Divorce
Mark 10He left that place and came into the region of Judea and beyond the Jordan. Again, crowds gathered around him, and as was his custom, he began to teach them.
Some Pharisees came and asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?” (They were testing him).
He answered and said to them, “What did Moses command y’all?”
They said, “Moses allowed a scroll of divorce to be written, and to send her away.”
But Jesus said to them, “It was because of y’all’s hardness of heart that he wrote this commandment for y’all. But from the beginning of the creation, God ‘made them male and female.’+Gen 1:27 ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother, and the two will become one flesh.’+Gen 2:24 So that they are no longer two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let no human separate.”
In the house, his disciples asked him again about the same matter. He said to them, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her. If a woman divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.”
Jesus Blesses the Little Children
People were bringing little children to him for him to touch, but the disciples rebuked them. When Jesus saw this, he was indignant and said to them, “Y’all let the little children to come to me! Don’t y’all stop them, for the Empire of God belongs to such as these. I tell y’all, whoever will not receive the Empire of God like a little child will never enter it.” He took them in his arms, placing his hands on them and blessed them.
Riches and the Empire of God
As he started out on his way, a man ran to him, knelt before him, and asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. You know the commandments: ‘Do not murder, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not give false testimony, Do not defraud, Honor your father and mother.’”+Exo 20:12-16
He said to him, “Teacher, I have kept all these since my youth.”
Looking at him, Jesus loved him and said to him, “One thing you lack. Go, sell whatever you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”
But his face fell at these words, and he went away sorrowful, for he was one who had great possessions.
Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How difficult it is for those who have riches to enter into the Empire of God!”
The disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus answered again, “Children, how difficult it is to enter into the Empire of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter into the Empire of God.”
They were even more amazed, saying to him, “Then who can be saved?”
Jesus, looking at them, said, “This is impossible for humans, but not with God, for all things are possible with God.”
Peter began to tell him, “Look, we have left everything and followed you.”
Jesus said, “I tell y’all, there is no one who has left house or brother or sister or father or mother or wife or children or land for my sake and for the sake of the gospel, who will not receive one hundred times more now in this present age: houses, brothers, sisters, mothers, children, and land, with persecutions; and in the age to come eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last first.”
Jesus Foretells His Death a Third Time
They were on the way going up to Jerusalem. Jesus was going ahead of them, and they were amazed, but those who followed were afraid. Again, he took the twelve aside, and began to tell them what was going to happen to him. “See, we are going up to Jerusalem. The Son of Humanity will be delivered to the chief priests and the scribes. They will condemn him to death and will deliver him to the ethnic groups. They will mock him, spit on him, scourge him, and kill him. On the third day he will rise again.”
Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came near to him, saying, “Teacher, we want you to do for us whatever we will ask.”
He said to them, “What do y’all want me to do for y’all?”
They said to him, “Grant to us that we may sit, one at your right and one at your left, in your glory.”
But Jesus said to them, “Y’all don’t know what y’all are asking. Are y’all able to drink the cup that I drink, and to be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?”
They said to him, “We are able.”
Jesus said to them, “Y’all will drink the cup that I drink, and y’all will be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with; but to sit at my right or my left is not mine to give, but for whom it has been prepared.”
When the ten heard this, they began to feel indignant toward James and John.
Jesus summoned them and said to them, “Y’all know that those who are recognized as rulers over the ethnic groups lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. But it is not so among y’all. Instead whoever wants to become great among y’all must be y’all’s deacon. Whoever wants to become first among y’all must be a slave of all. For the Son of Humanity also came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
Blind Bartimaeus Receives Sight
Then they came to Jericho. As he was leaving Jericho with his disciples and a large crowd, a blind beggar named Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus, was sitting by the road. When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and say, “Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me!” Many rebuked him so that he would be quiet, but he cried out all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!”
Jesus stood still and said, “Ya’ll call him.”
So they called the blind man, saying to him, “Cheer up and rise up! He is calling you!”
Throwing aside his cloak, he jumped up and came to Jesus.
Jesus asked him, “What do you want me to do for you?”
The blind man said to him, “Rabbi, I want to see again.”
Jesus said to him, “Go, your faith has made you well.” Immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus along the road.