If, in using this text, we begin with the
question about the legality of divorce, we will inevitably miss the point. It
would appear that an editor of Matthew’s gospel was hermeneutically challenged
in this direction and includes a Shammaite gloss. Jesus is moving in an entirely
different direction.
If this text is used by some to create
fear as they continue in an abusive relationship they should be warned that
the very text they are using is telling them to radically alter their behavior.
To continue to be abusive and use this text to justify keeping a scapegoat
around would be to invite great judgement.
We believe that mimetic theory allows
us to penetrate both the structure of the text as well as to explore Jesus’
spirituality. The two are saying the same thing. It is up to us who have heard
his voice to not harden our hearts but to follow him.
We have said previously on preachingpeace.org
that our relationships are as real as we are. When we kill our relationships
a part of us is dying. Ched Myers brilliantly analyzes this and concludes,
“divorce is a profound spiritual and social tragedy” and that
“divorce is a reality, within which the fundamental issue of justice
must not be lost.” But we utterly fail as a community when even here
we do not recognize that people that get divorced are no worse and no better
than those married. And perhaps here, in our compassion on those who experience
divorce, we may welcome them as Jesus welcomed the little children.
We both gratefully recognize our wives
(neither of whom read this site!). We have given them plenty of reasons to
divorce us and they have been examples of grace, loving kindness and forgiveness
to us. We would not be the men we are without their loving and nurturing care.
Having said that, we got one for you.
Saw this on the front of a tee shirt:
“Marriage is like a roller coaster.”
As the person passed by we read the back:
“Sometimes you’re having
the thrill of your life, sometimes you want to throw up.”
Happy trails!
It would appear that the conflict story
with the Pharisees has no intrinsic connection to that which has gone on before
nor that which will follow. It has more the feel of the conflict stories of
chapters 2 and 3.
But in fact, it does. The question put
to Jesus has to do with loopholes, how shall we interpret the text from Torah
on divorce? Perhaps like the Hillelites, we might take it to mean for any
reason, e.g, burning your supper one night. Perhaps like the Shammaites we
might say divorce is permissible only when the wife has been unfaithful (like
Matthew’s gospel!).
What is being asked of Jesus is this:
where are we legally bound when we break our relationships with the other,
what is the minimum we are legally bound to. They want Jesus to offer a halakic
ruling. He does by denying validity of the question itself.
Jesus, instead of citing Torah and exegeting
it, asks his interrogators a question: ‘What did Moses command you?”
The answer is a citation of the text in debate between the rabbinic schools.
Jesus correlates the permissibility of divorce with Moses, but in a sense,
takes Moses off the hook for the law: it was given because the people had
hard hearts, they had become stubborn and resistant against God. The law in
Deuteronomy is a last resort to protect women against male exploitation.
Jesus then cites Torah anti Torah, Torah
in place of Torah. His hermeneutic is to describe the unity of the originary
relationship of the man and the woman in the garden. The relationship is described
as that which God joins together and Jesus asserts where God has done something,
humans have no place to undo it.
In short, a justification of the Mosaic
law is given but it is immediately dispensed with by correlating that law
with the spiritual condition of the people. Jesus is thus able to 1) entirely
ignore the premise of the rabbinic debates and 2) formulate a hermeneutic
by which texts are to be interpreted.
The actual halakah waits until he is
alone with his followers who cant figure out the implications of what Jesus
is saying. This halakah is not one sided, it concerns both the man and the
woman. Neither one has the right to divorce, and if they do and start over
with another, well, it is as good as calling it adultery. The purpose of this
halakah is that it asserts that there is one protected relationship in life
where forgiveness knows no bounds, and that relationship is expressed as the
unity of committed spouses. From Jesus’ perspective, marriage meant
no boundaries on the forgiveness of sin. There can never arise a legal reason
for divorce as a justification of anything else but our hardness of heart.
By this, Jesus indicts a whole host of
wealthy, upper class wife and husband swapping that went on in Palestine.
The poor don’t go through this nonsense (very often), it takes money
to get divorced and the masses had barely enough to get by and lived short
lives. It was those who had money and time that could play the games of breaking
relationships. This is another salvo against the way the Powers seek to structure
human relations: the modern notion of marriage as a legal agreement (you cannot
be legally married without paperwork) still gives authority to the Pharisees
question.
Jesus is demonstrating in this section
over and over that relationships between people are for nurturing and building
up not tearing apart.
1. The mimetic argument about the greatest;
last first.
2. Taking a child, welcoming the agent of the sender
3. On not becoming a model/obstacle
4. The rejection of scapegoating in marriage
5. Taking a child, the child as model
6. The rejection of mammon; first last.
This entire section reads like a mimetic
primer on relationships and how we can treat each other if we desire God’s
realm. It is a great challenge to the principalities and powers in its many
forms: legal, economic, social, not to mention spiritual. It is all about
the fundamental reversal of values or perhaps we could say it is about salvation.
The debates about divorce within rabbinic
circles are well known and discussed in the commentaries. It would appear,
for all intents and purposes, that Jesus view is more closely paralleled to
that of the Qumran community than it is to either the house of Shammai or
Hillel.
Hamerton-Kelly points out that the Markan text reflects Roman rather than
Jewish practice mentioning the right of the woman to initiate a divorce. This
can reflect the current situation of the gospel writer or it may reflect Jesus’
acquaintance of and implicit critique of the social structure of mimesis.
Either way we shouldn’t be surprised.
There is also an interesting discussion
of the “purpose” that is also present in the meaning of the conjunction
kai in this pericope online at “Jerusalem Perspective.”
Click
here to read the column. (A new window will open, you won’t lose
your place.)
Either this page has not yet been completed, or we have not found any significant textual issues in the lectionary texts for this Sunday.
Introductory Articles
We will add articles as we are able,
or as users of the site request them, so if you have suggestions for additional
pieces, please write to us!
"Introduction
to Mimetic Theory"
"Mimesis"
"The
Scapegoat"
"The
Pillars of Culture"
"Jesus"
"The
Four Gospels"
A Brief Introduction
to Luke
What's New: (Hover your mouse over to pause cycling)
Jb 1:1;2:1-10 or * Gn 2:18-24
Ps 26 * Ps 8
Heb 1:1-4;2:5-12
Mk 10:2-16
(Job 1:1)
There was once a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job. That man was blameless
and upright, one who feared God and turned away from evil.
(Job 2:1-10)
One day the heavenly beings came to present themselves before the LORD, and
Satan also came among them to present himself before the LORD. The LORD said
to Satan, "Where have you come from?" Satan answered the LORD, "From
going to and fro on the earth, and from walking up and down on it." The
LORD said to Satan, "Have you considered my servant Job? There is no
one like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man who fears God and turns
away from evil. He still persists in his integrity, although you incited me
against him, to destroy him for no reason." Then Satan answered the LORD,
"Skin for skin! All that people have they will give to save their lives.
But stretch out your hand now and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will
curse you to your face." The LORD said to Satan, "Very well, he
is in your power; only spare his life." So Satan went out from the presence
of the LORD, and inflicted loathsome sores on Job from the sole of his foot
to the crown of his head. Job took a potsherd with which to scrape himself,
and sat among the ashes. Then his wife said to him, "Do you still persist
in your integrity? Curse God, and die." But he said to her, "You
speak as any foolish woman would speak. Shall we receive the good at the hand
of God, and not receive the bad?"
In all this Job did not sin with his lips.
* (Genesis 2:18-24)
Then the LORD God said, "It is not good that the man should be alone;
I will make him a helper as his partner." So out of the ground the LORD
God formed every animal of the field and every bird of the air, and brought
them to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the man called
every living creature, that was its name. The man gave names to all cattle,
and to the birds of the air, and to every animal of the field; but for the
man there was not found a helper as his partner. So the LORD God caused a
deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then he took one of his ribs
and closed up its place with flesh. And the rib that the LORD God had taken
from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. Then the man
said, "This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; this one
shall be called Woman, for out of Man this one was taken." Therefore
a man leaves his father and his mother and clings to his wife, and they become
one flesh.
(Hebrews 1:1-4)
Long ago God spoke to our ancestors in
many and various ways by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken
to us by a Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom he also
created the worlds. He is the reflection of God's glory and the exact imprint
of God's very being, and he sustains all things by his powerful word. When
he had made purification for sins, hesat down at the right hand of the Majesty
on high, having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited
is more excellent than theirs.
(Hebrews 2:5-12)
Now God did not subject the coming world, about which we are speaking, to
angels. But someone has testified somewhere, "What are human beings that
you are mindful of them, or mortals, that you care for them? You have made
them for a little while lower than the angels; you have crowned them with
glory and honor, subjecting all things under their feet." Now in subjecting
all things to them, God left nothing outside their control. As it is, we do
not yet see everything in subjection to them, but we do see Jesus, who for
a little while was made lower than the angels, now crowned with glory and
honor because of the suffering of death, so that by the grace of God he might
taste death for everyone. It was fitting that God, for whom and through whom
all things exist, in bringing many children to glory, should make the pioneer
of their salvation perfect through sufferings. For the one who sanctifies
and those who are sanctified all have one Father. For this reason Jesus is
not ashamed to call them brothers and sisters, saying, "I will proclaim
your name to my brothers and sisters, in the midst of the congregation I will
praise you."
(Mark 10:2-16)
Some Pharisees came, and to test him they asked, "Is it lawful for a
man to divorce his wife?" He answered them, "What did Moses command
you?" They said, "Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of
dismissal and to divorce her." But Jesus said to them, "Because
of your hardness of heart he wrote this commandment for you. But from the
beginning of creation, 'God
made them male and female.' 'For this reason a man shall leave his father
and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.'
So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together,
let no one separate." Then in the house the disciples asked him again
about this matter. He said to them, "Whoever divorces his wife and marries
another commits adultery against her; and if she divorces her husband and
marries another, she commits adultery." People were bringing little children
to him in order that he might touch them; and the disciples spoke sternly
to them. But when Jesus saw this, he was indignant and said to them, "Let
the little children come to me; do not stop them; for it is to such as these
that the kingdom of God belongs. Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive
the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it." And he took
them up in his arms, laid his hands on them, and blessed them.
New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright
1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches
of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights
reserved.
Occasional Articles
As with the Introductory Articles, we
will add other articles as time permits or as our readers request. If you
have a suggestion for anything, please let us know.
Michael Hardin
Is the Apocalypse Inevitable?: Native American Prophecy and the Mimetic Theory presented to the Colloquium on Violence and Religion 2008
Michael's Essay for a Celebration Volume honoring Rene Girard
Michael's Response to Willard Swartley's Covenent of Peace at the November Colloquium and Violence Meeting
Does
Peace Make A Difference? - Michael's essay in response to Rick
Warren's P.E.A.C.E. plan (which somehow never mentions peace).
An Analysis of Rick Warren - Michael's response to "The Purpose Driven Life."
"The
God of Pat Robertson" - a response to Pat Robertson's words
to the people of Dover, PA.
"A
response to Charles Stanley's "A Nation at War"
"Must
God be violent? A Diagnosis and Prescription for Modern Christianity"
The
Scapegoat: Christologies in Conflict - A Study in Dietrich Bonhoeffer
Biblical
Testaments as a Marriage of Convenience: Rene Girard and Biblical Interpretation
Finding
Our Way Home: A Brief Note On The Authority and Interpretation of Scripture
"Does
The Passion of the Christ Preach the Gospel?"
A
sermon for the holiday devoted to Dr. Martin Luther King. (requires
Adobe Acrobat Reader.)
GRASPING
GOD: Philippians 2: 1-11 in the Light of Mimetic Theory
Rene Girard and the Recovery of Early Christian Perspectives (Brethren Life and Thought)
The Dynamics of Violence and the Imitation of Christ in Maximus Confessor (St. Vladimir's Theological Quarterly)
"EcoSpirituality"
Or What Happens When You Sit Down With A French Literary Critic
Jeff Krantz
Mighty
One or Crucified Messiah? Competing Christologies and the Chiastic
Structure of Mark's Gospel
There's
No Such Thing as the Rapture - A sermon preached at the Church
of the Advent, Westbury (requires Acrobat Reader)
Holy
Scripture and the Consecration of Gene Robinson - a response
to the request of the Windsor Report for a Scriptural rationale. (requires
Adobe's Acrobat Reader)
Worship - The Redemption of Desire by Jeff Krantz
Myth
and Film - a piece written for the City of Angels Film Festival
The Stations of the Cross - Rewritten by Jeff Krantz
A Dramatic Presentation of the Stations of the Cross for Youth by Barb Fabijan-Waddell
Escaping
the Power of "My" - A NonViolent Approach to Stewardship
Preaching
Peace in Hollywood: The Theologies of Terminator, Lord of the Rings, and the
Matrix
V
for Vendetta - The Name Says It All A review of the movie.
Essays, Sermons and Liturgical Pieces by Friends of Preaching Peace
"Jesus and the Gibeonites: Reading the Bible from the Perspective of the Hidden Victim" by James Warren.
Mark Heim's "No More of This" - A hymn on Nonviolent Atonement
Kate Layzer's "No More of This" - A hymn on Nonviolent Atonement (and inspiration for Mark Heim's hymn!)
Alan Cork, "Transformation" in L'Arche: A Mimetic Account presented to the Colloquium on Violence and Religion 2008
"The Wisdom of God's Peace" a sermon by Jim Amstutz, co-pastor of Michael's church.
Girard's Christology - Per Bjornar Grande
Violence, Anarchy and Scripture: Jacques Ellul and Rene Girard - Matthew Patillo
Comparing
Plato's Understanding of Mimesis to Girard's - Per Bjorner Grande
C. Frank Terhune, an Easter Sermon: "God's Big But" (no kidding!)
Gerald Biesecker-Mast's paper from Theologia Pacis on Pacifist Gospel Epstimology.
An essay by the Rev. John Hill on Mimetic Theory and Catechesis
