I've been following the World Vision kerfluffle recently. Before you run away in fear from yet another blog post about it, this isn't about that whole mess. I have opinions on that, but they're not that unique, and there are enough articles out there about it already. It's simply that following the issue leads to what I really want to talk about.
During the debate, the usual thing happened that happens when Christians debate something like marriage equality, which is to say, both sides scream persecution, injustice, and prejudice against their side. Those for equality because, well, we don't frame the issue as one of marriage equality for nothing. Those against make the claim that they're being treated poorly for simply standing for the tradition of the church and authority of Scripture.
The next stage in the argument is where both sides start to push into the realm of comparative analysis. For the anti-crowd, that means asking what moral standards the equality crowd does hold to, and talking about bestiality, polygamy, etc. (Side note: I've always found that ironic, since the Bible really doesn't seem to have a problem with polygamy, at least in the Old Testament). The pro-crowd starts to accuse the anti-crowd of picking and choosing issues to take a stand on, mentioning some of the obscure Levitical texts that condemn everything from mixed fabrics to shellfish, as well as the church's acceptance of people who have divorced and remarried, despite Jesus calling that adultery in the Sermon on the Mount.
I mention all of that to explain how I came to be thinking about Jesus's discussion of divorce, while at the same time, the issue of the authority of Scriptures was dancing around in my head. As I looked at it, something popped into my head. An idea I couldn't shake. That's what I'm here to share.
In Matthew 19, Jesus is asked by a Pharisee about the issue of the lawfulness of divorce. It had the feel of a trap. In the previous Sermon on the Mount, Jesus had spoken about divorce and indicated his problems with it. However, Deuteronomy 24 clearly gives a man a right to a divorce. This post isn't about divorce, though, it's about something Jesus says in response. he notes, in verse 8 and 9, "Moses permitted you to divorce your wives because your hearts were hard. But it was not this way from the beginning. I tell you, anyone who divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another woman commits adultery."
Jesus, here, makes a startling revelation. That something in Scripture was written because of the hardness of people's hearts. That the Bible made an allowance for human prejudice, but that the time for that prejudice had ended, and the allowance was over. The revelation of God to humanity had progressed, move on, and the old allowance to our hard heartedness, our prejudice, was no longer to be tolerated.
So, here's the question: if Jesus indicated that Scripture contained one allowance for human hard heartedness, why can't there be more? Detractors always note that the Bible never condemns slavery. Perhaps the best answer to that is to note that it was an allowance for human hard heartedness at the time, that society wasn't ready for that revelation yet, just as society wasn't ready for the hard teaching on divorce during the time of Moses. Perhaps God's revelation to mankind marches on, gradually bending us towards equality, justice, and love. So, perhaps we need to start looking at the Bible not verse by verse as a collection of rules, but in general spirit, and maybe note that some of the verses should be seen as, well, allowances for hard heartedness. Jesus pointed out Scripture did it once, what reason is there to believe that was the only time it happened?
I could probably harp on this point more, noting other places commands were changed (Peter's sheet dream in Acts comes to mind), but I think it's better resting this case clearly on Jesus. We should look at the Bible with the spirit of Jesus, and if something seems wrong and cruel, perhaps we should have the courage to say, "Yes, the writer made allowance for the prejudices of the day, but it's time to cast off that hard heartedness and move on, just as Jesus told us to do concerning divorce."
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