“1 He set out from there and went to the region of Judea and across the Jordan. Then crowds converged on Him again and, as He usually did, He began teaching them once more. 2 Some Pharisees approached Him to test Him. They asked, Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?
3 He replied to them, What did Moses command you?
4 They said, Moses permitted us to write divorce papers and send her away.
5 But Jesus told them, He wrote this command for you because of the hardness of your hearts. 6 But from the beginning of creation God made them male and female.
7 For this reason a man will leave
his father and mother
[and be joined to his wife],
8 and the two will become one flesh.
So they are no longer two, but one flesh. 9 Therefore what God has joined together, man must not separate.
10 Now in the house the disciples questioned Him again about this matter. 11 And He said to them, Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her. 12 Also, if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.”
Mark 10:1-12
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Sometimes when you’re studying a passage there’s a single word or phrase that stands out to you, and for me, this passage comes down to one, “The hardness of your hearts.” The Greek word here is even interesting to say, ‘sklerokardia.’ Sklero meaning ‘hard, rough, harsh, offensive, and ‘karida’ obviously referring to the heart. And while that could be a description of a physical malady of some kind, we know that this is really referring to a spiritual condition.

This hardheartedness did not just refer to an attitude toward their marriage covenant, but was a reference to the state of their hearts in general. They had hardened their hearts against the will and heart of God, and in turn, that attitude affected how they were treating each other, and how they were responding to the voice and will of God in their relationships with Him. Sklerokardia was a prognosis that affected the whole of their lives, it reached into every aspect of their being.

Sklerokardia was the condition that made them unable to forgive or reconcile with someone else. Hardheartedness is what kept anger and hatred alive in them. It is what fed their legalistic minds and what separated them from their countrymen & those around them that needed to know God. Sklerokardia was not a complementary or happy declaration for the people who were supposed to be the ambassadors of God. It was a failure on their part, and evidence of a bending of their wills toward sin.

So, truth be told, Jesus isn’t just talking about divorce here, but a much deeper issue. Divorce is terrible. Scripture tells us that it is hate that makes divorce happen, an unscrupulous heart (Malachi 2:16) and the heart that lives and believes that way is not a heart that honors God. A hard heart, calloused and cold, hating another person, is a heart that will not listen and respond to the voice of God.

As we GoLove others, we must be on guard against any hardening of our hearts, and we must be aware of the hardened hearts that we are going to encounter. Only grace and God’s message of mercy can pierce a hardened heart, and we must trust Him to do the work. A hard heart is, by definition, going to be resistant to the Gospel message, and we cannot be shocked or surprised when we meet with opposition to the truth. But just as the river reshapes the rocks, we must be patient and trust in the strength and persistence of God. For our own hearts, we must do anything necessary to see that hardness does not infect us, and instead, in humility, serve one another in Christ’s Name.