Today’s readings are, for preachers, a potential can of worms. Difficult choices—Jesus on divorce or the beginning of the Book of Job. One commentator’s opening remarks on this scripture was “Beware this week”[1]. He wasn’t kidding. So what to do? Fool that I am, I’m going to take them both on!
So, the gospel reading. Let me begin by saying that The Anglican Church of Canada recognizes civil divorce and has allowed divorced persons to remarry and accept Holy Communion since 1967. So, for more than half a century, actually 9 years before it allowed the ordination of women!
At first reading, it appears fairly clear how Jesus feels about divorce-- until of course, you look more deeply at the scripture in relation to its context. The Pharisees are trying to trap him up. So they ask him “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?” Jesus turns the questions right back at them: What does Moses command? Well, Moses allowed a man to divorce his wife and send her away. And Jesus agrees, admitting it was so because of ‘your hardness of heart’. Yet, he tells them, this was not God’s intention for marriage—a joining of two people together, joined with the love of God. One commentator says it this way: “The point is clear: while dissolution of marriage is permissible, owing to human incompetence in sustaining their vows, God’s intent at creation is wholeness, including oneness of the flesh.”[2]
Divorce and reasons for it in biblical times was codified in Chapter 24 of the book of Deuteronomy. It could only be initiated by the husband, based on some “indecency” by the wife. But how does that get interpreted? I needed to do some research to understand more. There were, apparently, 2 schools of thought:
The school of Shammai held that it referred to some form of sexual offence falling short of adultery. The school of Hillel, on the other hand, held that it could include anything that caused a husband to be displeased with his wife, including burning his dinner, being quarrelsome, or even the husband losing interest in her because he came across another woman who was more beautiful. In fact, for the school of Hillel, ‘anything that caused annoyance or embarrassment to a husband was a legitimate ground for a divorce suit.’[3]
Well, the second school of thought takes ‘hardness of heart’ to a new level! The ball was completely in the husband’s court and women had no rights when it came to divorcing their husbands. Upon divorce, women, especially for women of limited family means lost the few rights they had in marriage, and often would find themselves and possibly their children kicked to the street, homeless, with limited options for survival, unless someone from their family of origin was able to take them in.
The disciples, once alone with Jesus, wanted some more clarification on this divorce discussion. And again, Jesus seems fairly clear, however with a bit of a twist—he acknowledges that if either man or woman initiates divorce and remarries, it is likened to committing adultery against the other partner. These are astonishing statements for the time. It acknowledges that Jesus feels women—not just men-- could initiate divorce. And it recognizes that the man or woman who was divorced by the other is the injured party—the one against whom the adultery has been committed[4] upon remarriage. This way of seeing divorce, while absolutely acknowledging that it is truly not what God intended for marriage, is another example of Jesus’ egalitarian outlook. Women –even in divorce, which was admittedly less than ideal, or what God wants for us, should have the same rights as men. Quite an amazing statement for it’s day!
Now, the book of Job, one of the Old Testament wisdom books, also offers us some challenging theological questions. Worth touching on today as we’ll be reading from the Book of Job for the next few weeks after Thanksgiving. It’s a most interesting story, full of challenging issues for people of faith, in Job’s time, and still for ours today.
The origin of the book is unknown, the author is anonymous, possibly even multiple authors writing and adding to the story over time before the book came to be in its final form as we now know it. Briefly, it’s a story about the undeserved suffering and final restoration of the central character, Job, and is likely based on ancient folktales. Most scholars place the writing of the bulk of the book between the seventh and fourth centuries before Christ. So, an ancient story indeed, which addresses an ancient dilemma: the suffering of the righteous and the good fortune of the wicked. [5] It’s something that we still wonder about today.
We started today with the very first verse of Job’s book. “There once was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job.” It even sounds a bit like the start of a folk tale. And do let’s be clear, the book of Job is very much a tale—a story that imparts knowledge and wisdom about people, faith, and God, but it is a folktale.
It begins with the blameless and upright Job, a man of complete integrity, a God-fearing man. In the first chapter, which we didn’t read today, is an accounting of Job’s incredible riches: seven thousand sheep, three thousand cattle, five hundred teams of oxen and five hundred female donkeys and countless servants, and also a large family, seven sons, and three daughters. So as the ancient traditions taught, Job, the righteous man of integrity has been well blessed by God indeed. But then a wrench gets thrown into Job’s happy life.
The heavenly court has come to session. All the heavenly beings are present, including Satan. Satan is not the diabolical opponent of God that we find later on in the New Testament writings.[6] In this story Satan essentially works for God as prosecutor. God presents Job to Satan as a blameless and upright man, a God-fearing man like no other on earth, who turns away from evil. (Job 1. 8) Satan, it seems, wants to challenge Job’s righteousness and his faith in God and see if Job remains steadfast in that faith without all those blessings. It’s easy to be righteous when your life is rich and full, Satan essentially says to God. So Satan persuades God to take them away; and calamity after calamity befalls poor Job, his property is raided and all his livestock and servants are killed or stolen, a storm suddenly blows up and the house falls upon his children, killing them all. His home, his livestock, his servants, his children; all gone or destroyed in short order. And Job is very philosophical and steadfast, saying: “I came naked from my mother’s womb, and I will be naked when I leave. The Lord gave me what I had, and the Lord has taken it away. Praise the name of the Lord!” (Job 1.21 NLT) Job, still righteous, still praising God in the face of all that calamity.
The heavenly council reconvenes and God says to Satan, see, Job has remained righteous, maintained his integrity and his faith, despite the enormous tragedies that befell him. Yes, Satan says, all very well, but: “A man will give up everything he has to save his life. 5 Reach out and take away his health, and he will surely curse you to your face!” “All right, do with him as you please,” the Lord said to Satan. “But spare his life.” (Job 2. 4-6 NLT) And so Job is afflicted by Satan with horrible skin sores, and sits in ashes, scraping at his sores with a piece of broken pottery. Even his wife doesn’t believe that Job still has faith in God, after all that happens, and tells him to curse God and be done with it. Yet Job will not, saying, “Should we accept only good things from the hand of God and never anything bad?” The middle of the book includes incredible conversations Job has with three of his friends about his new found horrible life situation, which flesh out even more theological issues then we’ve uncovered in the first 2 chapters.
So, what to make of just these first two chapters? It brings to mind many questions and issues about God, and Satan and suffering and faith! Let me share with you the top two that come to me.
Arguably the question that is the crux of this story, why do bad things happen to good people, faithful people, God fearing people? Obviously an ancient question, one we still wonder about today. And who or what do we blame when bad things do happen? Is it Satan? Is Satan real? Who is Satan? Do we blame God? Where is God in all the mess that Job goes through? Well, Job’s wife was pretty clear about it and told Job so too—curse God and be done with your life. As far as she was concerned, God was to blame, so why would he keep his faith, his integrity in belief of a good and just God, if God had allowed all this to happen to him—Job, the most righteous man around! And he is truly suffering and not deserving of that suffering. The final chapters in this book are Job confronting God with his questions and how the author feels God would respond. So stay tuned as we read more of Job! Or maybe you’d like to read it through yourself!
A second biggie for me: what does it mean to fear God, to be a God fearing person? It’s an issue I’ve struggled with, being afraid of God. I wish there was a better English translation of ‘fear’ from the Biblical Hebrew and Greek. I’m not sure that there is a single word that could encapsulate all our feelings about and towards God. To be God-fearing is more than living a righteous life because you’re afraid of what God might do to you if you don’t. That makes God not much more than a bully we’re trying to bargain with. Yes, God is the Creator and giver of this amazing world in which we live and we believe ultimately in control of everything. So, at a minimum, a very healthy respect for God is called for. God is truly awe-some, in the fullest sense of the word. When we think deeply on that, we are full of awe for the power of God to have done what God has done, and even continues to do. Contemplating on that immensity, that awe-some-ness, the power behind that can, yes, bring a sense of our own littleness in the largeness of creation, and maybe, well, probably a sense fear for something so immense and powerful is right. But not just fear, God is so much more. God is love, we were created out of God’s love, in God’s image, and God wants to be in a loving relationship with us. Amazing to think something so huge as God just wants to give us love and get our love. This is the same God who gave us God’s son Jesus, to redeem us, to save us, when we mess up our lives. And we show that love to God by doing our absolute best to live righteous lives—not just because we’re afraid of God’s power. And when we mess up, which we inevitably will and do—we need only confess, ask for forgiveness and strength to do it the right way the next time. This is the God, in Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit that is with us in our suffering, however undeserved it seems.
The history of humanity as told in the scriptures tells us, over and over again, of God’s total and all encompassing, love, care and compassion for us, the fallible people of God’s creation, love which is unceasing and undeserved. And this, I think, is why we have faith, and hold onto our faith, even in times of tragedy and misfortune.
And that may well be the story of Job in a nutshell.
[1] Philip Ruge-Jones in https://www.workingpreacher.org/commentaries/revised-common-lectionary/ordinary-27-2/commentary-on-mark-102-16-6 accessed Sept 30.24
[2] C. Clifton Black in Feasting on the Word Year B Vol 4 in Exegetical Commentary for Mark 10: 2 – 16 (WJK Press: Louisville KY) 2009. 143
[3] William L Lane, The Gospel of Mark (Grand Rapids and London: Eerdmans/Marshall, Morgan and Scott, 1974), p.363. as found in Martin Davie ”Reflections of an Anglican Theologian” https://mbarrattdavie.wordpress.com/2019/04/09/a-christian-approach-to-divorce-and-re-marriage/accessed Sept 30.24
[4] Black 143
[5] Ibid, excerpts from pp 726-727
[6] Paul E. Capetz in Theological Perspective for Job 1: 1: 2: 1-10 in Feasting on the Word Year B Vol 4. (WJK Press: Louisville, KY 2009)124-125