Jesus probably said a lot about divorce and marriage. It mattered to him. It was, after all, a driving metaphor in why he was living. He knew that he was in love with people, that he was walking around because of that love, he knew that he was on his way to die because he was so in love with people.

What I’m guessing, however, is that we know very little of the very lot that he said about divorce and marriage. We have no idea, for example, of what he said when he sat down with someone who was divorced. We have no idea what he said when he was face to face with someone who had slept with someone not her husband, someone who was already married. We have no idea what he said when he was answering people with real questions rather than engaging in moral [sic] combat with the Pharisees about the law.

Oh, wait. We do have a clue. With the woman who had several husbands, he talked about the hole in her heart, about how much she was looking for something that would really fill her.

With the woman trapped while having sex, he refused to administer the legally-prescribed stoning. Instead, he showed compassion.

Did he invite both of these women to stop using sex and marriages as a way to find meaning in life? He did.

And in his answer to the Pharisees in Matthew 19, he affirmed that marriage was intended by God to last, to stay, to complete.

But the follower of Jesus ought to not be quick to use that affirmation as a reason to denounce and revile those involved in divorce conversations. Because Jesus didn’t denounce them, as his conversations with the women show. He usually denounces denouncers.

More tomorrow.