Commitments

There will always be people who try to get out of their commitments.

When Jesus had finished saying these things, he left Galilee and went to the region of Judea beyond the Jordan. Large crowds followed him, and he cured them there. Some Pharisees came to him, and to test him they asked, ‘Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any cause?’ He answered, ‘Have you not read that the one who made them at the beginning “made them male and female”, and said, “For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh”? So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.’ They said to him, ‘Why then did Moses command us to give a certificate of dismissal and to divorce her?’ He said to them, ‘It was because you were so hard-hearted that Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but at the beginning it was not so. And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for unchastity, and marries another commits adultery.’ His disciples said to him, ‘If such is the case of a man with his wife, it is better not to marry.’ But he said to them, ‘Not everyone can accept this teaching, but only those to whom it is given. For there are eunuchs who have been so from birth, and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by others, and there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. Let anyone accept this who can.’ - Matthew 19:1-12

In Jesus' day, women were fully dependent upon men.  If a woman made any money, it became the property of her husband, and while a man could divorce his wife for any reason whatsoever, a woman could not divorce her husband.

So, what Jesus is saying here he says in defense of women.  What could be worse than to leave a woman with no means of support?

It would be better, he says, not to marry at all.

Isn't that true of all our commitments?  Wouldn't it be better not to make them than to leave them unfulfilled?

We need to be especially focused on this when it comes to committing to help others, people with no means of support for themselves.

Either we are in or we are out.  

In our modern society, we have a way to compromising.  We offer alimony in some cases to help the woman, and child support for any children left behind, but is that enough?

Jesus was trying to help us avoid a situation where more people become destitute and need help from others.  He was focusing on the cause rather than the remedy.

Maybe that's the message here for us today.  What can we do to avoid the problems we will not be able to solve?

Maybe we should just stick to our commitments.

More to come...