16: Temptation, divorce, blessing children – Mark 9:38-10:16

9³⁸ John said to him, “Teacher, we saw someone casting out demons in your name, and we tried to stop him, because he was not following us.”
³⁹ But Jesus said, “Do not stop him; for no one who does a deed of power in my name will be able soon afterward to speak evil of me.
⁴⁰ Whoever is not against us is for us. ⁴¹ For truly I tell you, whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because you bear the name of Christ will by no means lose the reward. 

Temptation to sin

⁴² “If any of you put a stumbling block before one of these little ones who believe in me, it would be better for you if a great millstone were hung around your neck and you were thrown into the sea. ⁴³ If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life maimed than to have two hands and to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire. ⁴⁵ And if your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life lame than to have two feet and to be thrown into hell. ⁴⁷ And if your eye causes you to stumble, tear it out; it is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and to be thrown into hell, ⁴⁸ where their worm never dies, and the fire is never quenched.

⁴⁹ “For everyone will be salted with fire. ⁵⁰ Salt is good; but if salt has lost its saltiness, how can you season it? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another.” 

Teaching about divorce

10 He left that place and went to the region of Judea and beyond the Jordan. And crowds again gathered around him; and, as was his custom, he again taught them. 

² Some Pharisees came, and to test him they asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?” ³ He answered them, “What did Moses command you?” ⁴ They said, “Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of dismissal and to divorce her.” ⁵ But Jesus said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart he wrote this commandment for you. ⁶ But from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.’ ⁷ ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, ⁸ and the two shall become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two, but one flesh.
⁹ Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.” 

¹⁰ Then in the house the disciples asked him again about this matter. ¹¹ He said to them, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her; ¹² and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.” 

Jesus blesses little children

¹³ People were bringing little children to him in order that he might touch them; and the disciples spoke sternly to them. ¹⁴ But when Jesus saw this, he was indignant and said to them, “Let the little children come to me; do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs. ¹⁵ Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it.” ¹⁶ And he took them up in his arms, laid his hands on them, and blessed them. NRSV

Get into the Word

1. What is the situation facing Jesus here? Who tells him about it? How does Jesus respond to this situation? What does he say about people who are “helping” him? 

2. What images does Jesus use to describing dealing with sin? Why do you think he chose these symbols? How do you think his listeners reacted to this lesson? How might you have responded?

3. What does Jesus say about salt? Why do you suppose he brought this up, [see Notes]?

4. Who brings up the subject of marriage and divorce? Why did they confront Jesus on this issue? How does Jesus respond to the question? What is the core of Jesus’s response on the subject of divorce and marriage? Why is divorce “permitted” by the Law? What is God’s real idea for marriage according to Jesus? [See Notes for the disciples’ reaction and Jesus’s explanation.]

5. Who comes to see Jesus next? How do the disciples deal with this? What is Jesus’s response to the situation? What does he say about the Kingdom of God? What does he say about faith? What did he do with the children?

Get Personal

What does a “little child’s faith” look like to you? How has God helped you to grow into a child-like faith? How has he helped you grow from a child-like faith?

(cross-references to Matthew and Luke are given in brackets)

9:28-41. Another exorcist — Luke includes this episode, in conjunction with sending out the Apostles, but he does not include Jesus’s references to “deeds of power” or “cup of water,” [Luke 9:49-50].
Matthew does not include this incident, but he does have the phrase, Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters, [Matt 12:30], as part of Jesus’s response to the charge that he casts out demons using Satan’s power.
9:43-48. Hands and eyes — Matthew includes Jesus’s lesson on sin in two places using very similar words. The first is part of the Sermon on the Mount, [Matt 5:29-30]; the second follows Jesus’s response to the disciples’ question about who is the greatest, [Matt 18:8-10].
Luke does not report any comments about hands and eyes.
9:43, 47. Hell — the actual word refers to the Valley of Hinnom outside Jerusalem which became the city’s garbage dump, where the fires did in fact burn all the time to destroy the garbage.
9:44, 46. These verses (repetitions of verse 48) are not in the most accepted manuscripts.
9:49-50. Salted with fire — Matthew’s version of Jesus’s comment is also part of the Sermon on the Mount: You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste,

how can its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything, but is thrown out and trampled underfoot, [Matt 5:13-16].
Luke reports Jesus’s reference to salt as part of the cost of being a disciple: Salt is good; but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored? It is fit neither for the soil nor for the manure pile; they throw it away. Let anyone with ears to hear listen! [Luke 14:35-35].
The Mosaic Law required grain offerings to be salted: You shall not omit from your grain offerings the salt of the covenant with your God; with all your offerings you shall offer salt, [Lev 2:13]. 
10:1-12. Teaching about divorce — Matthew says Jesus’s initial response is to quote the Scripture about “male and female,” and then the Pharisees bring up Moses. Jesus answers with the “hard heartedness” and tells his disciples, Whoever divorces his wife, except for unchastity, and marries another commits adultery, [Matt 19:1-12].
Luke records that Jesus said, Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery, and whoever marries a woman divorced from her husband commits adultery, [Luke 16:18] as part of a rebuke to the Pharisees during his more general teaching.
10:13-16. Blessing the children — Matthew and Luke both include this incident, [Matt 19:13-15 and Luke 18:15-17].