Jesus had just given them a warning about His Passion to come -- and that was the occasion for these strict teachings about the littlest and most humble who would be in their care, and about the image of a little child which they should seek to emulate if they wish to be a part of the kingdom of God.  Faith is all about the kind of connection in us that is teachable, and a willingness to love and be loved (as Theophan comments on Monday's passage); it is all about trust.  Jesus wants those who can follow Him, for He takes us on a road somewhere, and we don't have to already be perfect to be on that journey.  The whole purpose of the journey is to, in effect, perfect us, to take us somewhere, a long road of learning -- for that is what discipleship means.  He wants those who have salt within themselves, who can stay the long haul, with a loyalty that comes from that rare thing, trust.   He wants those of us who know we have something to learn from Him.  If we think about it, we can relate trust to all relationships, and especially and in particular to marriage.  Let us consider, then, the importance that Jesus gives to marriage, and why marriage is important.  It is, in the historic mind of the Church, another road to holiness -- in which we learn to sacrifice for one another, and the difficult and rewarding road of trust for the long haul.  Let us ponder His words and teachings, as well as His love for the little children.