We have disposable eating utensils, disposable flashlights, disposable diapers, and disposable cell phones. We even have disposable marriages.

Unlike disposable cell phones, divorce is not new to the 21st century. Even Moses had to deal with it 3,500 years ago. When Jesus said, “It has been said, ‘Anyone who divorces his wife must give her a certificate of divorce’ ” (Matthew 5:31), he was refering to the book of Deuteronomy where Moses wrote: “If a man marries a woman who becomes displeasing to him because he finds something indecent about her, and he writes her a certificate of divorce” (24:1). Moses then stated that once she married another man and he in turn divorced her, the first husband was not allowed to remarry her.

At the time of Jesus, people held at least two different opinions on the meaning of Moses’ words. The rabbinic school of Hillel stressed the words “displeasing to him” and said a man could divorce his wife any time she displeased him, even if she burned his food while cooking it. The rabbinic school of Shammai stressed the “something indecent” of Moses’ words and claimed that the only legitimate reason for divorce was sexual infidelity. That was the controversy in which the enemies of Jesus tried to get him embroiled in Matthew 19 and Mark 10.

Things haven’t changed a whole lot. Divorce continues to be a controversial and hotly debated issue. No wonder. It affects so many so deeply.

Jesus clears the controversy

But divorce should not be all that controversial because Jesus spoke quite clearly on the subject. In his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus helped people to correct their view of God’s law. He said, “You have heard that it was said, ‘Do not commit adultery.’ But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Matthew 5:27,28). In these verses Jesus takes us to the heart of God’s will for marriage.