Divine and Natural Law: A Meditation on Mark 10 for the Season of Pentecost

And he arose from thence, and cometh into the coasts of

Judaea by the farther side of Jordan:

and the people resort unto him again;

and, as he was wont, he taught them again.

And the Pharisees came to him, and asked him,

Is it lawful for a man to put away his wife? tempting him.

 

And he answered and said unto them,

What did Moses command you?

And they said, Moses suffered to write a bill of divorcement,

and to put her away.

And Jesus answered and said unto them,

For the hardness of your heart he wrote you this precept.

But from the beginning of the creation

God made them male and female.

For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother,

and cleave to his wife;

And they twain shall be one flesh:

so then they are no more twain, but one flesh.

What therefore God hath joined together,

let not man put asunder.

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.

 

In an age such as ours the sexual ethics of Scripture can seem almost jarring, and that may be compounded a bit by the succinct writing style of Mark the Evangelist.  St. Matthew adds a little more of Jesus’ words regarding adultery, noting that divorce and remarriage for any reason other than fornication (which is any sexual expression outside the boundaries of marriage defined in Genesis 2 as exclusively between a man and a woman) causes both parties to commit adultery against each other.  Jesus noted that the reality of this truth is written into the very fabric of creation and the origin of humanity, thus any human attempt to circumvent it with contrived traditions or laws, fail to negate it.  The reality of human existence as exclusively male and female, through which the marital union produces the next generation with the optimal alignment toward the flourishing of human life, is what Christian theologians would call both Divine and Natural Law.  It is as inescapable as the physical laws of thermodynamics, or the rational laws of logic, all of which persist regardless of any person’s recognition of them.  Just as gravity is not diminished by the ignorant who disregard it at their own peril, the biological realities of humanity and the fundamentals of human community found in marriage and family, persist even as people ignore them to their own detriment.

 

When it comes to the Divine and Natural Laws of the universe, our recognition or rejection of them reveals far more about us than the One who created them.  A student studying geography who insists to their instructor that the world is flat, is rightly ridiculed and failed from their studies, for who would hire a cartographer or navigator who denied the fundamental structure of the earth?  Likewise, an engineering student who refused to accept proven mathematical principles of stress transference through various media, would be flunked out of their engineering program, for who would hire such an ignoramus to build an airplane or building? And yet, when it comes to modern studies of gender and sexuality, American educational institutions have not only catered to students willfully ignorant of basic human biology, they have promoted as teachers and professors those who deny Natural Law in Physics, Chemistry, Biology, and Logic.  The consequence has been a radical shift in social norms since the Sexual Revolution of the 1960’s, including the widescale devolution of healthy sexual expression within legitimate marriage, the breakdown of family structures designed to nurture children into strong and virtuous adults, degrading cohesion and rising crime within communities, as well as distrust and dissolution of civic institutions.  From a purely empirical perspective, Natural Law regarding human sexuality and family structure has broadly proved its validity over the last several generations through the consequences it has brought forth either positively or negatively in society.  From a divine perspective, we see as judgment upon us and our children the consequences of abandoning His good Law, as we watch our families, communities, and nation crumble around us.

 

Like all of God’s Law, our rejection of it is a rejection of Him, bringing about our just temporal judgment here in this world, and eternal condemnation in the world to come.  It is not enough that we manage to muddle through the physical and psychological consequences of violating the Divine and Natural Law our Creator built into us and the universe at large, but our sins against each other are ultimately sins against Him, worthy of eternal perdition.  And regardless of how well we may think we keep His Law regarding human sexuality and family inviolability, we are all complicit in the sins of our age, having deep down within us a fallen nature that resonates with the irrational self-justifications of pernicious deception.  These sins emerge in our societies because they originate first in our own hearts, where dark impulses to selfishness, greed, power, wrath, and lust seethe just below the surface of all people, revealing that both we as individuals and we as communities are not sinners because we do evil, but rather that we do evil because we are fallen, sinful beings.  Jesus’ teaching on good and virtuous human sexuality and family cohesion doesn’t grate on our modern sensibilities because there is any flaw in Divine or Natural Law, but because the flaw is in our own fallen nature, where our hearts remain in irrational and self-destructive rebellion against our Creator, and the Creation of which we are a part.

 

Yet thanks everlasting be to God, that Jesus has come to save us from such wicked hearts!  Jesus did not teach the Pharisees and His Disciples this Law in order to condemn them, but in order to show them the depths from which they must be redeemed.  Like all human sin and rebellion against God, Jesus carried our sexual perversion, our family desecration, and our community devolution to the top of Mount Calvary, where He nailed it irrevocably to His Cross.  His innocent hands and feet, His immaculate mind and soul, were pierced there for our transgressions, that the works of our hands and feet as well as the thoughts of our minds and the depths of our souls might be forgiven and absolved through Him.  There on Calvary, our Savior took upon Himself the wounds of every person despoiled through fornication, every couple violated by broken marital vows, every family shattered by divorce, every child left abandoned, abused, and alone.  There, our Lord of Glory whose Kingdom of grace and mercy and truth shall know no end, surrendered Himself as the only sacrifice worthy of our redemption, that we might arise in Him, forgiven and free, restored to a communion in Him that cannot die again.  In the darkness of Calvary and the glorious dawn of Easter, we find our beloved Jesus setting right what we had broken through our rebellion against the Law, and breathing into us His Holy Spirit that we might be healed by endlessly cascading waves of grace upon grace.

 

Thus, Jesus’ teaching is no more a terror to us, but a blessed hope and a call to life.  In Him we find the power to love as we have been loved, to forgive as we have been forgiven, to live as He has given us life.  In Jesus we find where faith meets repentance, as we bow before both the Divine Laws of Nature and the Everlasting Gospel of Grace.  With Jesus we affirm the Truth to which we aspire in Him, even as we daily seek His mercy and grace for our failures to achieve it.  We abide in Jesus, our lives mysteriously hidden in Him, empowered by His Word and Spirit to rise above our fallen natures, until our fallen natures fall finally into the earth from which they were formed, and our new natures in Him shine brightly with Him, unto all ages of ages unending.  There in Jesus we find our life, our restoration, and our hope, knowing that in Him and with Him we can stand even in this generation, and testify to the Truth which sets us free.  All glory and honor, power and might, be to our Savior and Lord, now and forever.  Amen.