The Gospel accounts bypass most of Jesus’ early life. As an adult, He is a carpenter or builder (Mark 6:3). Then, at age 30, Jesus begins His public ministry. At His baptism by John, God the Father declares, “You are My beloved Son; with You I am well pleased” (Mark 1:11).
Jesus’ first major address is commonly called the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus’ standards are so different from established norms that He tells His disciples,
Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 5:20).
With that introduction, He directly challenges old ideas, point by point, case by case, even correcting doctrines based on Moses. But neither in the Sermon on the Mount, nor in His subsequent teachings, does Jesus correct the basic premise of male leadership.
As Jesus’ ministry unfolds, it becomes clear that He is the Messiah, the promised Ruler, who is leading a revolution. He brings the supreme expression of newness—the New Covenant—so new, so perfect that it renders the previous covenant “obsolete” (Hebrews 8:13). “The law [of Moses] made nothing perfect.” Its “weakness” was no accident (Hebrews 7:18-19). All along, God planned something better, more mature and complete. The Old Covenant is baby steps that are necessary before walking and running with God in the New Covenant. At times, the Old Covenant accommodates the people’s backwardness. Look, for example, at the case of divorce.
Because of your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so (Matthew 19:8).
Jesus then gives the higher standard for marriage among His committed followers (Matthew 19:9-12). Ironically, this new standard is a return to God’s original plan for life-long marriage.