Dear Christian friends:

In our text today Jesus talks about marriage and divorce. As you know we have many problems in married life between a husband and a wife. We need all the advice and all the help we can get if we are to have a happy and successful marriage.

If all of us would attend more to Jesus' words in the Bible about marriage, we could solve some of the problems, decrease divorce and improve family life.

Martin Luther said in his time, 450 years ago, that he spent so much time with marriage problems that he had no time for study, reading and preaching. If you ask any pastor today, he will tell you the same thing. So let us attend to our text and see.


Some Pharisees came to Jesus and asked him, "Is it right for a man to divorce his wife, for any reason?" Jesus did not answer their question, but instead He asked them a question to rebuke them, "Haven't you read, "He who created them from the beginning made them male and female? And He added, "that is why a man will leave his father and mother and live with his wife, and the two will be one flesh. And so they are no more two but one flesh."

From this we see that marriage is God's idea and plan for us. He made the two sexes, the male and the female, Adam and Eve. After God made Eve from one of Adam's ribs He led her to the man and gave her to him. (Genesis 2:22) Adam honored and respected Eve as His equal and as a gift or blessing from God.

When he awoke from the deep sleep and saw her for the first time he loved her as he loved himself. He said, " She is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh." Then Adam prophesied about all future marriages and Jesus quotes Adam here in our text, "Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and live with his wife, and the two shall be one flesh. And so they are no more two but one flesh."

By saying he was one flesh with Eve, Adam meant that he loved her and respected her as He loved his own body. After they picked and ate from the forbidden tree Adam lost this perfect love and respect for Eve and did not always look upon her as a gift of God.

When God came into the garden and they heard him coming they ran and hid. God said, "Adam where are you." He answered, "I was afraid and hid myself." God said, "Why are you afraid? Did you eat of the tree which I forbade?" Adam answered, "The woman you gave me, tempted me and I did eat." Now he no longer loves Eve as his own flesh or self, he is quick to excuse himself and blame her and let her suffer God's anger alone. He even blames God when He says, "The woman You gave me."

So by falling into sin Adam and Eve lost their perfect married love and respect for one another. That's also why we have so much trouble in marriages today. The husband does not remember that his wife is a gift and blessing of God. He does not remember that the two are now one flesh. He does not respect and love his wife as he loves and respects his own self.

He gets married for greedy and selfish reasons. He uses his wife for his own pleasure and doesn't care about her pleasure. He wants her to be his mother and his maid. Soon he is tired of her and begins to look at other women and to lust after them. And the wives are not much better.

So we should not be surprised to see much trouble in married life and many divorces. That is why Jesus adds a warning here to all of us: "What God has joined together man must not separate." Jesus reminds us that marriage of one man with one woman is God's arrangement and holy and that divorce and marriage problems prove how far from God we have fallen.

When the Jews asked Jesus, "Why did Moses command that a man give his wife a certificate of divorce and send her away?" Jesus answered, "Moses permitted you to divorce your wives because your hearts were hard. But it was not this way from the beginning."

When you stop to think how happy and perfect God intended marriage to be and then see all the troubles and quarrels and divorces how blind we are because we can't see our wife as one flesh with us a gift of God our Maker!

Thank God that He sent Jesus to preach to us and remind us and open our eyes again to see our great mistake and to be sorry. Thank God that He sent Jesus, His Son, to die for us and love us as He loves God, and Himself. So we could wake up and receive forgiveness and learn again about true love.

Paul says in Ephesians 5:25-33, "Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. After all, no one ever hated their own body, but they feed and care for their body, just as Christ does the church for we are members of his body. For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.” This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church. However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.

You husbands if you are Christians, know how much Jesus loved the Church, his bride, He gave his life for the Church on the cross, and today He still tenderly watches over His church and feeds it with His Word and the Lord's Supper and Baptism through the holy ministry.

Love your wife like that. Jesus will like that. Jesus will help you to do it if you remember. Sure your wife doesn't deserve it, but neither do you.

Amen.