Things today are not all that different from the first century when Jesus taught His disciples the nature of discipleship. Most families at the time were blended families with children from multiple mothers living together. Usually children today stay with mom, but back then they stayed with dad. But both then and now most families are blended families. Both back then and now divorce is pretty easy — no fault divorce was common in those days and today is not much different. Today at least there is a legal system to protect people when it happens. Back when Mark was written children who were not aborted were often dumped at birth to die from the elements, sold to be gladiators or into prostitution, or sometimes even disfigured so as to make them better beggars. Thankfully, in large part due to the influence of Christianity, children today are valued and protected much more than they were back then — well at least children who make it to birth. Other than the occasional college professor, most Americans are still against infanticide and the laws still reflect that. But children who are not yet born are considered disposable today. I mention these things not to launch into a sermon about all of the ills of society nor to serve as a judge but rather to acknowledge the context. This is the broken world in which we live. Thus we often have questions about God’s will although as we will see in the passage they are not always the right questions.
mark10.1-16-nooneisdisposableorunimportant.mp3
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