Jesus' teaching programme for the disciples was getting more intense. They were months away from their Master's arrest and crucifixion, and there was so much to learn in order to be able to lead the Early Church (John 16:12-14). The previous chapter warned them of the horrors of hell: this one delves into the implications of divorce.  It is still a most distressing pastoral issue.  The purpose of the Pharisees' question was not to gain knowledge but to trap Jesus into saying something they could use against Him.  Jesus' purpose was to teach His trainee apostles, including the follow-up tutorial which explained the pastoral implications for the church (Mark 10:10-12).  

The religious experts of Jesus' day had neat formulas to divorce wives who did not please their husbands.  They based their teaching on Deuteronomy 24:1-4 which provided a little protection for women.  Then they wrote extra rules to define when a wife had displeased her husband, and how the document of divorce was to be written and presented to the woman.  In some ways those regulations moderated the process of divorcing but did nothing to ease the woman's pain of emotional suffering.

However, Jesus was not impressed.  The problem, Jesus said, was not with Moses' law but with the hardness of people's hearts.  That is why divorce was permitted - but it was never God's intention for marriage to fall apart, nor His desire to rupture a family's life.  Divorce provided no divine solution to the pain which fractured trust.  The law simply enabled the spouses to escape painful lovelessness with a small degree of dignity; or it provided a convenient excuse for adultery.   

Jesus wants us to have soft hearts to the truth.  But through the love of God repentance, resolution and restoration is possible, providing a basis for trust and love to be rebuilt, if that is what each person in the marriage wants.  But, sadly, divorce does happen.  It is always a tragedy which brings fresh pain from old wounds and creates new ones.  But there is always love waiting for us in the Lord when we come to Him with a soft and broken heart – He does not despise those people (Psalm 51:17).  All relationships also suffer when hearts are hard.  We do well to review all our close relationships to ensure that they are demonstrating the loving grace of Christ.  That is especially true of marriage.