II: Divorce, Jesus with the Children, The Rich Young Man, The Workmen in the Vineyard

Mark x. 2-31; Matt. xix.3-30; xx. 1-16; Luke xviii. 15-30.

This lesson was the last which Galilee was to hear from the Great Teacher.  Bidding His native land a last farewell, Jesus crossed Jordan and descended the eastern bank of the stream.  Soon Pharisees of Perea crowded around Him again; they no longer came to listen, but to tempt the Master.

"Is it allowable they began, "to leave the wife for any reason, whatever it may be?"

A weighty question this, and one just now engrossing the attention of Jewish doctors, as it turned upon that of obscure text in Deuteronomy:1 "When the man who has married a wife, conceives a loathing of the woman, because he has found some stain upon her, he shall give her a writing of divorce, and having put it within the woman's hands, he shall send her out of his house."

What were they to understand by that word stain?  Did any corporal infirmity, or the least lightness of conduct deserve this epithet? Hillel and his school championed this opinion. Of rigider views the disciples of Shammaï only conceded that divorce was lawful in cases showing scandalous disorders.  But their austere principles were little relished by the many; great men of the people, Levites, Doctors of the Law, and generally speaking, all private individuals treated the marriage-bond with a liberty which was not far from licence; divorce or simply replaced polygamy, and though the Israelite no longer maintained a number of wives under the same roof, he managed to pass from one to another, according to the promptings of his fancy.  Doubtless Judea never knew the excesses of the Pagan world; here the women did not, as in Rome, reckon the years of their life by the number of their husbands, but whatever restraints the laws of Moses still imposed upon them, they had become powerless to check this increasing profligacy in the conduct of life.

So, then, for Jesus to take any part in this controversy by answering the Pharisees' question would be to strike full at the worst passions of those about Him; at the same time it would be a blow direct at the tetrarch whose territory they were crossing, thus branding his union as incestuous adultery.  For just such daring frankness as this John Baptist had forfeited his head.  But no such fears could gain access to the soul of Jesus; alike indifferent to the hatred of the populace and to Herod's anger, His only care was to uplift their hearts to thoughts of less carnal things.

And therefore He disdained to pronounce between Hillel and Shammaï, content to remind them that the union of man and wife must remain an eternal bond between them.  God Himself, on the first day of the world, had established this order, commanding the man to leave his father and his mother and give himself altogether to her, thereafter being but one with his espoused.  It was in token of this fruitful unity that He had created male and female, and taken Eve from the side of sleeping Adam.

"Even so," the Lord concluded, "they are no more twain, but the one same flash.  Then let not man put asunder what God has joined together."

The Pharisees comprehended that Jesus had avoided the pitfall by uttering these words, but they were anxious to involve Him in direct contradiction with the Law.

"But why, then," they objected,2 "did Moses command us to give the woman a Bill of Divorce, and so leave her?"

They indeed had transformed the toleration of an act into a positive precept.  To lay bare their trickery, Jesus needed only to explain what was the true spirit animating the Law.

"It was because of the hardness of your hearts," He replied calmly, "that Moses permitted you to leave your wives, but at the beginning it was not thus." Whereupon He added those words which have dowered the marriage state with its final perfection: " I say unto you, every man that leaves his wife, except it be for adultery, and marries another, commits adultery; and he who marries the wife that is thus put away commits adultery."

His enemies realized that the Christ had vanquished them; they durst not so much as contend that this teaching was an open affront to Herod, as well as a drastic measure of reform for all Israel.  Discomfited and abashed, they are obliged to let Him withdraw into His dwelling place unmolested.  Hardly were they within doors when the disciples began to question in their turn.

"If the case stands thus between husband and wife," they said, "it were better by far not to marry."

No more telling testimony could be found as to the depth of degradation to which public morals had descended than these words.  So, even the Apostles looked upon the notion of marital fidelity as an intolerable idea; the sadness and the reproach of a single life seem slight and insignificant compared to the irksomeness of such an unbearable yoke.

Far from abating His law by one whit, the Master responded that it was only the first step in the way of Chastity now set before the feet of His faithful followers; for very soon a heavenly grace would impel His chosen souls to loftier Heights, and so bear them beyond the reach of earthly loves and desires.  To make known this mystery of the stainless soul to these rough fishermen of Galilee would seem a hopeless task; but notwithstanding, Jesus essaye to raise their minds to that supreme standpoint.

In uttering there cry of discouragement, they had unwittingly spoken truth,—

"It were better not to marry!"

"All men," added the Lord, " comprehend not this saying, but only those to whom it is a given."

And to mark the road to this knowledge, He spoke of the eunuchs in the courts of Eastern monarchs.  It must needs be some inherited misfortune, or perhaps their master's cruelty, which had put them beyond the reach of carnal delights; yet how much mightier and more efficacious is the Christian’s holiness, which, by spiritual strength, suffices to transform the eunuch of the Heavenly Courts into a man who, while tarrying in these are fleshy habitations, is no longer of the flesh, but partakes rather of the Angel than of man.  Still, as yet Jesus could not do more than barely lift the veil which concealed this austere continency from the ancient world, and that but for instant.

"Whosoever is able to understand, let him understand!" He said to His disciples.

But there were few among them so freed from the slavery of the senses as to be able to glimpse the loveliness of a virgin soul.  It would be necessary for the Holy Spirit to descend upon them ere their ears could be opened to that hymning of Virgins to which John hearkened in the celestial Vision,— "harmonious as the quiring of many harps, a song which none can either learn or understand, save only they that follow the LamB withersoever He goeth."

Even as He was speaking, the Saviour noted the entrance of a little group of mothers who had brought with them their little ones.  Learning that the Master was about to depart from their neighbourhood they were eager to have lay His hands upon the children's heads and breathed a prayer over them.  Indeed it was then a hallowed usage among pious folk to beg a blessing for their babies at the hands of Doctors whom they revered; and Jesus all the more willingly sanctioned the old custom because the sweet purity of babyhood always refreshed and gladdened His heart.  But the Apostles only regarded these newcomers as troublesome intruders, and "they rebuffed them with harsh words;" and thereat Jesus was much displeased with them, saying:—

"He took them into His arms, laid His hands upon them, and blessed them." J-J tissot.

"Suffer these little children and forbid them not to come unto Me, for God's Kingdom is for such as are like unto them." And immediately, calling them about Him He took them into His arms, laid His hands upon them, and blessed them.

The disciples stood gazing at the scene, amazed at seeing Him display such tender familiarity with children; they did not know, as yet, that it belonged to Jesus to quicken these feeble bodies with an invisible life, and make them heirs of a heavenly Glory, by the gift of Baptism.  Already He had proclaimed their prerogatives more than once, and again on this day He declared the same truth once more, for, before bidding them farewell, He held these little ones up as the model for His disciples.

"In very truth, I say unto you," these were His words, "whoever shall not receive the Kingdom of God as a little child, shall not enter therein."

Almost immediately Jesus came forth from the dwelling in which He had been giving them these lovely lessons of life and proceeded along the road.  At once a young man came running after Him.

According to Saint Luke's account he was a personage of distinction in those parts, a youth of great and noble heart, that could not be satisfied with the righteousness of the Law, but hungered and thirsty for purer and higher truths.  All that he had heard about Jesus made him hope that the Master would soon reveal the mysteries which still overshadowed the ancient Scriptures; and he made haste to kneel before Him, asking: –

"Good Master, what shall I do that I may have eternal life?"

Jesus did not accept this praise.

"Why do you call Me good?" He said; "why do you question Me concerning that which is good?  There is none good save God alone."

His answer plainly implies that this young nobleman sought in Jesus only a man like himself, and it was meant to teach him that, as mercy and goodness on in the gift of the Divine Being, he must not seek them of any of His creatures,— who obtain them by grace,— but from God Himself, in Whom they abide in their fullness.  But nevertheless, added the Lord, "if you would enter into life, keep the commandments."

"Which commandments?" ejaculated the young man in amazement; for he had looked for some new light, and could not believe that the Master would simply refer him to the Precepts of the Law.

To make him understand that God esteems humble faith as of higher worth than splendid achievements, Jesus merely quoted from the Mosaic ordinances those duties which govern the everyday life of men:—

"Thou shalt not be an adulterer; thou shalt not kill; thou shalt not steal; thou shalt not bear false witness; thou shalt not defraud anyone; honour thy father and thy mother, and love thy neighbour as thyself."

"Master," replied the young man in his bewilderment, "I have observed all this from my youth; what lack I yet?"

Jesus, looking longer upon him, loved him, for He saw the lad was of a true and upright heart, sincere and earnest in the pursuit of righteousness: rising above the beaten roads which all must run, He pointed out the narrow track, which leads the Saints up to the far heights of perfection.

"One thing is lacking yet," He said; "go, sell all that you have, and give it to the poor.  You shall have a treasure in Heaven; then come and follow me."

It was too much; the young Jew’s courage failed him; a great sadness fell upon his soul.  Grief-struck and with a somber countenance, "he went away, for he had great possessions."

Jesus followed him with His eyes, thinking on all the souls that would be ruined by riches, and looking about Him at His disciples,—

"How difficult it is," He said to them, "for the rich to enter into God's Kingdom!"

It was not the first time the Master had expressed Himself thus before them, but their ears, as well as their hearts, were closed to the truths which offended and shocked them; and they were as much astonished now at this saying as though it were some new thing.

Jesus gave no signs of irritation; yet, without abating one whit of its former severity, He repeated what He had often said, but in the most touching manner; no mother ever displayed greater tenderness in pressing to her baby’s lips the bitter drink which will save his life.

"My dearly beloved sons," came the answer, "ah!  How hard it is for those that trust in riches to enter into the Kingdom of God!  It is easier for the camel to pass through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into God's Kingdom."

Thus the sentence was formal and explicit; it condemned all attachment to ask the goods.  The Apostles were still more amazed, and standing there, they began to say to one another:—

" But, then, who can be saved?"

Looking at them still, Jesus replied in the same gentle accents:—

"With men this is impossible, but not with God, for with God all things are possible."

Peter, as hasty and eager as ever, always the first to regain his courage as he was first to despair, – Peter here broke in upon his Master.3

"Lord," said he, "we have left all to follow you, what shall there be for us?"

The Saviour's response was a succession of promises: for the Apostles, there were set twelve thrones whence they should judge the tribes of Israel in the day when, with all things born under the new life, the Son of Man shall take possession of the Throne of His Majesty; and for all His faithful disciples, even from this present time, an hundred-fold for everything they shall have left, whether it be home, or brothers, sisters, parents, husband or wife, children or land; a foretaste of Heaven "even in the midst of persecution, and in the ages to come life everlasting."

So gracious and glorious were those prerogatives that Jesus feared lest His Apostles should be puffed up with pride at the glowing prospect, and imagine that such was their rightful inheritance; for this reason He went on at once to add that they were purely the gates of grace, and that if the sons of Israel were the first to be called, yet the Gentilse should precede them and share all things with them in that celestial kingdom.  The heavenly Father, in that new Realm, is like the lord of the vineyard, who hires workmen at different hours of the day; when the night comes he is free to reward the last comers with the denarius promised to those who have toiled since daybreak; for that same denarius who represents Eternal Life, which is beyond anything that man can merit,— a gratuitous recompense, born of God's boundless love.

To the Jews who grudge the Gentiles their portion, to the Pharisees of every age, God will make answer:—

"My friend, I do you no wrong; did you not agree with Me for a denarius?  Then take what is yours and go.  If notwithstanding I wish to give unto this last as much as to you, is it not lawful for me to do what I will with Mine own, and must your eye be evil, because I am good?"

And Jesus concluded by uttering one of those maxims He so often repeated, which were so heart-rending to the haughty spirit of the Jews:—

"The first shall be last, and the last first."

"Many are called but few chosen!"

Totus tuus ego sum

Et omnia mea tua sunt;

Tecum semper tutus sum:

Ad Jesum per Mariam.