4 Epiphany Year B 1/28/2024
Deuteronomy 18:15-20; Psalm 111; 1 Corinthians 8:1-13; Mark 1:21-28
Rev. Mark A. Lafler
Former president of Columbia University, Nicholas Murray Butler… once said that the people of the world were divided into three groups:
Those who make things happen…
Those who watch what’s happening…
And those who don’t know what’s happening.
In our first reading today from Deuteronomy,
We find a leader who knows what is happening and makes things happen.
His name is Moses.
One of the most famous leaders of ancient history.
We all know who Moses is…
Whether from the Biblical account…
Or from the Charlton Heston movie…
Moses was a leader, a savior, a law giver, and a prophet.
Declaring his own office of prophet, Moses said:
The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own people…
Here Moses predicts that the revelation of God in Israel’s future will be through prophets…
Raised up by God from among the people of Israel.
Not from another national group…
But from the people of God.
In fact, this is the only place in the Torah (the first five books of the Bible) where a formal group called the prophets is mentioned as an institution of Yahweh.
Up to this point, Israel was primarily led by family…
The patriarchs…
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob…
Even Joseph got into the picture some…
Nevertheless, when Israel needed someone to lead them out of Egypt into the promised land…
God raised up Moses.
And once the covenant mediators were gone…
That being Moses and Joshua…
The prophets of God in Israel carried on the ministry of revelation and covenant enforcement.
And listen again to what Moses said about the words of these prophets…
Moses declared that God said:
I will put my words in the mouth of the prophet,
who shall speak to them everything that I command.
Anyone who does not heed the words that the prophet shall speak in my name, I myself will hold accountable.
But any prophet who speaks in the name of other gods,
or who presumes to speak in my name a word that I have not commanded the prophet to speak—that prophet shall die.
That’s some powerful authority…
And also, some powerful accountability.
And after Moses and Joshua, the prophets of Israel were the voice of revelation and the covenant enforcers.
We see this in the books of major prophets like Isaiah and Jeremiah.
We see this in the books of minor prophets like Zechariah and Joel.
We see this in the prophets who did not author books like Nathan and Elijah.
These prophets spoke boldly with authority.
They were raised up from among their own people.
They spoke to the moment with the revelation of God.
They held the people accountable with the covenant – the law of Moses.
And they also prophesied of one to come…
A greater prophet…
An anointed one…
A Messiah.
After the final prophet of the Old Testament – Malachi…
A longtime of silence took place… (400 years)
A time where God did not raise up prophets from the people.
Until there came a man named John.
He was a prophet who prepared the way for the Chosen One.
John the Baptist told of one who was coming who was greater.
A Holy One…
The Anointed One.
His name was Jesus.
Jesus alludes to himself as a prophet in Mark 6.4 when he said:
A prophet is not without honor except in his own town, among his relatives and in his own home.
He was called a prophet by others.
Including the Samaritan Woman recognizing him as a prophet when they met at the well. (John 4.19)
She said:
Sir, I can see that you are a prophet.
Others recognized Jesus’ as a prophet when he did miraculous signs and wonders…
They said:
Surely this is the Prophet who is to come into the world.
(John 6.14)
Theologically we recognize that Jesus was a Prophet, and a Priest, and a King.
And this is unique to him in the scriptures.
Because only in him is given the authority of all three.
He fulfills all three in the salvation of humankind.
Jesus, was a prophet like no other…
Greater than all of the Old Testament prophets that came before him.
Even Moses does not stand with the greatness of Jesus as a prophet.
Only in Jesus do we have the prophetic words of forgiveness, salvation, and eternal life.
Jesus quoted Moses in the Sermon on the Mount…
Saying:
“You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘You shall not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgment. (Matthew 5.21-22)
Jesus said:
“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. (Matthew 5.27-28)
Jesus takes the law that Moses gave and made it even harder…
More difficult…
He is the first prophet since Moses to not only enforce the covenant, but to give a new covenant.
Like Moses…
Jesus is the mediator of a covenant between God and His people.
And along with this new covenant, came a message of grace.
Jesus’ message of grace is even greater than that of Moses…
St. John wrote:
For the law was given through Moses;
grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son,
who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father,
has made him known.
(John 1:17-18)
And unlike Moses who points toward another for salvation…
Jesus Christ points toward himself for salvation…
Jesus said:
I am the way, the truth, and the life, no one comes to the Father but through me.
(John 14:6)
and today his words still offer life to all who will listen…
He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. (Eph. 2:17).
Moses delivered the people of Israel from Egypt leading them to receive the covenantal law on Mount Sinai.
Jesus delivers his people from death, and he inscribes his new covenant on their hearts.
There just isn’t a prophet like him.
So in a world filled with competing voices,
calling for our attention,
insisting that this way or that way is the best way…
we must listen to Jesus, the true prophet, above all the other voices.
So, who do we say this Jesus is?
Is he just a prophet?
Or is he THE prophet?
The one to come…
Greater than Moses…
The Anointed One who writes his law in our hearts by the Spirit of God.
The great British preacher, G. Campbell Morgan wrote:
He was the God-Man.
Not God indwelling a man.
Of such there have been many.
Not a man deified.
Of such there have been none save in the myths of pagan systems of thought;
but God and man, combining in one personality the two natures,
a perpetual enigma and mystery,
baffling the possibility of explanation. [1]
Today we must come to terms with who Jesus is.
Moses declared the words of the Lord, saying:
…I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their own people…
The culmination of that prophet raised up from the Jewish people is Jesus Christ.
The final fulfillment in the line of prophets is Jesus Christ…
The savior of the world.
In him we place our trust.
In him we have our hope.
In him we have salvation.
Any presentation of Christ as merely one of the prophets…
Or merely a moral teacher…
isn’t only sub-Christian but would also be non-saving.
Only in the voice of the Lord…
When we hear the incarnate Lord…
The Anointed One…
When we call him Lord and Master…
Savior and Redeemer…
Do we hear the words of life…
God sent his Son into this world…
Because he loved this world…
And all people who believe in him…
Will have eternal life.
Moses and the prophets point toward the prophet Jesus…
Who is more than just a prophet…
He is God-incarnate…
The Savior of the world.
Amen.
[1] G. Campbell Morgan, The Crises of the Christ