Exodus 32:7-14
John 5:31-47
Francis Martin writes,
“In the first reading today from the Book of Exodus, we understand that Moses is a foreshadowing of Christ. In the gospel Jesus appeals to Moses as a witness to himself, while the Exodus passage shows us Moses as an intercessor.
“While he was on the mountain with God receiving the law that was to form God's people, the people were on the plain worshipping the golden calf and thus breaking the very first and most fundamental commandment, from the third verse of the twentieth chapter of Exodus: 'You shall have no other gods besides me.'
“God tells Moses to 'leave him alone' so that he can destroy the people who have sinned. But Moses knows what God is really saying.
“Later, through the mouth of Ezekiel, God says, in the thirtieth verse of the twenty-second chapter: 'And I sought for a man among them who should build up the wall and stand in the breach before me for the land, that I should not destroy it; but I found none.'
"Here God does find one who, like Christ, will stand in the breach and save the people.
“Parents should intercede for their children; pastors should intercede for their people; teachers should intercede for their students; everyone should intercede for the world by the power of the cross of Christ.
“We should stand in the breach, like Moses and like Jesus, as an instrument of salvation for the people close to us.
“To the Jews who took exception to Jesus' calling himself God's Son and making himself equal to God, Jesus first responded, as we heard yesterday, with a description of his relation to God.
“Today the gospel gives us the second part of that response, namely Jesus' appeal to witnesses.
"In answer to a supposed objection that in describing his relation to God Jesus is testifying on his own behalf, he invokes four witnesses: John the Baptist, the works God gave him to accomplish, God himself, and the Scriptures, especially the Law of Moses.
“Testimony evokes belief or disbelief, yet believing is part of the human condition.
“It is important that we receive and yield to the testimony offered in regard to the divine nature of Jesus, since the heart of our faith is the acknowledgment that 'Jesus is Lord.'
“The witness of the Baptist is the witness of the last prophet of the Old Testament, a man sent by God who can tell us that Jesus has been sent by God.
“Jesus is still performing works; in fact, he tells us, in the eleventh verse of the fourteenth chapter of the gospel according to John, 'Believe me: I am in the Father and the Father in me. If not, believe because of the works.'
“The testimony of the Father is constant. Through the Holy Spirit he is always speaking to our conscience, leading us to yield more profoundly to the Truth that is Jesus: 'No one comes to me unless the Father who sent me draws him.'”
Posted by John
at 11:41 AM CST
