THREE UNRELATED VERSES

Luke 16:16-18 (NRSV) - "The law and the prophets were in effect until John came; since then the good news of the kingdom of God is proclaimed, and everyone tries to enter it by force. 17 But it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away, than for one stroke of a letter in the law to be dropped. 18 "Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery, and whoever marries a woman divorced from her husband commits adultery."

For someone who was rendering an “orderly” account,

Luke linked three diverse sayings of our Lord, which no amount
of scholarly research can ever possibly make clear,
as to the reason for their having been inserted here.
One must agree the verses do not tie together well,
and why they were included in this context, who can tell?
We know about the kingdom’s being preached since John, of course.
But what’s it mean to say that people enter it by force?
And why right after that did Jesus then go on to say,
it’s easier for heaven and the earth to pass away
than for one jot or tittle of the law of God to fail?
Was Jesus saying that it should be followed in detail?
If so, his tribute to the law ---was its intent to please
the ones who were the experts in the law, the Pharisees?
The subject of the next verse shifts abruptly to divorce,
remarriage after which becomes adultery perforce.
Again, it’s difficult to know what this verse has to do
with either what has come before or what will follow, too.
One thing about this verse, however, one should note with care,
is that, for Jesus, marriage is a permanent affair.
To marry after one’s divorced becomes adultery;
but Matthew adds except when there has been unchastity.
Which ever version one may choose to guide one through the deeps,
the truth remains that marriage should ideally be for keeps.