Some Pharisees ask Jesus if the Law allows for a man to divorce his wife. Jesus said, “But from the beginning of creation, God made them male and female, and for this reason men and women leave their fathers and mothers and the two become one. They are no longer two but one. Let no one separate what God has joined.”
In our time the Pharisee’s question may seem one-sided and outdated. Their question addresses only what the law allows a husband to do. It does not give a wife the equal rights we expect in a democratic society.
Jesus sidesteps this legal controversy hotly debated among rabbis of his time. Rather than look at what is permissible, Jesus focuses on what is ideal. He puts the Pharisees’ question in the context of the creation stories that begin the book of Genesis, the first of the five books that form the Torah. In this context men and women are equal.
What message for today do you hear in Jesus’ teaching?
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