Road to Emmaus Fourth Sunday of Ordinary Time

Jan 28, 2009

(Cycle B)

 

First Reading – Dt. 18:15-20

Responsorial Psalm – Ps. 95:1-2, 6-7, 7-9

Second Reading – 1 Cor. 7:32-35

Gospel Reading – Mk. 1:21-28

 

In Mark’s Gospel Jesus is speaking and acting with a unique authority. This is manifest in how and what he taught, as well as through the casting out of a demon.

 

The Church brings this text of Mark together with an important passage from Moses’ long discourse in the book of Deuteronomy which shows that Jesus is indeed the new and greater Moses.

 

The prophet like Moses

 

In Deuteronomy Moses said, “The Lord God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brethren – him shall you heed…” (18:15). Then the Lord says, “I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brethren; and I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak in my name…” (18:18-19).

 

The Israelites have been waiting centuries upon centuries for the fulfillment of this word of God. When John the Baptist appears on the scene they ask him if he is the prophet. They do not ask him if he is a prophet, but whether he is the prophet. The prophet was the prophet like unto Moses.

 

Jesus is the fulfillment of this prophetic word of Moses (cf. Acts 3:22-23, 7:37). He is the new Moses, “And whoever will not give heed to my words which he shall speak in my name, I myself will require it of him” (Dt. 18:19).

 

The overall context of the passage is important to consider. Moses speaks these words after having led the People of God out of Egypt, setting them free from slavery to the Egyptians. However, from that point forward they disobeyed the word of the Lord at almost every turn.

 

They are barely three days out of Egypt when they begin to murmur against Moses about the lack of water (cf. Ex. 15:22-25). God, however, makes bitter water sweet for them. Then about a month after they left Egypt they murmur once again against Moses because of food. They even accuse Moses explicitly, and God implicitly, of murderous intent. “…For you have brought us out into the wilderness to kill the whole assembly with hunger” (Ex. 16:3). God, however, rains down manna in the morning and quail in the evening for them.

 

The Responsorial Psalm for this Sunday mentions another incident when they are murmuring about water. The Psalmist says, “Harden not your heart, as at Meribah, as on the day at Massah in the wilderness, when your fathers tested me, and put me to the proof, though they had seen my work” (Ps. 95:7-9). Moses asked them, “Why do you put the Lord to the test?” (Ex. 17:2). Moses is commanded to strike the rock, and out flowed water. Moses then called that place Meribah and Massah, which mean contention and proof respectively.

(Column continues below)

 

This is all before they even get to Mount Sinai. When they arrive at Sinai Moses goes up the mountain to receive the Ten Commandments and the Book of the Covenant (cf. Ex. 19:23). Well, maybe now is the time they will start obeying. In Exodus 24 our hopes are lifted when the Book of the Covenant is read, the sacrifice of the covenant is made and the people say, “All that the Lord has spoken we will do, and be obedient” (v. 7b).

 

Moses then goes back up the mountain for forty days. Within this short period of time they sin grievously by fashioning for themselves an idol, building an altar before it, proclaiming a feast, offering sacrifice and participating in orgiastic worship (cf. Ex. 32).

 

This same type of disobedient sinfulness would go on for another forty years. After the forty years of wandering in the wilderness because of their sin they are brought to the plains of Moab (cf. Num. 22:1). And it is on the plains of Moab that Moses delivers the prolonged speech known as Deuteronomy. As part of what he says he prophesies about a prophet like himself. Then Lord goes on to says, “And whoever will not give heed to my words which he shall speak in my name, I myself will require it of him” (Dt. 18:19). They did not listen to Moses who had profound authority from the Lord. Would they listen to the new Moses?

 

The authority of the new and greater Moses

 

In this Sunday’s Gospel reading Jesus shows us some aspects of what it means for him to be the new and greater Moses. Jesus exhibits his authority in different ways - and the authority he demonstrates shows his power to overcome evil.

 

First, Jesus goes into the synagogue at Capernaum and teaches. We are not told what he teaches but the people “were astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as one who had authority, and not as the scribes” (Mk. 1:22). Here he demonstrates his power over lies, deceit, falsehood and opinion, with the teaching of the truth. In her commentary, The Gospel of Mark, Mary Healy notes, “In contrast to the scribes, Jesus is not merely offering his opinions or handing on traditions of biblical interpretation. He speaks as one who has authority in himself to reveal the definitive meaning of the Scriptures” (46, original emphasis).

 

Second, Jesus shows his unique authority by casting a demon out of a man. He has such an authority over evil that by a simple word of command the demon must stop talking and come out of him (cf. Mk. 1:26).

 

As Mary Healy also notes, “Jesus’ teaching has the intrinsic effect of exposing evil so that it can be expelled…The spirit [challenges] Jesus’ encroachment on the demons’ formerly uncontested territory, evidently aware that his coming portends his downfall” (46). 

 

With regard to the response of the people Healy says, “They recognize an intrinsic connection between Jesus’ teaching and his power to dispel evil. Jesus’ teaching is ‘new’ not only because it has never been heard before, but because it has power to accomplish what it communicates. The teaching itself – the revelation of the good news of God and his plan – frees human beings from their captivity to evil” (46). As Jesus would say, “…the truth will make you free” (Jn. 8:32).

 

In Healy’s last sentence we get a direct connection back with Moses. Moses was sent by God to set the People of God free from slavery to the Egyptians, but this is only a foreshadowing of Jesus who is sent to set humanity free from slavery to sin, death, evil and the devil.