This past week I taught an extension class for pastors out in California. All but three of the students enrolled in the class were Korean pastors from a variety of church backgrounds. They were full of questions. For the most part they were good questions. That's one of the supreme joys of teaching - having students who raise questions and are willing to struggle to arrive at an answer. Now the Pharisees were full of questions, too. But they were questions that were designed to test Jesus, to catch Him in a contradiction or to find some flaw in His answer.

So the Pharisees come to our Lord with a question about a sensitive and sticky subject - divorce. "Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?" Either way Jesus answers this inquiry, he'll get in trouble. The conservative rabbis of New Testament times taught that the only valid grounds for divorce was sexual infidelity. The liberal rabbis contended that a man could divorce his wife for any reason. She burns the Sabbath lamb and she's history! Who will Jesus side with - the traditionalists or the lenient?

Like the good teacher that He is, the Lord doesn't give a direct answer to the Pharisees' question. He comes back at them with another question, "What did Moses command you?" In other words, "What does the Bible say?" The Pharisees fire back, "Moses permitted a man to write a certificate of divorce, and to dismiss her." Well, actually, the Pharisees only quote part of what Moses said. In Deuteronomy 24, Moses actually says, "If a man takes a wife and marries her, and it happens that she finds no favor in his eyes because he has found some uncleanness in her, and he writes her a certificate of divorce, puts it in her hand, and sends her out of his house, when she has departed from his house, and goes and becomes another man's wife, if the latter husband detests her and writes her a certificate of divorce, puts it in her hand and sends her out of his house or if the latter husband dies who took her to be his wife" she cannot go back to her first husband. Now, the rabbis debated what exactly Moses meant by the husband finding "uncleanness" in his wife. The conservatives said it meant sexual uncleanness, some sexual sin. The more lax rabbis argued that the text was to be interpreted from the standpoint of "finding no favor," which gave the husband the right to do with their wives as they pleased. The Pharisees, of course, latched on to the fact that divorce was at least permitted. And now like the good legalists that they are, they want to find out under what circumstances is divorce allowable. In other words, they are looking for a loophole. Those who look for loopholes in God's law do so in order to justify themselves, to get themselves off the hook with God.

But Jesus sews up that loophole. He does not even bother to correct their mishandling of the Old Testament text. Instead He goes right to the heart of the matter. The heart of the matter is a hardened heart - a stony, tough heart that is so brittle that it can't pulsate with forgiveness and compassion. Cold and rock-like, such a heart lacks tenderness. Such a heart is baked hard by sin like clay in the heat of the noonday sun. Moses permitted divorce not because God wills divorce or thinks divorce is not a problem but because of the hardness of the human heart that refuses to forgive. Jesus doesn't wrangle with the Pharisees, parsing out divorces that are good from those that are bad. No, Jesus goes straight back beyond Moses and beyond the sin of our first parents to creation itself.

Jesus says: "From the beginning of 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." That is God's design for marriage. You see, marriage is His gift. Adam doesn't simply find a wife and Eve doesn't find herself a husband. God gives Adam the gift of a wife in that woman that He fashioned out of Adam's side while he slept. And Adam receives Eve as the divine gift that she is. He says of Eve:

"This is now bone of my bones
And flesh of my flesh:
She shall be called Woman,
Because she was taken out of Man."

We have a tough time with that. I guess the disciples did too, for when they are alone with Jesus in the house, they ask Him about it again. Jesus clarifies it for 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." Now there is a temptation for us to look for loopholes in those words, especially in a culture such as ours where we are given to believe that we can easily change anything that is difficult, burdensome, or unpleasant about our lives. But God's design leaves no loopholes. When we take marriage vows, we pledge faithfulness for better or for worse, for richer or for poorer, in sickness and in health.

But there is more to today's Holy Gospel than marriage and divorce. Jesus blesses the little children who are brought to Him. When the disciples try to protect Jesus from those pesky parents and their kids, He says: "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." The only way to receive the kingdom is as a little child. To receive as a little child is to receive without the rationalizations and the excuses that we would use to cover not only our broken marriages, but all of our sin. The little child does not come to Jesus boasting of how well he has kept the commandments. The little child does not come to Jesus complaining about how hard Jesus' teaching is. The little child comes to Jesus only to receive blessing. And that blessing is what Jesus gives us here today.

Some of you know very intimately the pain of a broken marriage. Some of you might be tempted to look for sexual fulfillment from someone who is not your husband or wife. Others come with the shame of secret sins. We all -- married, single, or divorced -- come as sinners in need of the Jesus who still takes children up into His arms to bless them. So, as you come to His altar today, lay aside every rationalization that you would use to vainly attempt to pry a loophole in God's Law and so justify yourself. Instead come to the Lord Jesus Christ who has taken all sin - the sin of lust and fornication, the sin of adultery and divorce - upon Himself. This Jesus "who knew no sin was made sin for us," says Paul. Completely pure and faithful, He was made lust and fornication, divorce and adultery for you. He answered for all of your sin on His cross. No sin is so great that His blood-bought forgiveness is not greater still. The way of the little child is to trust this Jesus as He gives us His forgiveness in the ways in which He wills to give it - His Baptism, His Word, and His Supper. Leave the loopholes to the Pharisees. Come instead in child-like faith trusting in the promises of our Lord Jesus Christ whose righteousness alone covers our sin. Amen.

The peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus to life everlasting. Amen.