Mark 10-12

Some Pharisees came and tested him by asking, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?”

“What did Moses command you?” he replied.

They said, “Moses permitted a man to write a certificate of divorce and send her away.”

“It was because your hearts were hard that Moses wrote you this law,” Jesus replied. “But at the beginning of creation God ‘made them male and female.’‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.”

When they were in the house again, the disciples asked Jesus about this. He answered, “Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery against her. And if she divorces her husband and marries another man, she commits adultery.” (Mark 10:2-12)

Here Mark's gospel displays a set of concerns over divorce that differ from the concerns of Matthew's gospel and Luke's gospel. According to Mark's gospel, Jesus allows no grounds for divorce and remarriage. If a man divorces his wife and remarries, then he is guilty of adultery. Likewise, if a woman divorces and remarries, she is guilty of adultery.

According to Matthew's gospel, Jesus puts it this way: “It has been said, ‘Anyone who divorces his wife must give her a certificate of divorce.’ But I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, makes her the victim of adultery, and anyone who marries a divorced woman commits adultery. (Matthew 5:31-32)

In this teaching a man is given one valid excuse for divorcing his wife. If she has been unfaithful sexually, then he may divorce her. If he divorces her for any other reason, then he "makes her the victim of adultery." He becomes the root cause of her guilt. It is noteworthy that nothing else is said of his guilt.

Nothing is said about remarriage for the man who has divorced due to his first wife's sexual immorality. May he marry again or not? 

What about the wife whose husband has been unfaithful sexually? Is she given a valid excuse for divorcing him? May she remarry without guilt? Matthew's gospel doesn't say, but it does say that anyone who marries a divorced woman carries the guilt of adultery.

Luke's gospel tells it this way: [Jesus says,] "Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery, and the man who marries a divorced woman commits adultery." (Luke 16:18)

Luke's gospel records only Jesus' concern for the man who divorces and remarries or who marries a divorced woman. That man bears the guilt of adultery. Nothing is recorded concerning the woman whether single, married, divorced, or divorced and remarried.

It seems the early church felt conflicted over the issues of marriage, divorce, and remarriage, as is reflected in the teachings recorded in the gospels of Mark, Matthew, and Luke. I think conflicted feelings will persist in the church as long as people are marrying, divorcing, and remarrying.