Adultery: A Meditation on Mark 10, for the 19th Sunday after Pentecost

And in the house his disciples asked him again of the same matter.

And he saith unto them, Whosoever shall put away his wife,

and marry another, committeth adultery against her.

 And if a woman shall put away her husband, and

be married to another, she committeth adultery.

There are few sins whose discussion will get people in an uproar faster than adultery, but since it is the subject of Jesus’ teaching from the prescribed Gospel text this week, it is our duty to hear Him.  Both Matthew and Luke have parallel accounts of the same teaching, with Matthew adding, “except in the case of sexual immorality…”  We are a civilization awash in every form of sexual vice, and for the sake of our souls, we must pause and hear the Lord of Life as He speaks on the subject of adultery.

The law against adultery is clearly and concisely written in the 6^th Commandment:  Thou shalt not commit adultery.  Of course, the term used here is an umbrella that includes all sexual relations outside of marriage, from fornication to incest to homosexuality.  While in the general sense adultery applies to all sexual sins, it does also have a specific use as the violation of the marriage covenant.  God uses the imagery of marriage and adultery throughout the Old Testament as descriptive of the relationship between Him and His people, while Jesus and St. Paul will use it to illustrate the mystery of Christ and His Church.  Aside from the horrible damage adultery does to people in the world, it is also indicative of the infinitely more awful damage it does in the relationship between people and God.

I think it is tempting, even for Biblically minded Christians, to find ways to minimize this sin in their own minds.  As has been demonstrated in numerous social studies, the divorce rate among Christians and non-Christians in America is roughly equivalent, and shockingly high—nearly 50%.   Many other sexual sins are frightfully common among Christians, as well, but adultery is particularly disturbing because it strikes at the very image of God and His people.  When Christ who is the Bridegroom, commits Himself to His Bride which is the Church, we depend utterly and completely upon Him to remain faithful to us.  We have no power to coerce or manipulate God, nor do we have anything of value to trade for our salvation.  As sinful human beings, condemned rightly under the Law to an eternity of death and hell, we live in Christ’s New Covenant by the grace poured out in His Blood.  Such grace and salvation can only be received by faith, which trusts in Christ’s love and forgiveness for us, no matter how awful our particular lives have been.  We trust Jesus to be good to His Word, because He is the very Word of God.

But when we reject God to go chasing after our various lusts in the world, we commit adultery against Him.  Whenever we make for ourselves another god—be it money, or power, or pride, or lust, or a thousand other masks the devil wears to woo us away from our Savior—we trample all over the Word of Jesus’ Gospel, trampling Him under foot, as well.  We violate the marriage bed of God’s covenant of redemption with us through His Son, becoming whores and prostitutes before the Bridegroom we trust to be faithful unto us.  This horror of horrors should never be named among the forgiven children of God, who know that their eternity in hell was poured out upon our Bridegroom, and that to reject Him is to return to the hell we so rightly deserve.

In light of what adultery actually is between God (who is always faithful) and men (who are universally unfaithful) we should not be surprised to hear Jesus teach us about how He expects us to treat our earthly spouses.  When we make a covenant with each other, particularly the marriage covenant, God expects us to be faithful to that covenant as a witness to His faithfulness to us.  When we break that marriage covenant we sin not only against ourselves and our spouses (as the two have been made one flesh,) but we sin against God Himself, casting the image of His good gift of sex and marriage into shameful disrepute throughout the world.  Particularly when a Christian violates his earthly marriage through divorce, he is betraying the image of the immutable covenant he has with his Savior—expecting to receive from Christ what he is unwilling to extend to his wife.

Just what kind of covenant do you expect to receive from Jesus?  Do you expect Him to be faithful to you, come hell or high water?  Do you expect Him to love and keep you, though you endlessly do the most stupid and self centered things?  Do you expect Jesus to forgive you every time you return to Him in faith and repentance, ashamed of the idiot you have been?  Do you expect Jesus to take you back, even though you have been guilty of chasing other gods of your own making, whoring about with the world which hates both you and Him?  That is, in fact, what we should expect from our longsuffering and merciful Savior, because that is what He has promised us.  To everyone who comes to Him in faith and repentance, He gives His unconditional and boundless grace.  In Holy Baptism He becomes one flesh with you, uniting you to His suffering and death, so that you might also have His resurrection and eternal life.  And when you stray after Baptism, returning again in faith and repentance, He does not Baptize you again—rather, He absolves you of your sin, and points you back to His original covenant which can never be broken.  Your wedding to Jesus through faith and Holy Baptism is real, even if you wandered away from it, and is restored to you when you return to Christ your Savior by grace through faith in Him.

It is this grace, mercy, and unfailing love that Jesus teaches us to show each other in our own marriages.  It is a selfless love that is willing to suffer everything, even death, torture, and abandonment on a cross, so that our beloved might always be safe and secure in the arms of our covenant.  It is a love that refuses to quit, refuses to leave, refuses to stop hoping for repentance, even as it is forsaken and trodden upon with scorn and derision.  It is a love born of God, that is higher and more noble than anything which can be created by the heart or mind of man.  It is the love God has for us, and which He gives to us in His Only Begotten Son.

If this Word of Law pricks your heart this day because you are the victim or the perpetrator of adultery, having violated a sacred marriage through divorce and torn apart that which God had put together, you are right to weep over your sin—not only for what you have done to your family, or for what you have done to your public witness in the world, but for what you have done to Christ your Savior.  Such godly sorrow is right for those who have wounded their neighbor and offended the Lord of Glory, regardless of the wickedness of our own particular sins.  Such godly sorrow we call contrition, and it is part of what we also call repentance—turning from our evil, toward what is good and right and true.

But we do not sorrow as those who have no hope.  For sinners like us—for adulterers and murderers, fornicators and sodomites, pagans and sorcerers, covetous, idolatrous, lustful, prideful, wretched beings—Christ our Lord has come to save.  It was not for small and insignificant sins that the Son of God hung dead on a tree, but for we who have fallen by our own hands into the condemnation of hell.  It is for us that Christ has come, to seek and to save everyone lost in the terror of their trespasses and sins.  It is for us that the Word of God was made flesh and dwelt among us, so that His Gospel Covenant might never be broken.

If the weight of Jesus’ Law breaks your heart, take courage in His grace and mercy.  Return to the Lord your God, where He will give to you His Spirit by His Word, strengthening you to live in His love and mercy and faithfulness.  There, in the bosom of your Bridegroom, awash in His love and grace, you will find what your spouse needs from you, as you reflect your Savior’s sacrifice to everyone around you.  There you will find life, forgiveness, and hope, bought with the blood of your Bridegroom yet given to you freely—that you might likewise freely give.  There you will find the forgiveness of Him who is faithful and just, who cleanses you from all unrighteousness, and strengthens you to arise from the ashes of your broken life, that you may live again in Him   Hear your Bridegroom as He calls to you—turn, believe, and live.

Amen.