The text is:

And Pharisees came up and in order to test him 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 divorce and to send her away.” And Jesus said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart he wrote you this commandment. But from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female.’ ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.” And in the house the disciples asked him again about this matter. And 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.” (Mark 10:2-12, ESV)

From the Sermon:

Forgiveness is the foundation of our relationship with God. Just as Paul says, it’s all about what Christ did for us, He is the bridegroom we are his bride. He sanctifies us, by cleansing us with water and the word. To be baptized is to be a member of the church, the bride of Christ. To be baptized is to be washed clean of sin, even the sin of not wanting to submit to the Bridegroom and God’s Word about marriage or anything else. St. Paul says that Christ gave himself up for the Church, for His bride. That is talking about the cross. A husband is to give his life for his bride, to provide for her, to protect her, to hold her welfare above his own, to sacrifice all for her. That’s what Jesus did. Our sin, our rejection of God’s control over our lives deserves a permanent divorce from God. But Jesus brings us to God as his perfect bride because he takes our place in punishment. He holds our welfare above his own. He sacrifices his life for ours. He suffers the permanent separation from God on the cross, we see that when he shouts “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46, ESV) And so when God look to us in judgment he only sees that we have been washed clean, that we are “without spot or wrinkle or any such thing,” that we are “holy and without blemish.”

Labels: Sermon, Worship