When the disciples ask Jesus about this matter he invokes the “thou shall not…” to what Moses permits so that the hypocrisy of the Pharisee test might be exposed. The secondary law that is a concession to the hardness of the human heart is easily coerced so that the “from the beginning of creation” purpose of God is corrupted. That does not mean the “from the beginning of creation” purpose of God is not in place when the one flesh of marriage is separated, only that like so many other things about our present circumstance, divorce is not what God intended. The second half of this week’s lectionary might seem unrelated but like the perfect law corrupted, the human heart hardens the gift of the kingdom of God into something we earn or deserve and God is obliged to provide. So a little child is the image the Almighty chooses to take up so that the hardness of the human heart might be softened in the same way that Jesus takes little children into his arms and blesses them.
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