Having elevated the standards of kingdom righteousness to include the realm of thoughts, desires and attitudes, Jesus now turns the spotlight on several specific personal standards of behavior. The top of the list being the question of divorce and remarriage. Surprisingly, or not so surprisingly, the Pharisees took a line of interpretation on an Old Testament regulation that actually resulted in an extremely lax view toward the permanence of marriage. For all practical purposes, not much different than our modern judicial practice of no-fault divorce –– at least from a male perspective. It was a standard entirely in keeping with the on the ground realities of marital life. Jesus’s response came like a sudden crash of thunder. In fact, so startling that even his disciples suggested that perhaps it was best not to marry. We’ll look this morning at his important words, in Matthew 5:31-32, in a message entitled, “A Marriage to Last a Lifetime”.
