“The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own people…” – The LORD will raise up a prophet like Moses from among the Israelites. What was Moses like? Moses survived an infant genocide, was a liberator of his people from the bondage of the Egyptians, and he led his people through the waters of the Yam Suph into the wilderness, to Mount Horeb to give his people the law. Because the people could not withstand to hear the voice of God directly, God would speak to them through someone raised up from them. Moses serves as an archetype for Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ too, withstood an infant genocide, was to liberate his people from the wages of their sins, and passed through the waters of the Jordan, into the wilderness, onto the Mount where the Sermon of the Mount, the Beatitudes, and the antitheses were given, a “New Law”. However, more than just a prophet – although Christ certainly fulfilled the role as a prophet, speaking for God – he was also truly God, the Son of God. No longer did the Israelites have to fear the direct fire of the voice of the LORD, but God has come down to them, and to us, in our very substance and our very form, to speak to us as God. No longer did anyone have to fear dying from witnessing the invisible and ineffable form of God, but it is God, the Son of God, who dies for us, for our sins.
The passage in Mark reinforces the authority in which Jesus spoke as a “prophet” – he spoke as one having authority, one having a “new teaching” – and the people were astounded by this. However, also in this passage, he is more so than just a mere prophet, for the unclean spirit speaks of Jesus as having the power to destroy it, as well as being “The Holy One of God”. The people are astounded by his command of unclean spirits, for this is something new, something not yet seen before. This is something only the Messiah, the chosen one of God, and the Son of God can only do. Christ fulfills the role as Moses-as-Prophet, but he does so as a prophet-par-excellence: he exceeds Moses and has come to completely fulfill the covenant, which is a covenant of freedom and love.
However, one must be sure to act in this freedom with love and abounding in love. Paul writes about the limitations of this new freedom. During Paul’s time, this was eating sacrificed food to idols. One knowledgeable knows that idols do not existent, and sacrificed food to idols means nothing, and therefore one can properly eat of it without sinning. Those weaker in faith though, who are not completely knowledgeable, may see another sibling in Christ eat of the food sacrificed to idols, and it will further weaken their faith. Therefore, whatever is done in freedom, must be done in love first and with abounding love. Although eating food sacrificed to idols is no longer an issue most contemporary Christians face, it may be other issues, such as the type of music used for worship, or the type of language used in the liturgy. These conflicts of weaker faith versus stronger faith must always be done in love, through love, and with love, and in Christ, through Christ, and with Christ. May the love of Christ supersaturate all that we do.
Benjamin Nucum is a scholar, prophet and poet and a member of St. Benedict’s.