Jesus the New Moses

Comparisons

When we compare ourselves to one another, or others to others, its usually not a helpful exercise. However, when it comes to Christ there is no comparison.

[Antonin Scalia: Dr. Wilkinson asked .… Of all the historical events you have studied, he said, which one in your opinion had the most impact upon the world? …The only issue was what good answer I should choose. The French Revolution perhaps? Or the Battle of Thermopylae—or of Lepanto? Or the American Revolution? I forget what I picked, because it was all driven out of my mind when Dr. Wilkinson informed me of the right answer—or at least the right answer if I really believed what he and I thought I believed. Of course it was the Incarnation.

Scalia, Antonin. On Faith (p. 57). Random House Publishing Group. Kindle Edition.

Paul Rudd, a cultural Jew, was recently asked that if he could go back in time, who would he like to meet?

Who is greater? - quickly

12Are You greater than our father Jacob, who gave us this well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock?”

Something greater than Jacob is here John 4:12

“Are you greater than our father Abraham, who died? Or the prophets, who died? Who do you make yourself out to be?””

Before Abraham was I am John 8:53

Today we hear: What can you do? 31 Our ancestors ate manna in the desert, as it is written:‘He [Moses} gave them bread from heaven to eat.’ ”

Heb 3:3 For Jesus has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses—as much more glory as the builder of a house has more honor than the house itself.

“If Christ wins, we win! And if Christ… but Christ can’t lose!” - Fulton Sheen “The Demonic Today” pg 8 of St. Paul Ctr. Book

Jesus as the New Moses

The New Passover (The Last Supper/Cross)

Christ also is our Passover Himself (hear in Preface, III of Easter)

The New Exodus (Transfiguration)

The New Law - Mountain

Gregory of Nyssa: The Life of Moses (Crossing the Red Sea)

The Law gives us to understand by this that no remnant of evil should mix with the subsequent life. …Thus also he means here that after we have drowned the whole Egyptian person (that is every form of evil) in the saving baptism we emerge alone, dragging along nothing foreign in our subsequent life. This is what we hear through the history, which says that in the same water the enemy and the friend are distinguished by death and life, the enemy being destroyed and the friend given life.

Put on the New Self - Eph 4:24

that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds; that is not how you learned Christ, Eph. 4:17

that you should put away the old self of your former way of life, corrupted through deceitful desires, and be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and put on the new self, Eph 4:22-24

The One who prayed on a mountain (40 days, battle vs Amalek, After the multiplication of loaves—Mark 6:46: And after he had taken leave of them, he went up on the mountain to pray)

The spies gather grapes from the promised land

Gregory of Nyssa: The Life of Moses (Joshua and the Spies) 268. What is the bunch of grapes suspended from the wood but that bunch suspended from the wood in the last days, whose blood becomes a saving drink for those who believe? Moses spoke to us of this ahead of time when he said in a figure: They drank the blood of the grape (Dt. 32:14). By this he signifies the saving passion.

As a priest I get to be like one of the spies who goes into heaven and draws down the wood and the grapes.

GK Chesterton - The poet only asks to get his head into the heavens. It is the logician who seeks to get the heavens into his head. And it is his head that splits

The Cross prefigured in Moses’ actions

Figures of the cross are found … interceded for Israel against the army of Amalek (II, 150f.), in the wood that sweetened the waters of Marah (II, 132), … and in the brazen serpent (II, 273)…

BUT Moses did not enter the promised land because of a situation, a lack of faith.

Joshua Led the people into the Promised Land.

Jesus shares a name with Joshua, its literally the same name. Jesus leads us into the promised land. Moses was a good servant of God. Christ is the Son of God and he doesn’t just save us, get us into heaven, He wants us to share in His sonship, in His eternal life.

So not that we just wouldn’t complain, we would actually be able to pray and live and participate in our miserable condition.

CS LEWIS Petitionary prayer is, nonetheless, both allowed and commanded to us: “Give us our daily bread.” And no doubt it raises a theoretical problem. Can we believe that God ever really modifies His action in response to the suggestions of men? For infinite wisdom does not need telling what is best, and infinite goodness needs no urging to do it. But neither does God need any of those things that are done by finite agents, whether living or inanimate. He could, if He chose, repair our bodies miraculously without food; or give us food without the aid of farmers, bakers, and butchers; or convert the heathen without missionaries. Instead, He allows soils and weather and animals and the muscles, minds, and wills of men to co-operate in the execution of His will. “God,” said Pascal, “instituted prayer in order to lend His creatures the dignity of causality.” But not only prayer; whenever we act at all He lends us that dignity. It is not really stranger, nor less strange, that my prayers should affect the course of events than that my other actions should do so. They have not advised or changed God’s mind—that is, His over-all purpose. But that purpose will be realized in different ways according to the actions, including the prayers, of His creatures. - CS LEWIS

Moses said, “A Prophet like me is coming after me.”

Jesus knows that He is that prophet and put it into Moses’ mouth to say. This is how the Jewish faith points towards Christianity .

Lesson

Something to start being aware of is how often we think about food, and then when we are eating we think about other things.

How many times, we are praying here, have you thought about what you are going to eat for dinner after?

We must be renewed in the spirit of our minds: how much time do you give to the learning of the faith, studying Scripture, and sitting in prayer?

Bp Barron rough quote:

in math you study advanced math, you study physics and Einstein and computers, you read Shakespeare in English class, but when it comes to theology, we read children’s books, when was last time you picked up Augustine, Aquinas, or Chesterton? And neither do we teach these to our kids.

Extra, non used in this homily, but good reflection questions

Complaints

"Would that we had died at the LORD's hand in the land of Egypt, as we sat by our fleshpots and ate our fill of bread! But you had to lead us into this desert so that we die of famine

"I have heard the grumbling of the Israelites. - GOD

daily portion; (daily bread)

thus will I test them, (A testing) to see whether they follow my instructions or not. (Don’t eat from that tree)

Tell them: In the evening twilight you shall eat flesh, and in the morning you shall have your fill of bread,

Flesh and Bread (Eat my flesh…I am the bread of life!)

What sign can you do, that we may see and believe in you?

This is the most ludicrous statement in all of Scripture to me!

So Jesus said to them, "Amen, amen, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave the bread from heaven; my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world." So they said to him, "Sir, give us this bread always." Jesus said to them, "I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst."

What did God say about the trees in the Garden? CHRIST HIMSELF IS THE TREE OF LIFE!

New American Bible: Revised Edition (Chapter 2)

9 Out of the ground the LORD God made grow every tree that was delightful to look at and good for food, with the tree of life in the middle of the garden and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.