Rev. George Miller
Sept 6, 2026
Matthew 5:31-32
Gospel of John, chapter 4- Jesus is in
Samaria, considered the most unsavory of places. It’s the hottest time of the day when all
self-respecting citizens are inside.
Jesus is parched. The only person nearby is an individual who
has been married 5 times and living illegally with a sixth.
This Samaritan individual is the outsider
of outsiders, and they are the one Jesus asks for a drink.
What happens next is unbelievable by
cultural standards- Jesus and this woman talk, they conversate, they hold the
longest sustained conversation in the 4 Gospels.
Jesus says, “Call your husband.” She says, “I have no man.” He says, “You’re right- you’ve had 5.”
People try to discern who she is and “why
5 spouses” but there are other ways to read her story. Back then, marriage meant something different
and didn’t function like marriage today.
Marriage was about covenant and life-long
care; divorce was broken obligations and abandonment.
Through this lens, Jesus is saying to the
Samaritan woman that she has been “abandoned” 5 times.
In John 4 we discover that in the most
despised place at the most despised time, Jesus meets someone who has been abandoned
by everyone they trusted, and Jesus does not abandon them.
After a sustained dialogue, She goes
into town, She tells everyone about Christ, and it is She who
brings everyone to him; not the disciples or the proper people with proper
ways.
It is her testimony that brings people
into a relationship with Jesus. He stays
for 2 more days.
This individual who has been viewed as an
outsider, abandoned again and again, has an encounter with the Still Speaking God
and discovers that in Christ she has a place to belong, she has a role to
share. She will not be abandoned.
This Gospel Message is so good to share as
we prepare to say goodbye to 2026 and enter 2027- In Christ, no one is
abandoned.
Back in 2024, someone submitted today’s
reading from Matthew 5:31-32; in the notes, they wrote “I do not like this.”
With how this scripture has been
misunderstood and used to shame folk, I don’t like it either. BUT- there is more to this reading than we realize.
This is a scripture written during a
specific time in a specific culture. Divorce
and the concept of divorce was completely different. It would be like describing 1960 party-phone
etiquette to a teen in 2026.
In today’s USA, we think of marriage as
something done out of love. We meet
someone; hearts go-a-twitter, hormones race, we plan a future, get wed, have
kids, go on vacation, retire, spoil the grandbabies.
Not in Samaria’s time. Marriage had nothing to do with love. It had to do with survival, land, having kids
to work the land so you can pay the bills.
There was no retirement or vaca in the Ozarks.
It was work work work work work. Love had nothing to do with marriage.
If you were a girl, your parents married
you off as quickly as possible so they wouldn’t have to feed you anymore.
In modern-day America we think of divorce
as falling out of love, a spouse looking at the other and saying, “Sorry, I
just don’t feel it.”
We think of divorce as a choice made by
both people to be free, start over, scratch that 7-year itch; that women can initiate
the legal proceedings just like men.
This is not true in Jesus’ time. Divorce was
all about the men’s decision; it was the men who said, “I’m ready to find
someone new.”
Men could simply put away their wife
without any ramification, leaving her destitute, fending for herself; easy to
be victimized and unable to legally wed. (The 1st Nation’s Version/
Indigenous Translation; 2021)
A man could toss his wife aside with no
legal standing: Jesus is advocating for the woman and doing what’s right.
Jesus says- “Hey, dear husband- if you decide
that you want to violate your covenant and no longer fulfill your obligation to
care for your wife, then the least you can do is give her the respect and legal
papers of divorce so she can remarry and be protected.”
Verse 32 is trickier: “Anyone who divorces
his wife…causes her to commit adultery and whoever marries a divorced woman
commits adultery.”
Remember- Jesus is talking to an ancient
culture in which marriage is not about love.
He is talking about divorce as a justice-based concept, with the idea
that no woman would choose spousal abandonment or marrying another.
In The Complete Gospels (edited by Robert
Muller),
the interpreters write “Anyone who divorces his wife… causes her to be a victim
of adultery.” (1992)
This translation allows us to better
understand Matthew 5:32. Jesus does not
want to see a woman discarded and made to do what they don’t want to do. Jesus is saying, “Don’t victimize the one you
have a legal obligation to.”
So now, lets us turn this talk into the important
“what” and “why.”
We can look at John 4 and realize that
Jesus wasn’t just having a conversation with a woman who had 5 husbands, he was
having a rich dialogue with someone who had been abandoned 5 times; maybe by
death, maybe divorce.
There, in the heat of the day, Jesus saw
her as a somebody. Though those
who were responsible for her left her again and again, he was there right
beside her and stayed until it was time to go to Galilee.
He asked for a drink, she gave him a
dialogue. He offered her Living Water; she
brought him a bevy of believers.
What if John 4 was written today, and not
2,000 years ago on another continent? How
might Jesus address people in our modern world?
What are the customs, traditions, and
controversies of today that Jesus would speak to? What are the legal and illegal things in our current
timeline that Jesus would address?
Knowing all that we know- who would be the
Samaritan today?
What about their mother, their father,
their siblings, their friends?
Who would be the person, the group of people
that Jesus would address and be most protective of?
Two thousand years ago, Jesus cared about abandoned
women having the right papers and legal protection they deserved.
Who are the people that Jesus would speak
up for today, giving us direction and saying, “Don’t make them be a victim.”
The UCC is known for the slogan “God is
Still Speaking.” Over the decades our
actions have shown that.
How is God Still Speaking today? Who is God still speaking to and for?
Who is the next person standing at the
well in the heat of the day who needs to hear a word from Christ and receive
that welcome?
May we all find peace and a spirit of calm
in knowing that in Jesus we are not abandoned and in the Lord we can all find
refuge. Amen and amen.
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