Matthew 19

Jesus was healing people in the region of Judea when some Pharisees confronted Him asking about divorce. It says they were testing Him, which means they thought they knew the right answer but were seeing if they could find fault with Him.

They asked their question in a tricky way - "Can a man divorce his wife for any reason?" (any reason)

Jesus told them no - that is not how God designed marriage to work.

Then they threw another twist into their response saying, "Moses ordered a man to give his wife a certificate of divorce." (Moses ordered)

Jesus responded with "Moses permitted." Moses didn't order anyone to get a divorce, he merely permitted them because of thier hard hearts.

Jesus brought the whole issue back to the heart, and pointed out to the Pharisees that it was because of their hardness of heart that the whole issue of divorce was even permitted.

The disciples pointed out that it is better not to get married. Seems like divorce was a big enough issue even in their day that they knew it was safer not to even risk it if divorce would lead to condemnation. Jesus responds that not everyone can accept unmarried life, but the ones who can should.

Marriage is a reflection and model of our relationship with God. We should treat it as sacredly as we treat our relationship with Him. Those who would throw that relationship away - except for adultery, which God calls idolatry - are showing their inability to commit to a relationship with God. Divorce is not a recent issue - it is an issue that dates back to at least the time of Moses.

There's a little aside thrown in to show that Jesus favors children and says again that the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as them.

Then Jesus had an encounter with a rich young man. He asked Jesus, "What good thing must I do to obtain eternal life?" And Jesus's response sounds odd to us. "Why do you ask me about what is good? There is only One who is good."

The man addressed Jesus as teacher, which means the man saw Jesus as another man, and then asked for His "opinion" about what is good. I think Jesus was correcting the man's question with His response. He should have asked "What good thing does God say I must do to have eternal life?"

Jesus listed off all the human focused commandments of the Ten Commandments - except do not covet. The man said that he followed all those commandments, then Jesus addressed the one commandment that He knew the man struggled with. He told him to give up all his possessions, but the man could not. There was a sin that he was not willing to repent from.

Then Jesus said it's very hard for a rich man to enter heaven. I think His point was that the rich tend to fall into idolatry, or at least to depend on their wealth more than God. The irony is that when you give up everything to follow Jesus you will receive 100 times as much as an eternal inheritance.