Contemplative Bible Reading

Mark 10:2 (New Living Translation)

2 Some Pharisees came and tried to trap him with this question: “Should a man be allowed to divorce his wife?”

I don’t remember how many times I have sat in a Christian discussion in which the topic was this verse and what follows. We love to discuss divorce and remarriage. We must love it as we have done it so often.

In all these discussions, we focused on the words, “Should a man be allowed to divorce his wife?”

We never focused on the words, “Some Pharisees came and tried to trap him with this question:”

The foundation or basis for the entire thing was a question that was a trap. They didn’t want to know what Jesus thought about divorce. They wanted to trick Jesus into saying something that could be used against Jesus later.

I have been in many classes and discussions when someone wanted to pose a hypothetical question. “If so and so does this or that, is that worse than so and so doing that or this, and what should be done with so and so after that and the other thing and…”

At some point in life I adopted the answer, “I don’t answer hypothetical questions. Do you have something real that you wish to discuss?”

That wasn’t and isn’t a popular answer, but I stick to it.

Jesus recognized the question given to Him was a trap. Jesus walked away from the trap. In essence, Jesus asked the people, “What is it you really want to discuss?”

The people shyly admitted that they were asking, “Is this worse than that or is the other thing worse than the first and third thing or other?”

Jesus taught them that sin was sin and that sin separated us from God. Only by accepting the saving grace of God can we come to God. All the trap questions and hypothetical questions in the minds of men and the ensuing discussions don’t help us one little bit. Let us look to God.