Now that the choir is upset, who was this Moses, a man of God, a dispenser of divine justice, a terrorist, the founder of a religion, or a hodgepodge of contradictory motives? We cannot know for sure, only his biographers knew. They gave us a blended hero villain Moses. However, there is one other place for us to look for an answer to the Moses question. That question must be asked of the New testament and the person of Jesus. What credentials did Jesus give to Moses, the Old Testament ways and religion?
Let us leaf through the Gospels noting where Moses is referenced with Jesus. When he heals the leaper in Mathew’s Gospel, Jesus instructs him to show himself to the priest and offer sacrifices in the old way to give testimony to what God had done. As always, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob can possibly interfere with the negative entanglements of this debilitated world. Jesus intended to heal and share the ever present God of old with the people. This same allegiance to the old way is also recorded in Mark and Luke.
Moses and Elijah appeared with Jesus on a mountaintop witnessed by Peter, James and John, this too being recorded in all three Synoptic Gospels. This meeting also symbolized the unity of His ministry with that of the old way. There is not a hint of superiority. Yet these witnesses heard a voice from a bright cloud saying, “this is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to Him!” Why? Must he not have had something new or different to say to us?
The Apostle Paul so believed. Citing the Lords words in Deuteronomy 18: 18 and 19, “ I will raise up for them a prophet like you (Moses) from among your people, and I will put my words in his mouth. He will tell them everything I command him. I myself will call into account anyone who does not listen to my words that the prophet speaks in my name.” Then he warns of the awaiting false prophets who never cease to seek the limelight.
In the thousand years after Moses there were other authentic prophets who would fulfill their mission to speak for God amongst us. The commands and the old ways as given to Moses were consistently being misapplied because of our human frailty. The writer of Mark’s gospel quotes the prophet Isaiah’s condemnation of religious hypocrisy that was still alive and well in the time of Jesus. “You have let go of the commands of God and are holding to human traditions (7:8).” Moses lead the way but Isaiah and Jesus called the people to a religion of the heart.
Jesus reverenced Moses. In his parable of Lazarus, the self consumed older brother dies and finds an unpleasant afterlife. Calling out to God for a warning to his younger brothers, Lazarus is told that no warning would change their decisions because they have the words of Moses. Like him, they are content to live life selfishly. The words of Moses as given to him by God were enough to bring the lives of Lazarus’s brothers into alignment with the God of their ancestors, if they would but listen. In the first commandment there is enough warning, love God more than yourself.
As much as Jesus reverenced the words and commandments of Moses, this reverence was not a blanket endorsement. All three gospels record the legalistic sparring forced upon Jesus by the religious types of his day. In Mathew Chapter 19 : 3, the Pharisees question him about divorce, noting that Moses allowed the men to give a rite of divorce for almost any perceived offense. Jesus clearly said that Moses was wrong, he should not have so polluted the Law by compromising the truth. Marriage is a divine union to be respected in almost all cases.
The difficulty is that the Law that was meant to be written on the heart is unavoidably devalued when written down by we humans. Possible enforcement is a joke. Let’s don’t waste energy as did the self righteous attempts of the Pharisee’s and their religion of old. These religious types are the one’s who missed the specialty of Jesus and crucified him.
Jesus said that the commands of Moses were given to help our spiritual journey not to rule over our lives. The God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Moses is not the God of the dead, but forever of the living (LK 20:38).
Please excuse the arrogance of the above simplification of biblical theology. The question should be asked, however, in today’s Christian culture, is the faith of the choir alive or dead? There probably are as many opinions as there are observers of the church but allow this one. Despite all the protestations and clasims to know the truth, the clergy remains the voice of hypocrisy and we laity remain fundamentally mired in a legalistic religionism since the days of Moses. I would hope that this is an unfair assessment.
ggoslaw
