Mark juxtaposes two stories in our Gospel reading today that don’t seem to have anything in common (Mk 10:2-16). But they are are connected – there’s an “and” between them! The first is a discussion about marriage. In the second Jesus says: “whoever does not accept the kingdom of God like a child will not enter it”.
What does ‘accepting something like a child’ mean? Maybe we think: ‘Oh children are simple and accepting, they don’t argue back’. I’m not sure how that myth about the nature of children came to be, but if you’ve spent any time around a 3 year old (or any child through to the age of 15 or so!) you’ll recognize that that’s not entirely accurate.
What was Jesus getting at when he spoke about the acceptance of a child? The answer, at least for Mark, lies in the contrast with the first story. We need to be careful when reading this one too. It’s easy to think that Jesus was providing an update to the Mosaic law. But the point Jesus is making is not to provide a better law – quite the opposite. It’s part of his relentless attack on the legalism of the Pharisees. Jesus isn’t criticizing them for creating bad laws and proposing better ones – he’s against thinking of our relationship with God in legal terms. This is equally true whether he’s discussing observing the Sabbath or being married. The Pharisees’ approach is wrong. What is needed is the approach of a child.
The thing that is different about a child is not that they don’t argue back, nor have their own opinion about what they want to do, it’s that they haven’t got to the point of imagining they are in control of the world around them. For Jesus the most fundamental principle is that God is in control. And if we come to believe as adults that the laws we create (even if we believe they reflect “God’s will”) should be the controlling factor in our lives then we’ve missed the point, we’ve fallen into the same trap as the Pharisees.
When Jesus talks about the responsibility of marriage he’s talking about relationships not rules. Under Jewish law a woman couldn’t divorce her husband, so talking about the consequences of such a legal action would make no sense. And if we were to imagine he’s giving us a law that someone should stay in an abusive relationship because of the way God provided men and women to be companions in life to each other, that would be an upside-down reading of everything Jesus is trying to tell us.
As adults we do have a responsibility to regulate our society and make “good” laws. But that is something separate from accepting the kingdom of God and entering it. For Jesus marriage is a matter of the heart (and the soul) not the legal system. Accept the controlling power of God and we will live lives that are filled with the peace of God’s love. That’s the kingdom Jesus is preaching.