In Deuteronomy 18:15-20 Moses is speaking to the Israelite people before his death. Recapping all that they’ve been through together. All that God has commanded to them, in the Law, through Moses as His prophet. And Moses says to them, looking forward to his own death and departure from them; when I am gone, – the Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet (after me, that is), and He shall be LIKE ME. That is, as Moses says, just as you desired of the Lord your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly, when you said, ‘Let me not hear again the voice of the Lord my God or see this great fire any more, lest I die, and God granted Moses the prophet to speak to them on God’s behalf, the Words of God, as a mediator for them, so still there will be another mediator after Moses, he says. This prophet will be like Moses. One to go between God and the people of God, for the people’s own sake, for their own protection. This is what Moses is talking about. Just like with Moses, this promised prophet too will be from their own people. One from among themselves. One of themselves. An Israelite. A man. To HIM – when He comes, they shall listen to Him.
What should this remind you of? Who is this about? Of whom does Moses speak? (think as of this, the book ends of Epiphany. At the Baptism of Our Lord, at the transfiguration of our Lord. The heaven is rent open, and a voice speaks from the heavens, and says …? THIS IS MY SON IN WHOM I AM WELL PLEASED…………………………. LISTEN TO HIM). Who is this?
Jesus – my friends. The answer is Jesus.
He is the one, the true prophet of God. The true Word of God, who speaks on behalf of God. Indeed, the true Word of God, who is God, who is with God, who speaks for God. It is in Jesus and through Jesus that the Father discloses the entirety of His Word and counsel to the world. Revealing in Him, His will for you, that you would be His. Revealing through Jesus His love for you, by the cross. Revealing by His Words and His deeds, the goodness of God. Revealing God Himself for us. This is what Jesus does for us. He makes God known to us.
In this He is for us the true prophet of God. For He reveals and discloses the Word, the message, and the counsel and the love of God. BUT – He does so in a way that is greater than any prophet before Him. And this really is the office of prophet. Did you know this? To say that someone is a prophet, what does that mean? It doesn’t mean that they can tell the future. No. It means that God is revealing His Word to the world THROUGH them. Moses was one such prophet. But Jesus – He was the fullness and the fulfillment and the most perfect picture OF THIS. For He didn’t merely speak the Word of God. No – but He IS the very Word of God. A prophet. Like Moses, yet so much greater.
But not only is Jesus to be like Moses, a prophet. He is to be also like Moses a mediator. One who goes between God and His people. Indeed – the true mediator,. One who goes between you and God. Who pleads your case and speaks on your behalf. The one who comes between you, to bring you into reconciliation. To bring you back together, back into unity. One to another. This is what a mediator is. This is what a mediator does. And this is what Jesus does for us. Just as Moses went and spoke to the Lord on behalf of the people. And receive the Word directly from the Lord on behalf of the people, protecting the people from the glory of the most holy God, so also now Jesus comes between God and the people of God. But this time, not in order to protect us from the glory of this most holy God. But rather, in order to bring us closer into the glory of the most holy God. TO, as St. Paul says, BE the reconciliation of God and man. To be Himself (who is both God and man) the unity of God and man. This is what Jesus is to us. For it was through Jesus, and His becoming man for us that God and man have come together. It is through His life of obedience, and His death in sacrifice for sin, that all our sins were wiped away, but through also this same Jesus through whom we have been made righteous in God’s sight. It is by this Jesus that we have been adopted by the Father as children, IN HIS SON Jesus. In this, Jesus is our mediator. He is the one who brings us to God. Who brings us closer together with God. Who makes us one, in union with God, through Himself. Jesus is our mediator. Like Moses, yet so much greater.
One form among your own brothers, he says. Indeed – one who is like us, in every way, yet without sin! We often like to think of this truth, of Jesus being like us, in the mere facts of His humanity. And that is all true. Indeed, He is like us in that He is a human being. True. He took on flesh. He took a humanity upon and into Himself. He is a true human being. He has a soul, a human will. A body, like yours. He bore fleshly infirmities , just like you. He has emotions, just like you. He has thoughts and feelings and desires, just like you. TRUE. All that is true. Tempted in every way, yet without sin, as Hebrews 4:15 says, For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has similarly been tested in every way, yet without sin. All of that also is true. Yet still there is a greater reality here. He bore your sins. This is the greater reality. The high priest, like you in every way, knows what you go through, not only because He was tempted just as you were to sin. But because He Himself, though He committed no sin Himself, bore yours, on Himself. He knows exactly what you go through, because He suffered the death due unto you. He knows the guilt you bear, because He bore it fore you, on the cross. This is the truth. Your high priest who goes before you to make sacrifice for your sins, bore those sins on Himself, made that sacrifice through His own death. He bore that guilt. He carried that shame. He is like us. A man. He is like us, tempted as we are. He is like us, sharing our pain. He is like us, bearing our guilt and shame. Our Brother in all things. Like Moses, yet so much greater.
Yet just so as He will be like Moses, a prophet, a mediator – one from among God’s own people. He will in many more ways NOT be like Moses. For He will be so – much – greater.
For from Moses came the Law. St. John the Evangelist says in John 1:17 – but through Jesus Christ (do you know?) THROUGH JESUS CHRIST HAS COME GRACE AND TRUTH).
The law – the ministry of death. the Law – that which kills. the Law – which could not save. But what does Jesus bring? Grace – truth – peace. Salvation. Life. Do you see?
Let me say this another way to you. Moses did what for us? Moses came to teach us the way to godliness. Yes? Yes. BUT – Jesus came to BE the way. Moses taught the truth. Yes? Yes, – BUT Jesus is the truth. Moses came to teach us the Law. But Jesus came to FULFILL the law. Do you see? Moses came to teach us what to do. But Jesus came to proclaim it done. Moses is to Jesus what the shadow is to the sun. He is the light that illumined Moses’ face when God spoke to Him. He is the essence of the Good which Moses commanded God’s people to walk in. He is the fullness of the sacrifices imaged and foreshadowed in the temple rites. He – this Jesus, He is the God that Moses could only partially proclaim. He is the greater one. He is the prophet who was to come. He, this Jesus – is God the Son.
And so the Old Testament prophecy has become the New Testament reality. God DID send a prophet.One Like Moses. One to reveal His Word. One to mediate between Him and His people. One to be like and from His own people. Like Moses – yet SO – SO – SO different. For He is so – much – greater.
As the Lord speaks to us through St. Paul in Hebrews 1:1; in ages past, God spoke to His people through the prophets. But now in these last days. He has spoken to us through His Son.
So now He has done. God has spoken. And His Word is Jesus Christ.
So let us listen to Him. Let us focus on Him. Let us believe in Him. For He is the Word of God. He is the compassion and mercy of God. He is the high priest of God. The mediator between man and God. The salvation for man from God. He is the Christ of God. And He is your Lord, your savior, and He loves you.
So let us us give thanks . Let us remember, and proclaim and declare that God has loved us through Jesus. Saved us through Jesus. Redeemed us through Jesus. And made us His own children through Jesus Christ His Son, thorough His blood, the new covenant, through His sacramental meal. Through His death. He has loved us into life.
For the Law came through Moses. But grace and turth. Salvation and peace. They have come through Jesus. And Jesus has come. Listen to Him. F, S, HS. Amen.
