There’s pressure on the institution of marriage these days, and I’m not referring to the issue of homosexuality. In the heterosexual community marriage is seen as an optional social construct; it’s link to creation is not often made. Jesus linked marriage to creational (my word) intent: persons were made male and female, they were to leave father and mother and be joined to each other. Jesus understood that God did this joining, and that humans were not to separate what God had joined.
When ancient wisdom is set aside one is forced to create an entire alternate worldview, and invariably these alternate views do not bear the rigor of careful scrutiny, are not sufficiently comprehensive, and tend to be short-term in outlook. In setting aside ancient wisdom one becomes one’s own authority.
These calls from Jesus can stand the rigor of scrutiny, and can bear the weight of the realities of a lifetime: acknowledge God’s role in the joining of man and wife, marriage is prerequisite to sexual relations, and permanence best carries the freight of life across the generations.