Text for the Week: On Seeing People

Scripture: Matthew 5:27-32

²⁷ “You have heard that it was said by the ancients, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ ²⁸ But I say to you that whoever looks on a woman to lust after her has committed adultery with her already in his heart. ²⁹ And if your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and throw it away. For it is profitable that one of your members should perish, and not that your whole body be thrown into hell. ³⁰ And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is profitable for you that one of your members should perish, and not that your whole body be thrown into hell.

³¹ “It was said, ‘Whoever divorces his wife, let him give her a certificate of divorce.’ ³² But I say to you that whoever divorces his wife, except for marital unfaithfulness, causes her to commit adultery. And whoever marries her who is divorced commits adultery.

Questions

1. What are the differences between our society today and the society of Jesus’ day around marriage and divorce?
2. Why does Jesus use such strong hyperbole when talking about how his disciples should approach issues like lust?
3. “Hell” (Gehenna) in this passage refers to recompense of coming judgment, how does this warning about vengeance and justice apply to lust?
4. How does a man cause a woman to commit adultery if he divorces her?
5. Why does Jesus provide what is often seen as one legitimate reason for divorce, is this a hard and fast command?

Background

Related Scriptures: Exodus 20:1-20, Leviticus 20:10, Deuteronomy 5:1-22, 22:22-30, Matthew 18:8-9, Mark 9:42-47, John 4:1-42, Acts 2:1-41, Galatians 3:28

In the Old Testament adultery was a sin/crime one man committed against another man, not against his wife. A married man was only considered to have committed adultery if he slept with a married woman, if the woman was not married then he was expected to take her as an additional wife.

In Jewish culture divorce was the privilege of the husband, a wife had no say in the matter.

 Jesus’ culture laid stress on a woman’s dress so that she would not be a temptation to a man, Jesus reverses this and says that temptation lies in the desires of the person looking and it is that person’s responsibility to curtail the temptation.

Jesus’ use of hyperbolic language of cutting of a hand or gauging an eye is meant to convey the importance of his words in the most shocking way possible. The right hand and right eye were very important in that society (even more so than today) and the lack of one of these features would have resulted in social stigma as much as an inconvenience to life. (see 1 Sam 11:2, Zech 11:17)

The point of Jesus’ teaching on divorce is not meant to create a new system of when it is or is not permissible, rather he wants us to evaluate how we conduct ourselves in relationships especially the one that is most important.

Verse 32 should say that the woman has adultery committed against her, not that she commits adultery.

Reflection

This week we celebrate Pentecost and reading through Acts 2 I was struck by Peter’s quotation of Joel that includes sons and daughters among those who are to preach the good news of God. This made me think about Paul’s words in Galatians 3:28 “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, and there is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” One of the tremendous realities of the new life in Jesus was that the hierarchical structure that was so common to the disciples’ experience was overthrown. Christian leaders expected that when people entered the church they would do so on a level ground, with no one greater or lesser than another. Each person had equal access to God’s Spirit and presence.

Jesus’ teaching on adultery and divorce might seem one dimensional and focused on sexuality but these teachings grow out of this deeper reality that God’s kingdom is built on living out this commitment to see others as fully human. Perhaps more than other teachings, to understand Jesus’ meaning on adultery and divorce we must begin by understanding that the culture he was speaking to and how his ideas turned those ideas upside down. In Jesus’ world women were not given the same rights and respect as men, women were not considered in matters of divorce and adultery, all that was considered was how these issues impacted men. Adultery was limited to a physical relationship between a man and a married woman, an unmarried woman could not in the view of the Law commit adultery, nor was a married man considered adulterous or unfaithful if the woman he slept with was unmarried. If a man left a woman it was it benefited him, and society had little concern with the impact to the woman, fidelity in marriage was largely a one-way street, a man did not commit adultery against his wife. Yet this is not how Jesus approached these issues.

Reading Jesus’ teachings here I am confronted by the question, “what is lust?” And the answer that I have come to is, lust is the objectification of another person, seeing another person not as human to be loved, but as an object to use to gratify one’s own desires. And in a culture that told women to hide because they were often objectified, Jesus was telling men not to objectify women. Jesus was telling his disciples to begin to look at every person they meet as a person who reflects God’s image. Obviously, Jesus speaking to a male dominated audience is going to be speaking in terms they can understand but what he is saying applies to each of us and not simply in how it relates to our sexuality. Lust is one the ways in which a person dehumanizes another, belittling their status, but it is not the only way. Jesus recognizes that behind the action of adultery is a mindset that views others as less important than I am. He understood that what leads to actions like adultery is a belittling of the importance of another person and it is this that Jesus tells his followers to cut out of themselves. The language of cutting off the right hand or gauging out the right eye is hyperbole and extreme but conveys a serious point. The lack of a right hand and right eye would not simply make one’s life physically more difficult they were also seen as cultural embarrassments. Jesus is telling his followers, even if it makes your life more difficult and degrades you socially do not objectify others, but instead seek to see them as divine creations.

This same vision under girds Jesus’ teaching on divorce, men were not to see wives as objects to cast off if they were dissatisfied with, instead marriage for Jesus was grounded in a mutual love and respect. The idea again is that men often treated their wives as objects or tools, divorcing them with little concern. Jesus’ comment was meant to tell men to see their wives as equals that were one with them, bringing them strength, comfort, and support. In neither of these cases was Jesus trying to give a new Law but trying to help us understand how easy it can be to objectify another person.