Matthew under the arm 90

For the last month of the pilgrimage, I have come across a couple in their fifties who have been near us from time to time as we walked, but Columba and I have never engaged them in conversation. Sometimes they would walk hand in hand and sometimes they would be seen walking separately. They didn't appear to converse much with each other. Just this morning as we stopped for something hot to drink in the village, they came to join us. Columba asked if they were related. 'We are....friends'. 'But you don't seem to say much to each other.' They looked at each other and smiled, as if a whole encyclopaedia was being exchanged between them. 'Love..?' Columba sheepishly enquired. They smiled again. 'Our friendship only exists through love', the man replied. 'And how do you love like that?', I asked rather enviously. 'They looked again at each other... 'Practicing, I suppose', the woman added. 'Practicing what?' Columba asked. 'In our case....? Marriage maybe... No longer any need to define or establish...'

Matthew 19:1-9….
The journey towards to Jerusalem would mark Jesus death, but that death for the early Christian Church was the proximate ‘day’ of the end of all things and the beginning of the new. So not surprisingly, there is an uncompromising tone to this passage. When people know their death is coming, they want to sort out their lives, including their relationships. Matthew not only points towards Jesus death, but the necessary death of all things as a preparation for the Kingdom. So Matthew’s readers are summoned to waken up and sort out difficult and negative relationships. All relationships, no matter how insignificant, have an affect on us and others.

Let me realise Your Love in my service of those You have given me


These verses are not primarily about control and sex. The word ‘adultery’ has a condemnatory feel. That’s not the point, it seems to me. Truth and simplicity are the marks of a lifestyle that is geared towards the Kingdom of God. The committed Christian in the early years had his or her bag packed ready. Nor is this exercise about guilt. The sentence is about creative loving service practiced in truth. What relationships help you to enter something of that dynamic? What relationships are in danger of distracting you from it. In marriage or friendship, in what ways do you compromise truth and commitment within it? It may perhaps.... be less destructive disengaging from a relationship than sticking with it out of the 'muscular' attempt to be 'stick with it'. Christ’s presence recognises and even rejoices in the admission of brokenness.

+Martin
Argyll and The Isles