Today I read Mark 10 which includes the Pharisees trying to trap Jesus by asking Him if it is lawful for a man to divorce his wife. Jesus replies by asking what the Law of Moses had to say on the matter. They replied that Moses allowed them to be divorced as long as a bill of divorcement was given. Jesus then replies that Moses only gave that law because of the hard hearts of the Israelites and their inability to live the higher law so Moses told them it was ok to get divorced but Jesus then teaches them that divorce for any reason other than fornication is causing adultery. I have never really understood this saying and I am not really sure I will in this life so I will not dwell on it. Suffice to say, my personal thoughts are that as long as two people work at it, they can overcome any obstacle. My wife and I when we got married made an agreement that divorce was off the table. It was not even an option we could consider. It made a huge difference in our early years of being married because no matter how bad things got, we knew that we would get through it, and it forced us to. Too many people these days use divorce as an easy escape because they don't want to put in the work necessary to make a good, healthy marriage.
This chapter also contains the story of the young rich man who desired eternal life and wanted to know what he must do to obtain it. Jesus tells him to go and sell all he has and return and follow Him. The rich man does not do this of course and Jesus remarks that it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than it is for a rich man to enter into heaven. Now there are two schools of thought on this statement. It is my understanding that there is an actual place in Israel that at the time of Christ was referred to as the Eye of a Needle, and it was a very, very narrow passage that the only way a camel could get through it was to get down on its knees and shuffle forward. Some say that it was an analogy stating that rich men, and women, must humble themselves as these camels must to enter into heaven. While this is true, no one who is prideful will enter into heaven, there is another school of thought on this statement.
Some thing that Jesus was referring to a literal camel going through a literal eye of a needle, which without God's help would indeed be impossible. I personally feel that both interpretations are correct. We must indeed humble ourselves if we wish to enter into the kingdom of Heaven but none of us are getting into Heaven on our own, we must have Jesus' help or we will all fall short as Paul says. Everyone has sinned and all have fallen short, without Jesus' help and Atonement, none of us would be able to make it back into God's presence. So I think both interpretations are accurate.
The final part of this chapter that stood out to me today as I read it, was the story of the blind man, Bartimaeus. As Jesus is passing by where Bartimaeus is sitting in the city of Jericho he calls out to Jesus asking Him to have mercy on him. The strange thing to me is that the people all around him try and make him be quiet. I really don't understand that part of the story. Why would the people tell him to stop pestering Jesus and leave Him alone? Jesus is very well known by this point, it's been almost a full 3 years and it is a well known fact that Jesus heals those who ask Him, so why would they tell Bartimaeus to be silent and leave Jesus alone? We are not told but Bartimaeus does succeed in getting Jesus' attention and Jesus heals him of his blindness and followed Jesus ever after.
How often do we stop those around us from reaching out to Jesus? How often do we tell them they are being foolish or make it harder for them to make the right choices because of how we are acting? Do we bring people to Christ by our actions and words? Or do we drive them away? Do people believe that Christ exists because of who we are and how we carry ourselves? Or do we become a stumbling block for those around us? Those are all questions we have to ask ourselves but the answers have long reaching ramifications. Not only are accountable to God for all those we might have helped, I believe we will be accountable to Him for all those who our actions influenced, either for good or for ill. None of us want to be on the wrong end of that conversation, I can promise you that. Thankfully we can choose now where we will be and how we will get to answer that conversation. Choose wisely. Until tomorrow.
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