Leafing through ideas for blogs I have in manila folders, I accessed a note scribbled about Christ’s relationship with Moses. To appreciate Jesus as the Person Moses predicted, read Deuteronomy 18:15. To see its fulfillment in Jesus Christ, see John 5:45-47, Acts 3:17-26, Acts 13:16-43, as examples. When the apostles found Jewish audiences hostile to Christ’s supremacy over Moses, they didn’t alter their message. They DID predict Gentile inclusion in Christ’s victory Acts 13:44-52. And, of course, we have God’s final word after Moses and Elijah had first appeared with Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration, then departed, leaving Jesus alone, God saying, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!” Matthew 17:5. The last three words a repetition of the last four words of Deuteronomy 18:15.
We’re not surprised that both Mark and Luke opened their Gospels with quotes from Malachi 4:5-6—based on allegiance to Moses. Or that John, seeing Jesus as a continuation of his own ministry of cleansing and judgment would be disturbed by his pacific, pastoral presence Luke 7:18-23. Or that John the Baptist called Israel alive to Moses from dead ceremonialism. In his personal ministry Jesus both broke with Moses and counseled submission to Moses from his audience. See Matthew 5:17-20 as a sample of the latter and Matthew 5:21, 27, 31, 33, 38, 43, and their following teaching as samples of the former. Jesus would personally touch a leper, cleansing him, then send him to a priest for verification. The cleansing, apart from Moses offered Christ’s superiority; while sending the cleansed man to a priest kept him submitted to Moses. When Jesus sent out the Twelve in pairs, he forbade them entering towns of any Gentile Matthew 10:6. Because they were completely ignorant of Christianity’s later spread. Hebrews is the book of Christianity’s superiority, chapter after chapter. The conflict Jesus experienced when healing on the Sabbath—a transgression of Tradition, not Moses—encapsulated the fierce, unrelenting and finally final reason the leaders wanted him dead. Acts 13:38-41 summarizes the conflict, decided by Christianity’s progress in being and Judaism’s failure in continuing to be God’s final revelation to humanity. Moses and Jesus the Jews could tolerate. But never JESUS alone. The latter GOD’s determination, the former Judaism’s forlorn wish.
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