Sunday, October 7, 2018
27th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Cycle B)
Marriage and divorce
In the first part of the Gospel reading (Mark 10:2-16), the Pharisees approach
Jesus and test him by asking whether it is permissible under God’s law for a
married couple to divorce. Jesus quickly draws a distinction between divorce
as allowed by Moses and the permanency that God wills for marriage. Jesus
clarifies that Moses permitted them to divorce because of their “hard hearts.”
In other words, they had closed their hearts to God’s will. The people placed
their own desires before what God had commanded. Jesus recalled that from
the beginning, God intended that marriage be a permanent, lifelong union
between a man and a woman.
Things are not all that different today. There continues to be a growing list of
challenges to marriage. We all know someone, or we have ourselves
experienced the pain of divorce in our families and among our friends. We are
not called to judge, but to bring compassion and offer prayers of support for all
those affected by the breakup of a family.
Bringing their children
The reading continues with what seems to be a disconnected event. People
begin bringing their children to Jesus in the hopes that he might bless them.
As this is happening, we read that the disciples “rebuked them.” We can
picture in our minds, the disciples turning away people as they approach
Jesus with their children. Perhaps they thought that the children might
interrupt or annoy Jesus. Our young teens can relate to this scene all too
easily. In fact, all of us can surely recall an experience where, as younger
children, we were admonished to be seen and not heard.
But it’s not these young innocents who are bothering Jesus. The only thing
annoying him at the moment is his disciples turning them away. The Gospel
tells us that Jesus became indignant. He instructs the disciples to let the
children come to him, and he goes on to say that “the kingdom of God
belongs to such as these.”
Accepting the kingdom
Then Jesus gets to the heart of the matter. He says, “Amen, I say to you,
whoever does not accept the kingdom of God like a child will not enter it.” So,
first of all, we know this is really important because Jesus begins by saying
“Amen, I say to you.” This is Biblical code for “listen up because I’m about to
drop a truth bomb!” What I find most interesting here is that Jesus says that
we need to accept the kingdom of God. He does not say that we must work
hard to earn it, only that we accept it; and we can only accept that which is
offered to us.
The second part of the statement tells us how we are to accept the kingdom of
God – like a child. There are many child-like qualities that would make us
good candidates for citizens of God’s kingdom, but the one that is possibly the
most important is dependence. If we read back in verse 13 it says, “And
people were bringing their children to him.” These were not young school-
aged children who could have easily run up to Jesus on their own. The
children that people were bringing to Jesus were babies – infants. These little
ones were totally dependent on their parents for everything. Jesus is telling us
in this Gospel reading that if we are to enter the kingdom of God, we must be
completely dependent on Him, His love and His Word.
Being Child-like
How do we become like children? I think it starts with recognizing that
everything we have, and more importantly everything we need, comes from
God. As we get older we like to think that we can handle things on our own.
We don’t like to think of ourselves as being needy, but that is exactly what we
must do. Accompanying that understanding is trust. Little children trust that
their parents will provide for them. We must place our trust in God that He will
provide for our needs. And like little children, who know to turn to their parents
for help, we must continually bring our worries, our concerns, and our
problems, to our heavenly Father. Finally, we must be obedient, like little
children, to God our Father, and His will for our lives.
