27th Sunday OT: Mark 10:2-16 Sunday, October 3, 2021 

Some Pharisees came, and to test Jesus they asked,
"Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?"
Jesus answered them, "What did Moses command you?" They said,
"Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of dismissal and to divorce her."
But Jesus said to them,
"Because of your hardness of heart
he wrote this commandment for you.
But from the beginning of creation,
'God made them male and female.'
'For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother
and be joined to his wife,
and the two shall become one flesh.'
So they are no longer two, but one flesh.
Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.”
 
Then in the house  the disciples asked him again about this matter.
Jesus said to them,
"Whoever divorces his wife and marries another
commits adultery against her;
and if she divorces her husband and marries another,
she commits adultery.”
 
People were bringing little children to him
in order that Jesus might touch them;
and the disciples spoke sternly to them.
But when Jesus saw this, he was indignant and said to them, "Let the little children come to me; do not stop them:
for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs. Truly I tell you,
whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it."
 
And Jesus took them up in his arms,
laid his hands on them, and blessed them.