Sometimes the truth strikes us right between the eyes. It hits us with such force that we get knocked over, our lives forever altered. We are knocked off balance and we must find a new center of gravity. We can’t go back to the way things used to be. The past has been redefined by that moment. It has become a large exclamation point in our life story. It ended one chapter and signaled the beginning of another.
Truth has a way of doing this to people, me included. The only way we can go forward is to fully incorporate the truth into our view of the world. Or we can live in the room with the elephant, but simply act as if it doesn’t exist. We move around it, being careful not to allow its presence to touch ours. We build carefully designed boxes to keep it at a safe distance.
I see this most often with grief. We lose a loved one. We have a choice in the months ahead: we can learn to live with the void or create a world where the void doesn’t exist. We fill the void with substitutes. Often addictions are put in the void. They have a way of numbing the pain, even if only temporarily.
The Truth in today’s passage sounds very intolerant, to use the politically correct buzzword. Nothing is worse than intolerance, or so the media proclaims. And yet as they label us intolerant, they are demonstrating their own intolerance of our beliefs and practices. You can’t label someone intolerant without making a judgment statement about them. And making judgment statements are the heart of this new intolerance. They judge us for our beliefs, just as we supposedly judge them for theirs. And yet their judgment isn’t based on fact, but on fiction.
Marriage is supposed to be between one man and one woman for life. If the bond gets broken and another union happens, that union is adultery. Forgiveness is possible, but it can’t happen without acknowledging the truth of the sin. You can’t get forgiveness for violating a command without first acknowledging the command and its relevance to your situation.
Forgiveness is available. All sin has been paid for by Christ’s life, death, and resurrection. When we marry again we are committing adultery against that first spouse, an act that requires forgiveness from both God and the spouse. You can repent of your portion of the wrongs that fed the divorce, even if the portion is extremely small and limited. Forgiveness is available.
If you have trouble with this straight forward Truth, you are not alone. The disciples had this same trouble. That is why they asked for clarification. If they had gotten the strictness of what Jesus was saying the first time, they would not have asked for clarification. Being a follower of Jesus requires our death, death to self, death to selfishness, death to self-centeredness, death to my way or the highway, death to stomped feet and pouting looks. Embrace the Truth, no matter what.
The Arnold Journey 