To be a disciple of Jesus is to live in two worlds. We are citizens of heaven and, at the same time, sojourners on this earth. As citizens of the kingdom of heaven, we live by its principles in a world dominated by love of power and love of self. Jesus, the Son of God, taught His disciples how to live both as heavenly citizens and earthly sojourners as they followed Him for three years. Jesus, the Son of Man, modeled how to live by the principles of heaven while trudging through the miry realities of this earth—how to walk justly, mercifully, and humbly, bringing light and hope to a world filled with suffering, despair, and death.
Mark 10 speaks to some practical details of what it means to walk as a disciple of Jesus in this world. It is not to be “so heavenly minded that [we] are no earthly good.”[i] It is not to pray to God, as the Pharisee, and thank Him that we are not sinners like the rest (Luke 18:11). Instead, as disciples of Jesus, we follow the example of our Master. Yes, Jesus’ heart and mind were one with His Father and focused on heaven, but His mission was on this earth, His hands brought healing and hope to the weary, and His self-sacrificing love gave the ultimate sacrifice to draw inhabitants of this world to the heavenly kingdom they were created for.
So, what does Jesus say in Mark 10 that illustrates how we can be citizens of heaven even as we sojourn through this earth? This chapter is divided into several sections. First, in a world that looks for reasons to get divorced, we should take marriage as seriously as God did when He established it on Day 1 of human life on earth. “What therefore God has joined together, let no one separate” (Mark 10:9). Second, in a world where the visits of children and mothers were regarded as a nuisance to the important work of adults, Jesus says “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these” (Mark 10:14). Third, in a world that worships wealth, youth, and power, the rich young ruler would seem to have it all. But Jesus said to him in love: “Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me” (Mark 10:21).
Fourth, in this earthly kingdom where people trample one another to be number one, Jesus says that anything we give up for His sake will be rewarded a hundredfold in the kingdom to come, and “many who are first will be last, and the last first” (Mark 10:31). Fifth, Jesus reminds His disciples that He would soon be betrayed, mocked, flogged, killed and that He would rise again. This ran so counter to the disciples’ cherished hopes of Jesus defeating the Romans and setting up His kingdom on earth that they would not comprehend what He was telling them. In fact, the disciples’ next recorded conversation is them jockeying for the highest position in Jesus’ coming kingdom. To this, Jesus responds: “Whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:43-45). Finally, to a world that shushed and condemned blind Bartimaeus for crying out to the Son of David for healing, Jesus called this outcast to Himself, asked him, “What do you want me to do for you?”, and healed him. The now-seeing Bartimaeus joyfully followed Jesus and the disciples—sojourning down a dusty road, but on his way to the heavenly kingdom of which he was a citizen.
Disciples of Jesus never forget that they are citizens of heaven even as they are sojourners working for justice and mercy, hope and healing in this world.
Not Ideal
There is so much to reflect on in this week’s chapter and so much to learn about how to follow Jesus on this earth on our way to heaven. But for this reflection, I have chosen to focus on the first lesson Jesus teaches us in Mark 10. How do we live as citizens of heaven while sojourning on this earth—regarding marriage?
In Mark 10:2, the Pharisees again seek to entrap Jesus and drag Him into their pre-existing disputes—this time, about when it was lawful for a man to divorce his wife. Jesus does not take their bait but seeks to elevate their view to consider the holiness and beauty of marriage as He established it in Eden.
Although in God’s eyes, there are valid reasons for divorce in this world of sin, we must also admit that marriage is often not taken as seriously as God desires, and divorce too often takes place for casual reasons. I vividly remember a conversation between moms at my son’s preschool several years ago. They were talking about how “starter husbands” are like “starter homes”: with your first home purchase or first marriage, you learn what you like and don’t like so that you can get closer to what you really want for your second time around. It was shocking to me that divorce was spoken of not as an unfortunate occurrence but almost as a goalpost on the road to something better.
There are biblical reasons for divorce in this world, but divorce is not the ideal and should not be the goal. In Mark 10:5 and on, Jesus acknowledged that because of the hardness of people’s hearts, Moses allowed certificates of divorce. But He then points His hearers back to the ideal: “At the beginning of creation God ‘made them male and female.’ ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.” How absurd it would have been for God to have stated this and then explained to Adam and Eve that this was their “starter marriage,” a necessary stepping stone to a more perfect union in the future.
This trend of viewing marriages and divorces casually has caused great harm to the fabric of our society. I teach a university class on grief and loss, and when students recount their greatest griefs and losses in life, the divorce of their parents is frequently at the top of their list, even if they admit that they still felt loved by both parents and spent quality time with them. Many of them link the breakup of their home to instability in their lives, and to diminished mental, physical, and social health that they must then struggle to overcome.
We, as disciples of Jesus, as citizens of heaven but sojourners on earth, should pray and work for marriages that will be a light to the world, showing the benefits of permanence rather than transience in marriage. Following God, we should also work to build marriages that are a blessing to live in and not a scourge we want to escape. We should seek to experience and show the strength and joy that comes from the union of man and woman in marriage—for God’s image is reflected in man and woman and both of them together (Gen. 1:27, 28). Going back to Creation (as Jesus did on this topic), even the very names “Adam” and “Eve” give us insight into how man and woman are made for each other and are stronger together.
Mark 10:6 references Genesis 1:27, which states: “So God created human beings (haʾadam in the original Hebrew) in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.” Haʾadam can be accurately translated “humankind,” “human beings” or “man.” In fact, in Genesis 1:27 (and Gen. 5:2), the same name haʾadam is given for both the individual “him” (“in the image of God He created him”) and also for the collective “them” (“male and female He created them”). Haʾadam is also tied to the name Adam (ʾadam) and to the words “the ground” (haʾadamah). Indeed, Adam was placed in the Garden of Eden to cultivate it, a work intrinsically tied to “the ground” (Gen. 2:15).
Patriarchs and Prophetsdescribes Adam and Eve’s ongoing work of cultivation: “There were lovely vines, growing upright, yet presenting a most graceful appearance, with their branches drooping under their load of tempting fruit of the richest and most varied hues. It was the work of Adam and Eve to train the branches of the vine to form bowers, thus making for themselves a dwelling from living trees covered with foliage and fruit”[ii]. In their enjoyable cultivation of the Garden of Eden before sin, Adam and Eve saw how so much life—including theirs—came from the ground.
But haʾadam is much more than a name that designates a vocation. It is also a name that reminded the first humans of what they were made and of their intrinsic mortality. In God’s words to Adam, “By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread until you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for dust you are, and to dust you shall return” (Gen. 3:19). After the Fall, Adam and Eve saw that the same ground that served as a substrate for life now also brought forth thorns and death. The ground was cursed because of their sin (Gen. 3:17), and the thorns and thistles that sprouted up caused the cultivation of life-sustaining food to be a labor of pain and toil. The tree of life was far removed, and the ground that had yielded life through God’s creative power was now also a poignant symbol of mortality.
Now Adam and Eve’s knowledge of good and evil meant that they were constantly confronted by the knowledge that they, persons constituted of the ground, would finally return to that ground through death. And as the thorns drew blood and the ground was harrowed, the constant reminder rang in their minds and echoed disconsolately in their hearts: “In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for dust you are, and to dust you shall return” (Gen. 3:19). Even so, the food that grew from the ground did still sustain life, and so even after their rebellion, Adam and Eve still found grace in the blessing of the ground, the blessing of life that was now plucked through the brambles and the curse. Truly, their saga tells us so much about who we are as humans, including that our very identity is tied to “the ground” as we sojourn on this earth.
The witness of a committed and joyful marriage testifies to the world of the wisdom and love of the One who created marriage in the beginning.
Man’s Second Self
But if Adam was a name tied to the ground, what did Eve mean? Eve was actually not called Eve until after the Fall. When Adam awakened from His Creator-induced slumber and discovered the partner created from his rib, his first words were this poetic exclamation: “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man” (Gen. 2:23). In Hebrew, the words “man” (ʾish)and “woman” (ʾishah) are the same root word, with “woman” simply being the grammatically feminine version of “man.” So, by using the term “woman,” Adam acknowledges how she is the feminine version of himself, made literally of his very own flesh. Ellen White reinforces this close connection, saying that she is Adam’s “second self.”[iii]
Eve received her name after the Fall, after God came to the Garden, conducted a covenant lawsuit there (Gen. 3:8-19), and delivered to the man and woman the good news of salvation (Gen. 3:15). In His mercy, He even pronounced this first declaration of the gospel before He pronounced judgment upon the woman and then the man (Gen. 3:16-19). Then God’s words of judgment concluded with the poignant line— “for dust you are, and to dust you shall return” (Gen. 3:19). Upon receiving God’s earth-shattering words, Adam’s immediate response might seem surprising or out of place: “And Adam called his wife’s name Eve, because she was the mother of all living” (Gen. 3:20). And indeed the name Eve (khavvah in Hebrew) means “life”! Why was this Adam’s first utterance in response to God’s judgment?
It is the outcry of his heart upon realizing the hopelessness of the curse and yet the hope of life and salvation. He understands that his and Eve’s disobedience brought death, but that through the woman would come not only temporal life by way of offspring but also eternal salvation by way of her Seed, the Messiah who would crush the serpent’s head (3:15, 16). As he realizes that his name is intimately connected to the ground, which is now cursed, he immediately names Eve a name of hope—“life”! Yes, Adam is destined to sojourn on this now-sinful world, but his citizenship is in heaven. God’s promise of salvation (in Gen. 3:15) shows him that his faithful and hopeful sojourning will lead one day to eternal life.
And so, we have Adam and Eve, two names that sum up the totality of human identity and experience. Humans are mortal, made of the humble ground. We labor, our life long, on the ground God created, to pull from it the blessing of our life’s sustenance. We all labor to this end, whether farmers or not, and in the end, we all return to the ground. But praise God that this is not all—human existence is also about life! It is about seeds that bring physical life and about Christ the Seed, Who offers up eternal life. Yes, we are sojourners on this ground, but we are much more than that. As citizens of heaven, we are made for life—abundant life and eternal life!
The names Adam and Eve together remind us to always keep both of these in tension—sojourner on earth and citizen of heaven—because both are integral to being a disciple here and now. A disciple of Jesus will not be so focused on Jesus’s soon coming and his own heavenly citizenship that he neglects to help his neighbor in need. Nor will a disciple be so focused on righting the wrongs of this world that she loses sight of the blessed hope. Disciples of Jesus never forget that they are citizens of heaven even as they are sojourners working for justice and mercy, hope and healing in this world. The name Adam reminds us that we must labor here and now to bring life and blessing from the chaos of a sinful world. The name Eve reminds us of our innately human grasping for life, for something better, even eternal life—for God has put eternity in our hearts (Prov. 3:11).
How beautiful is the significance of these two first names of humankind, Adam and Eve. They illustrate to us what it means to be disciples of Jesus—sojourners on earth and citizens of heaven. They also show us how God designed man and woman for the blessing of togetherness and unity. Yes, “at the beginning of creation God ‘made them male and female’” (Mark 10:6). God designed “the two” to “become one flesh” (Mark 10:8). Thus, the declaration: “What God has joined together, let no one separate” (Mark 10:9). Marriage should be regarded with solemnity, and divorce should never be entered into casually.
The witness of a committed and joyful marriage testifies to the world of the wisdom and love of the One who created marriage in the beginning. Even the very meanings of the names Adam and Eve proclaim the beauty of this divine plan. Let us not separate what God has joined together. And more broadly, let us not separate the two components of what it means for us to be disciples of Jesus. Let us remember that our identity and calling is to be sojourners on this ground we are made of, while following Jesus to the glorious kingdom of life we are made for.
[i] Quote attributed to Oliver Wendall Holmes, Sr.
[ii] Ellen G. White, Patriarchs and Prophets (Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald Pub. Assn., 1890), p. 46.
[iii] Ibid.