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And Pharisees came up to him and tested him by asking, “Is it lawful to divorce one ‘s wife for any cause?” He answered, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘ Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh ’? So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.” They said to him, “ Why then did Moses command one to give a certificate of divorce and to send her away?” He said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so.

What are what are usually referred to as “biblical reasons” for divorce? Well, Jesus tells us there’s one reason for divorce, and it’s not what you think… “hardness of heart.” Usually when people ask about divorcing their spouse, they’re looking for a kind of loop-hole to allow them to walk away. Yet, Jesus has a very high view of marriage. When the Pharisees asked Jesus for some excuses to divorce, He didn’t play their game. Elsewhere (like 1Corinthians 7) the Bible acknowledges there are times when you can’t help what happens to you. Getting a divorce isn’t the unpardonable sin. It’s not the scarlet letter. There is grace and hope after divorce… but we do need to take marriage seriously. Marriage is the uniting of two people into one, that means divorce is like killing a person, sometimes it is necessary to kill (but not murder), but that’s the rare exception, not the rule. So to with marriage, sometimes divorce is forced upon you, but that’s the rare exception. Don’t be hard hearted, and don’t let a divorce rob you of what God has in store for you today and all the days to come…

And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not lose heart. He said, “ In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected man. And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Give me justice against my adversary. ’ For a while he refused, but afterward he said to himself, ‘ Though I neither fear God nor respect man, yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice, so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming. ’” And the Lord said, “ Hear what the unrighteous judge says.

Don’t give up on praying. Pray until God changes your circumstances or He changes you! He will.

Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice; and he fell on his face at Jesus ‘feet, giving him thanks.

We should be grateful. God sent His Son for you and me. 10 people were healed, only one came back with grateful thanks, be that 1%.

Jesus wept.

Sometimes we have the false idea that if we’re a Christian, the world around us won’t get to us, that’s just not how it works. We’re created as emotional beings. We’re meant to love and care and that means, sometimes, we get hurt. Don’t let your feelings take over, but you’re meant to feel. Love, be happy, rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep. When a friend is experiencing joy, be happy for them, don’t be envious. When tragedy strikes, weep… Jesus did. But just like He knew Lazarus would be alive again, we don’t weep with no hope. Laugh, cry, live life to the fullest.

“Will any one of you who has a servant plowing or keeping sheep say to him when he has come in from the field, ‘Come at once and recline at table’? Will he not rather say to him, ‘Prepare supper for me, and dress properly, and serve me while I eat and drink, and afterward you will eat and drink’? Does he thank the servant because he did what was commanded? So you also, when you have done all that you were commanded, say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done what was our duty.’”

We all feel entitled to more than we’ve earned, that’s just a byproduct of living in the United States in 2016. “Hey, I showed up on-time every day to work, I didn’t leave early, and I got all my tasks done… don’t I deserve a raise?” no, you don’t. At least, not according to Jesus (snap!). This idea that people are owed something simply because they are is totally foreign to the Bible, unless, you’re talking about punishment, because we all deserve that. But what about our faith, has our cultural of entitlement infected our spiritual lives? Most definitely. “Lord, I go to church every week, I teach Sunday School, and I give 10% of everything I earn through my church…” Though we’d be waiting for the words “well done” Jesus might just say “do you want a cookie or something?” Don’t expect a pat on the back from the Lord for doing the least any Christian should be doing.

Our attitude should be to do ALL WE CAN for the kingdom, not simply live up to minimum obligations. If you’re ever trying to parse words and split hairs to find out the MINIMUM YOU HAVE TO DO you’re simply asking the wrong kinds of questions, you can’t get the right answer when you ask the wrong question. We are not owed anything, but we’re promised everything. Follow Jesus with a humble attitude, make hay while the sun is shining. The harvest is overflowing… be a worker.