Meaning of the Reading & Application for Today
What is God's intention for our state in life, whether married or single?
Jesus deals with the issue of divorce by taking his hearers back to the
beginning of creation and to God's plan for the human race. In Genesis 2:23-
24 we see God's intention and ideal that two people who marry should
become so indissolubly one that they are one flesh. That ideal is found in the
unbreakable union of Adam and Eve. They were created for each other and
for no one else. They are the pattern and symbol for all who were to come.
Jesus explains that Moses permitted divorce as a concession in view of a lost
ideal. Jesus sets the high ideal of the married state before those who are
willing to accept his commands. Jesus, likewise sets the high ideal for those
who freely renounce marriage for the sake of the kingdom (see Mt. 19:12).
Both marriage and celibacy are calls from God to live a consecrated life, to be
men and women who belong not to themselves but to God. Our lives are not our own, but they belong to God. He gives the grace and power to those who seek to follow his way of holiness in their state of life. How do you seek the Lord and his grace in your state of life?
Sunday School Bulletin Prepared by Children & Family Ministries
Selected Bible Reading
Some Pharisees came, and to test him they asked, ‘Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?’ He answered them, ‘What did Moses command you?’ They said, ‘Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of dismissal and to divorce her.’ But Jesus said to them, ‘Because of your hardness of heart he wrote this commandment for you. But from the beginning of creation, “God made them male and female.” “For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.’ (Mk 10:2-9)