David Bahn – Reflections

A family was visiting a park in Fort Wayne, Indiana. They were moving there from Springfield, Illinois. Two African American boys were playing on the only swings that were available at that particular playground, so one of the boys from the Illinois family hit upon an idea. “Only boys with blond hair, blue eyes, and light skin can play on this playground!” His father quickly corrected his son: “You can’t say that!” But his son didn’t mean it in a racist way. He was simply setting rules to please himself, and conditions which only he met. Not even his brother could play on the playground if his rules were enforced: his brother had green eyes and dark hair!

The on-going posturing of the Pharisees toward Jesus, his response, and the inevitable outcomes are a warning to anyone who might think he can make up rules to please himself. But their posturing is far more insidious than playground rules. They wanted to define who was approved by God and who was not: all based on their own righteousness and rules that they had made and ostensibly could keep.

Matthew 19

¹Now when Jesus had finished these sayings, he went away from Galilee and entered the region of Judea beyond the Jordan. ²And large crowds followed him, and he healed them there.

³And Pharisees came up to him and tested him by asking, “Is it lawful to divorce one’s wife for any cause?” ⁴He answered, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, ⁵and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? ⁶So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.” ⁷They said to him, “Why then did Moses command one to give a certificate of divorce and to send her away?” ⁸He said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. ⁹ And I say to you: whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery.”

¹⁰The disciples said to him, “If such is the case of a man with his wife, it is better not to marry.” ¹¹But he said to them, “Not everyone can receive this saying, but only those to whom it is given. ¹²For there are eunuchs who have been so from birth, and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by men, and there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. Let the one who is able to receive this receive it.”

But Jesus’ response is a reminder of God’s truth, and reality itself. God is not only the creator of male and female, he is the one who determines how men and women are to relate to one another. He is the one to whom we will give an account. Not Pharisees. Not Moses. God alone is judge.

Jesus also helps us to see that God truly does “know our frame.” He realizes that we have hard hearts. He understands that not all can receive and fully embrace the realities of God’s high calling. More than that, he realizes that we all will bump up against God’s truth. That is reality.

So rather than make up our own rules and gain a standing before God by means of our own conditions, we must acknowledge God’s truth. Rather than posturing before God, we must simply say, “God be merciful to me a sinner!” Then we can begin to live in the most elegant and edifying reality of all: Grace and Truth. It’s a wonderful place to live.