Matthew Sermon 58 – Mat 19.1-12 – Jesus and Marriage

Intro

In the providence of God, we come to Jesus’ teaching on marriage in the very week that the Supreme Court of the United States struck down the Defense of Marriage Act, thus redefining marriage to include same-sex couples for purposes of federal law. So, it is very appropriate that we consider what our Lord had to say about the topic of marriage. Marriage was not immune to debate and controversy even in Jesus’ day and even among God’s people. It seems that in some way or another, marriage as God designed it is always the subject of controversy, and people are always prone to chafe at it. Even in the first century, and even in the covenant community, marriage was issue one could use to define someone in a negative light, which is exactly what the Pharisees tried to do with Jesus. They wanted to marginalize him by branding him as radical and out of touch. Zooming forward 2000 years, we can see that not much has changed. Those who advocate for biblical marriage are once again being branded as radical and out of touch. All the more reason, then, why we should see how Jesus approached this topic of marriage. I hope you enjoy the sermon. Thanks for listening. -Alan Burrow