Matthew 19:10-12

Jesus Offers The Opportunity Of Remaining Unmarried Like Himself For the Sake of the Kingly Rule of Heaven (19:10-12).

At this point there is a change of scenery. The Pharisees have probably departed and the disciples are now probably walking along with Jesus and following up on what He has said. It has shaken them as well as the Pharisees. They suggest that as far as they can see, if a man can never divorce his wife in spite of any problems that arise, perhaps it would be better for him not to marry in the first place. This hardly intended this to be taken as a serious suggestion. It was rather a counter-argument against what Jesus had said about the inviolability of marriage (a counter-argument possibly suggested by the Pharisees). Their point was that to make marriage such a hardship was to discourage the Jews, who looked on marriage and the production of a family as a duty as well as a privilege, in accordance with God's command to ‘be fruitful and multiply' (Genesis 1:28), from actually marrying. Thus it appeared to them that Jesus' teaching would result in the opposite of what was intended, the not to be thought of alternative of no one marrying at all.

We can compare with this startled question a similar startled question in Matthew 19:25. They are slowly beginning to be made aware of what the presence among them of the Kingly Rule of Heaven involves.

Jesus takes up this suggestion and replies that the alternative is in fact not quite so out of the question as they might think. History in fact demonstrated that God had decreed that many men were unable to marry. There were, for example, those whom the later Rabbis described as ‘eunuchs of Heaven'. Due to genetic problems at birth, or a later accident, their sexual organs did not function properly. Thus they were unlikely to marry. It was clear from this therefore that God, Who had allowed this situation to occur, did not require all men to marry. Furthermore there were men who had been rendered impotent at the hands of other men, eunuchs (castrated servants) who served in royal palaces and rich men's houses. These were what the later Rabbis described as the ‘eunuchs of men'. This treatment had been carried out on them so that they would be more dedicated and less belligerent as servants, sometimes even having the privilege of watching over a monarch's wives in the harem, and this too regularly meant that they did not marry.

Furthermore now, with His coming, there was a third alternative to be considered. Those who became virtual eunuchs ‘for the sake of the Kingly Rule of Heaven'. One partial example of this could be found in Jeremiah 16:2 where God had said to Jeremiah, ‘You shall not take a wife, nor shall you have sons and daughters in this place.' Jeremiah had been forbidden to do what every Jewish man should do as a testimony to the dreadful things that would soon be coming on other people's wives, sons and daughters. So this was one case where marriage was forbidden in order to get over the message of God's sovereignty and purpose in judgment.

But now an even more important situation had occurred in the arrival of the Coming One and the establishing of the Kingly Rule of Heaven. Thus in this new emergency situation there was a call for those who were able to do so without sinning, to abstain from marriage for the sake of the Kingly Rule of Heaven so that they might be servants unfettered by the ties of wife and family, who were thus the better ready to face what the future held (compare 1 Corinthians 7:29). This was the only other grounds which could justify remaining single, as both Jesus and John the Baptist had. But such a change in men's perspectives indicated the new situation which had now arisen. The Kingly Rule of Heaven was here. And God was, as it were, looking for ‘eunuchs' to serve in the King's house and do His bidding.

The case of Jeremiah may suggest that Jesus was indicating that by deliberately remaining single in order to advance the Kingly Rule of Heaven they too, like Jeremiah, were giving a warning to the nation of the times of judgment that were coming, when Jerusalem itself would be destroyed. But certainly we may see in it an indication of the urgency of the times in the light of the fact that the new world was beginning.

Analysis.

a The disciples say to him, “If the case of the man is so with his wife, it is not expedient to marry”, but he said to them, “Not all men can receive this saying, but they to whom it is given” (Matthew 19:10).

b “For there are eunuchs, who were so born from their mother's womb, and there are eunuchs, who were made eunuchs by men, and there are eunuchs, who made themselves eunuchs for the kingly rule of heaven's sake (Matthew 19:12 a).

a He who is able to receive it, let him receive it” (Matthew 19:12 b).